I really enjoyed Louisa's writing style--creative and vivid--and humor, and thought her quite brave and compassionate, if a bit ignorant and proud, at times. I have not such courage to help people in need!

The man named John had a very touching role here, which Miss Alcott captured as well as everything else.

As a nurse I found so much to relate to in this short little book by Louisa May Alcott. It chronicles the experiences of a young "nurse" during the civil war, caring for the wounded and dying. First we get her adventures leaving her family and traveling alone, which was also great narration. Loved it.

Likes: So funny and sad and touching at different times. The narrator is likable and awesome; I found myself reading parts to Brian, a sure sign that I really appreciate something when I want to share it with him.

Dislikes: I couldn't find anything to dislike! A great, quick read.

I don't know how I never knew about this time in Lousia May Alcott's life. I loved this book. It felt as if I were there, living in her diary. Just another story to show how well she does at description and pulling the reader into the scene.

So, Little Women has never been my thing. And it seems Louisa Mae Alcott felt similarly. This was a book club read and I am so happy it was because I learned a lot about her. This is her actual account of her time as a nurse during the Civil War. It was interesting and at times comical. Through discussion, I also learned that her family counted Thoreau, Emerson, and Hawthorne as close friends and that she wrote “lurid short stories and sensation novels for adults that focused on passion and revenge” under a pen name. She was considerably more interesting than I ever gave her credit.

It’s hard to describe how much I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. I am a fan of all of Alcott’s writing but I love that the style of this is COMPLETELY different than her fiction writing. There is no way to claim she wasn’t a feminist after reading this. Her humor and sarcasm are strong, and act as a foundation for her witty remarks on the world around her as a woman, nurse, and abolitionist. As a nurse myself, many of her comments about doctors, hospitals, and administrators would fully apply still today. Her love and compassion for her patients is felt completely. Also her extensive random references show how wide of a reader of different types of literature she herself was. It is sad to think how this short period of time profoundly affected the rest of her life through health issues, but the treasure trove of this writing from it is greatly appreciated.

Too romantic for my taste. Then again I could never bring myself to finish "Little Women" or "Little Men."

Louisa May Alcott served as a nurse at a hospital in Georgetown during the Civil War, and Hospital Sketches is a collection of sketched of her time there. She writes about the soldiers in her care, the other doctors and nurses she works with, and the general day to day operation of a Union military hospital. These sketches are a really good look at this experience, though they feel a little sanitized. She does admit in the book’s opening chapter that they are a lighter take on her experience, presented this way to show a truer picture of daily life in the hospital. There is a particularly poignant chapter sharing the decline and death of of a solider in her care where Alcott’s gift for depicting human relationships is at her best. Warning though, there is a bit of racism in parts of this book, in how Alcott talks about the black people living and working in Georgetown. Though she and her family were abolitionists their attitudes about black people are not automatically enlightened.

This is basically Louisa May Alcott painting a picture of her time as a nurse during the Civil War in Washington DC. So exactly as it says on the tin. It was very short, but it was interesting to hear a first hand account of what this sort of environment was like.

Alcott's time as a nurse was ultimately cut short when she contracted typhoid fever. The cures, which included mercury, caused their own problems. Seriously, look at a photo of her before she went compared with after. She ages drastically.