Tiny Pineapple

ananas comosus (L.) minimus

Medical Center

by Faith Baldwil (1939)
Medical Center

This is the story of one of the most fascinating kinds of modern communities — a great city hospital. Within these walls live doctors, young and old, nurses, technicians, and patients of all varieties. Their lives are tuned to the rhythm of birth and death, and to the countless intense dramas that lie between.

Here is Dr. Bullard, who considered money a sin and refused to concede that a debutante could actually enjoy working in a hospital. Here is Jimmy Davenport, who fell in love with his floor nurse; here is the mysterious “Mrs. Smith” whose doctor had told her that the best place to hide is in the biggest hospital in the biggest city in the country. Here are diagnosticians, nurses interns, dietctians, clinical aids, and a host of patients.

Deftly, sympathetically, and with sure knowledge, Miss Baldwin tells of the lives of the inhabitants of this strange modern kind of community. She tells of the nurse whose yearning for romance is stifled by requirements of duty; of the doctor whose ideals conflict with his needs; of the sick child, the millionaire intern, the too-pretty patient. The fascinating world of a great metropolitan hospital comes alive in this many charactered novel.

Masquerade Nurse

by Jane Converse (1963)
Masquerade Nurse

Behind her was a shattered career, and broken hopes. Now she was living a false life, lying desperately to the man she loved.

Kathy Barrett awoke in a hospital bed…

When the lovely nurse opened her eyes she remembered the sickening skid, the crash, and nothing else. How did she get there; where were her friends Jim and Lynne? She struggled to speak, to ask questions of the handsome young doctor who stood at her bedside and who looked so much like Jim Stratton. His eyes were concerned, his voice tender as he spoke. “It’s all right, Lynne,” he said. “You’re going to be all right now, Lynne…”

This stirring novel is the story of a nurse who is the sole survivor of an automobile accident, a nurse who borrows the identity of her dead friend to find a new home and escape a threatening past, a nurse who lives a life of painful lies while she falls deeply in love with a dedicated young doctor.

Mary Ellis, Student Nurse

by Hope Newell (1958)
Mary Ellis, Student Nurse

Mary Ellis, the young Negro heroine of “A Cap for Mary Ellis,” is now in her second year of nursing school.

The work is harder and more time consuming than Mary Ellis or her classmates could have imagined. But despite their fierce schedule the second-year students have time to come to know their little sisters, to solve the minor dormitory mystery, and to grow and mature in many ways.

Mary Ellis learns much about herself through her work at the hospital. She faces several crises with varying degrees of success, is influential in arranging an operation and an adoption, and makes many new friends.

Hope Newell is well qualified to write about the field of nursing. Added to her factual knowledge is a deep perception and sensitivity to youth and humanity in general. “Mary Ellis, Student Nurse” is the story of a young girl working with love and dedication at her chosen career, and gaining insight and understanding of herself and the world.

Luxury Nurse

by Peggy Gaddis (1956)
Luxury Nurse

Azalea Cottage with it’s quiet comfort and elegance was all Nurse Sinclair could have wished for — if her patient had been as happy as she was beautiful…

“You’re sound, Sally, very sound,” Dr. Garry Linton told her. Nurse Sinclair laughed. “Are you talking about a nice big russet apple, or me?” she asked. But she was troubled. He said he loved her, but did he? And now she would be away nursing Lisa Cannon for three long months, Lisa, whose high-strung disposition and self-pity made her as unpleasant to be with as she was lovely to behold.

But Sea Island was a magical isle and Sally Sinclair was determined to explore all of the magic of it.

It began when she discovered the exquisite miniature village — a Lilliput town — which Allen Blaisdell had built. After that, everything seemed to change, as if Sally had found the key to the secret garden, to Lisa’s recovery, and to her own heart.

Lesson for Nurse Mandy, A

by Marcia Miller (1972)
Lesson for Nurse Mandy, A

Life on the third floor of California General, one of San Francisco’s newer hospitals, had its share of ups and downs for copper-haired Mandy Lewis, a professional-minded nurse. All was taken in stride, however, until the new resident, Clay Elliot, took over the floor. When he called Mandy to task for her tactics with an especially difficult patient, her usual even temper responded in kind to his somewhat supercilious tone and manner.

The infuriating thing about Clay Elliot — tall, dark, and blue-eyed — was his surprising amount of charm. And, in spite of herself, Mandy found that she was gradually succumbing to Clay’s personality as well as appreciating his abilities as a fine doctor. So much so, in fact, that when she learned that Clay had been seeing the lovely blonde socialite Lisa Wainwright, her distress was acute.

Convincing herself that she didn’t care, Mandy accepted several dates with Clay and later — to her amazement — realized that it was she whom Clay really cared for. But Clay’s mother, an aristocratic woman whom Mandy had once met, made it clear that someone like Lisa Wainwright was more suitable for her son. And when Mrs. Elliot phoned Mandy to discuss in private a matter of vital importance, Mandy was filled with trepidation — and rightly so.

It takes the clever aid of Mandy’s mother — who has flown in from New York for a visit — to teach Mandy the true meaning of trust and the danger of a false accusation.