Digital audiobook narrated by Lauren J Daggett.

In 2016, Dr Civil Townsend, reflects on her time three decades previously when she worked with Montgomery (Alabama) Family Planning. In 1973, she was a nurse and hoping to help women take some control over their destinies. She was particularly involved with the Williams family, and horrified at how the two young daughters were treated.

Perkins-Valdez took inspiration from a shameful episode in America’s history, when poor, Black people were used as subjects for medical studies without their informed consent.

Additionally, Perkins-Valdez looks at the class distinctions between poor, rural Blacks and the wealthier professional Blacks. Civil belongs to this latter social class and she has to make a conscious effort to hide her judgment of the way her patients live. She behaves compassionately towards them and even risks her career to fight on their behalf, but she has never encountered these conditions and it is difficult for her to hide her reaction.

I was certainly aware of the syphilis study done at Tuskegee, but I was not aware of the studies and policies on birth control and sterilization perpetrated against women of color. Kudos to Perkins-Valdez for shining a light on these policies in our history.

Lauren J Daggett does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. I did get confused a few times when the storyline jumped from 2016 to 1973 and back again. But context usually made it clear in which era the story was taking place. ( )

I really wanted to love this book. Sadly, I was frustrated with the writing, the characters were one demential and not plausible. This could have been such a powerful read, but the writer lost me so many times early in the story. I had a hard time going on. ( )

Such an important book with all of the recent events going on. Perkins-Valdez is an amazing writer and you can tell she does a lot of research when writing her books. Can’t wait to read whatever she writes next. ( )

Take My Hand is a well written story that has an empowering message. Civil, a nurse working in a low income clinic connects with two young patients, Erica and India. She feels compelled to save them from poverty but it turns into something bigger than she imagined. It is a story not of just moral dilemmas but how our relationships have lasting impacts. ( )

I possess a hardcover copy, but I decided to listen to the book in audio, narrated by Lauren J. Daggett, who brings the characters to life. The story alternated from 1973 and 2016, between Montgomery Alabama and Memphis, Tennessee mostly, as Civil is telling the story to her daughter.

The chapters are short, but relative to the current issues in our conversation and government policies in 2023, were a federal abortion ban. On April 18, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the first-ever federal law banning abortion procedures and gave politicians the green light to interfere in people's reproductive health care decisions. The federal abortion ban criminalizes abortions in the second trimester of pregnancy that doctors say are often the safest and best way to protect a pregnant person's health.
Physician and Hospital Requirements: 32 states require an abortion to be performed by a licensed physician. 20 states require an abortion to be performed in a hospital after a specified point in the pregnancy, and 17 states require the involvement of a second physician after a specified point.

Civil’s father is so reminiscent of my father and husband. I truly adored his character. I prized how she was patient with her mother and cared for her despite her mental health. The familiar landscapes in the novel resonated with me, Wetumpka, crepe myrtles, cotton fields, Montgomery, Selma, the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tide versus Auburn Tigers, and the Magic City Classic in Birmingham. The major crux of this whole novel was defined in chapter 31, when the testimony was brought before a subcommittee in Washington DC. There were a lot of jaw dropping moments while reading this historical fiction. A constant page turner.

You can anticipate that there will be disappointments but you wish for the better as you progress in the story. I appreciate the three years of research that the author put into writing this novel, and taking creative licenses to imagine what the nurses had to contend with. Superb character building and historical content. The story took me on an emotional journey. This was a five star read for me. ( )