If you ever have an uncommon life, would it be like the life of Nellie Bly? That is such case of Nellie Bly or Elizabeth Jane “Pink” Cochran in Ten Days a Madwomen by Deborah Noyes it is a captivating story that brings us into the life of Nellie Bly, this book is not only about the life of Nellie but it reveals social issues that society still face today. This non-fiction biography takes place in NYC or New York City based in the year 1887. The author guides us through Nellie’s life it sheds lights onto the social issues women face even today.  This story is told from a third person perspective telling about the life and adventures of Nellie Bly giving the reader an outline of the hardships and issues of Nellie’s life. The start of her career and fame began when Nellie Bly goes to Blackwell’s insane asylum, Nellie Bly’s does other journaling success that led her into more fame such as stunt reporting, traveling the world, and reporting on actual war front lines, this book shocks you with its depiction of brutality and violence.

The difficulties faced in Nellie’s journaling life is undoubtably be the theme and central idea. Nellie started from the bottom and fought her way to the top. This book doesn’t avoid challenges but displays the struggles of women who drowned in the mass of people in NYC. Female Inequality is a key issue in the book, it  was affecting women’s personal lives. Nellie’s expose of the asylum on Blackwell’s Island pioneered a path for women in newspapers.

Special shoutout to my book club member Miranda , my best friend WHO ACTUALLY READ THE BOOK and discussed this book with me.

I decided to do a in depth summary the whole book and added conflicts I found in different parts of the book, I kept track of  my reading with summaries of pages I read to each time and kept track of conflicts happening in the book (which will then shape the theme and central idea) As I read on I found a lot of conflicts and central ideas.

This contains some spoilers.   ↓↓↓↓↓ Notes Page #1   (mini lesson on summary)

I was sort of confused when it said how Nellie asked for one million to be paid to the asylum even though Nellie knew it wasn’t going to the patients.  Nellie’s determination on journaling that even with no guarantee  of success showed how difficult it was for her to get such an opportunity.

↓↓↓↓↓ Notes Page #2 (mini lesson on conflicts and how they connect)

I found different conflicts in the book in a mind map to show how each of the conflicts caused one another or connects together with the main issues highlighted in yellow and the page number is evidence from in the book (the main conflicts which I find are) is female inequality and urban mess especially for working class. Some of these issues are found in flashbacks (black pages) and setting of where Nellie is from I really had to connect the pages together to connect better.  This page is in the form of a mind map.

↓↓↓↓↓ Notes Page #3

A central idea I found in my book was social behavior on women needs improvement to improve equality . My initial central idea was societal behavior needs improvement  so I Improved on the statement to make it more specific and clear. The note was in mind map to better connect the ideas in the group but mind maps can be challenging to add more information but it was helpful in connecting different ideas in the book and reviewing the whole book.

Initial central idea/theme ↓↓↓↓ (mini lesson theme)

↓↓↓↓↓ Notes Page #4

Focuses on more specific points and more narrative part of the story. We chose one either (narrative or non-fiction explanatory text) This part is more narrative. Contains spoilers for those who didn’t read the book. 

These are the notes for my book club book”10 Days a Madwoman” again thanks to Miranda who did the book club with me rather than only myself. Overall this book I would recommend if you like non-fiction and can take more non-fiction excerpts. I would give this book a rating of ★★★★☆ four stars because this book is sort of confusing on certain parts and how I had to connect the non-fiction excerpts (black pages)

Thank you for reading my post and taking the time to read my description of each note page. If you are interested in this book check out the book “10 Days a Madwoman,” or a movie (similar to book but only reveals some parts from the book in the movie and is named differently)  (book is more factual and would recommend more than the movie). (Also the movie isn’t very good as you can see from the ratings.)

Post made by Zoey Guan!