Join us for this dual author event to celebrate Women in Medicine Month. Janis Robinson Daly reads and signs her book The Unlocked Path and Addison Armstrong reads and signs her book The Light of Luna Park.
About the Books
The Unlocked Path
Meet a “New Woman” of the 20th century: educated, career-minded, independent Eliza Pearson Edwards. In 1897 Philadelphia, after witnessing her aunt's suicide, Eliza rejects her mother’s wishes for a society debut, and at a time when five percent of doctors are female, she enters a woman’s medical college. With the support of a circle of women and driven by a determination to conquer curriculum demands, battle sexism, and overcome doubts, Eliza charts her new life path. Combining science and sympathy, she triumphs to heal others and herself.
Organic Chemistry may slay her, if the strain of endless study, odoriferous labs, and gruesome surgeries don’t claim her first. As a young intern, she summons a forthright confidence asserting her abilities to those mistrustful of a woman doctor. Through her work with poverty-stricken patients, she defines her version of suffrage work to champion women’s rights for and beyond the right to vote. Love is found, love is lost. During a visit to the fairy-tale-like city of Newport, a new relationship may fulfill her desires. When global events devolve into chaos with the 1918 influenza pandemic and a world war, Eliza renews her vow to help and heal.
The Light of Luna Park
A nurse's choice. A daughter's search for answers.
New York City, 1926. Nurse Althea Anderson's heart is near breaking when she witnesses another premature baby die at Bellevue Hospital. So when she reads an article detailing the amazing survival rates of babies treated in incubators in an exhibit at Luna Park, Coney Island, it feels like the miracle she has been searching for. But the doctors at Bellevue dismiss Althea and this unconventional medicine, forcing her to make a choice between a baby's life and the doctors' wishes that will change everything.
Twenty-five years later, Stella Wright is falling apart. Her mother has just passed, she quit a job she loves, and her marriage is struggling. Then she discovers a letter that brings into question everything she knew about her mother, and everything she knows about herself.
The Light of Luna Park is a tale of courage and an ode to the sacrificial love of mothers.
About the Authors
Janis Robinson Daly
Discovery that her great-great grandfather was a founder of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania inspired Janis Robinson Daly’s writing of The Unlocked Path. Balancing authenticity and rich historical detail with a flair to create emotional connections to fictional characters, she seeks to unearth the stories of women whose lives have remained in the shadows. A graduate of Wheaton College in Massachusetts, at the time, an all-women’s college, stimulated a fond appreciation of the supportive relationships established between students, faculty, and alumnae and a heightened awareness of female-centric issues. Both directed the writing of The Unlocked Path. Splitting her time between Cape Cod, New Hampshire, Florida and hotels along Route 95, more adventures beckon Daly to document other women in history whose stories need to be discovered. Daly can be reached at www.janisrdaly.com.
Addison Armstrong
Addison Armstrong graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2020 with degrees in elementary education and language and literacy studies and received her master’s degree from Vanderbilt in Reading Education in 2021. The Light of Luna Park was her first novel. She lives with her husband in New York, New York, where she teaches elementary school.