Take My Hand is the historical fiction book that everyone should read this year. We begin with young Civil Townsend, a young black woman fresh out of nursing school. She takes a job at the local family planning clinic determined to make a difference, especially in her African American community. Soon, she realizes the clinic is using medicine that is most likely dangerous and she begins down a path to right this wrong. 

Unfortunately what happens is even more horrifying than the dangerous birth control, and Civil is swept into the center of a lawsuit that will attempt to end sterilization of young and impoverished women. Told in timelines from the early 1970s and in the modern day, we learn how this trial and second hand trauma impacted Civil. This story is painstakingly beautiful, a real tribute to the many people who were unethically sterilized in the US eugenics movement. 

Without a doubt come out of this book is heavy and not one you should pick up lightly, I think it is a book that simply must be read because this story needs to be heard. I cannot convey how perfectly written Take My Hand is; you must find out for yourself.