Making the Rounds: Defying Norms in Love and Medicine

(Paperback)

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What was it like to survive an illegal abortion, come out as a lesbian, and train to become a doctor in the late 1960s and early 70sbeforeRoe v. Wade, before Title IX, and in a largely homophobic nation

In this unflinching and riveting coming-of-age memoir, Patricia Grayhall chronicles her journey from believing she is the only lesbian in Arizona to dipping her toes into dating in San Francisco, attending medical school in Salt Lake City as one of only five women in a class of one hundred, and completing an internship as the only woman in her cohort in Boston.Battling sexism in a male-dominated profession, she plunges into a life that is never boringand certainly never without passion.

Tossed around in the rough seas of medical training, chronically exhausted and emotionally drained, Patricia chafes against the toxic masculinity of the culture of medicine and yearns for the same care and support her male colleagues receive from their wives and girlfriends.But while the sexual revolution and womens movement in 1970s Boston celebrate female eroticism, they provide few models for moving beyond desire andsustaininga healthy relationship with a womanPatricia soon discovers that maintaining a loving, stable relationship is not easy.

This book, named one ofKirkus Reviews Best 100 Indie Books of 2022, is the story of how Patricia navigates these stormy seas without signposts to reach the shores she seeksoften battered, but never broken.

Reviews

2023 Firebird Book Awards First Place Winner in Coming of Age Memoir
2023 Firebird Book Awards First Place Winner in LGBT Memoir
Named a Kirkus Reviews Best Indie Book of 2022
2022 Best Book Awards Finalist in LGBTQ+: Nonfiction

The author writes with a sense of blunt reality and warm humanity . . . The struggles, deeply felt emotions, and coming-of-age triumphs make this memoir touching and personal, and it will stir reflection in those who read it.
Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Grayhall skillfully depicts the problems confronting any ambitious person in search of stable romantic relationships . . . those professional challenges resonate throughout this fast-paced, immersive, and weighty memoir that will resonate with anyone who has experienced the hardships of being true to yourself.
BookLife Reviews

Memoirs like Grayhalls are important to us. The larger culture has owned the narrative forever and rendered us inconsequential if not invisible. Our untold stories need to be out there, and a story like Grayhalls from a woman of her achievements is a vital contribution to our community and history.
Katherine V. Forrest, author ofCurious Wineand The Emergence of Green

Making the Rounds is a fast-paced, inspiring, and accessible true story of a young lesbiansstruggle to enter the male dominated profession of medicine in the '70s while concurrently learning, through a series of heartbreaking and endearing encounters, to be her authentic self in a loving relationship with another woman. I highly recommend this booka great read exploring issues that are as relevant today as ever.
Robin Tyler, producer, activist, comic

An uplifting journey of coming out that reads like a fast-paced medical drama.
Radclyffe, retired surgeon, author, and president of Bold Strokes Books

Making the Roundsis smart, profound, thought-provoking, and all-out engaging. Patricia Grayhalls writing brims with a passionate desire to share her reality and the book will elicit empathy in every reader. . . . This memoir is a must-read as a reminder to all of us to guard our rights and freedom and to never devolve into a culture of hate that is a vestige of a primitive stage of evolution.
Readers Favorite, 5-star review

Making the Roundsis a wonderful book that flows from page to page keeping its readers engaged in Patricia's story and wanting to know where it would go next. Inspiring, heartfelt, and brutally honest at times, this is a book that will give women and those who care about them, the strength and motivation to persevere through the trials and tribulations in life.
Seattle Book Review

Female professionalsgay or straight, doctor or otherowe a debt of gratitude for the tribulations women like Grayhall endured to hew the path we now traverse. Reverberating with personal angst and professional certitude, Making the Roundsis about life. I highly recommend it to anyone whos ever lived one.
Adele Holmes, MD, author ofWinters Reckoning

Patricia Grayhall has written a vital and thrilling memoir, the story of a woman figuring out who she is and who she is meant to be. She battles to find love and to do meaningful work in a field dominated by patriarchal values. Most of all her story radiates the power of perseverance in breaking down, brick by brick, the barriers of bigotry.
Steve Almond, New York Times best-selling author of Candyfreak and Against Football

Patricia Grayhall has much to teach us in this well-paced and deeply humanizing memoir of what it means to seek both belonging and loveand to find both, always in the most surprising of ways.
Susan Meyers, Professor of Creative Writing, Seattle University

This is such an important book for so many reasons. Identity. Sexuality. Self-acceptance. Women power. Relationships with others and self. Societal oppression. And so much more. If you have ever felt marginalized or told you could not pursue your dreams because you are the wrong sex, color, ethnicity, or class . . . this book will inspire you to find the courage.
Laura Munson, New York Times best-selling author of This is Not the Story You Think It Is

Patricia Grayhalls writing style is seamless in the way it flows gently across the pages. She is a very talented storyteller, weaving a narrative filled with fortitude, courage, and passion as she faces the uphill battle to be her authentic self in an environment of patriarchal supremacy and homophobia. I thoroughly recommend this wonderfully written book to anyone.
Alexis Hunter, author of Joy Lansing: A Body to Die For

Well-written, fast-paced, and inspiringPatricia Grayhalls memoir is an authentic, accurate, and brave portrayal of her lived experience in times that were exciting and expansive, but often confusing, challenging, and uncharted.
Margaret Dozark, MD, Emergency and Internal Medicine Specialist

Making the Rounds is an important piece of history served up in a crisp writing style, entwined with beautiful sensory details. Grayhalls point of view is candid, self-deprecating, and genuine. She is obviously accomplished, but what comes through is her openness and honestyqualities rarely seen in similar works. This is a book you do not want to miss.
Morgan Elliot, author of Stroke of the Brush and The Crying Chair

Kudos to Patricia for showing all women that their dreams and desires for everlasting love and a rewarding career can become realities.
Judy Kiehart, author ofCalico Lane

In Making the Rounds, Patricia Grayhall has granted us access into her world, and into the life of a complex woman we will not soon forget.
Sharon Dukett, author of No Rules: A Memoir

Author Bio

Patricia Grayhall is a medical doctor and author of Making the Rounds; Defying Norms in Love and Medicineas well as articles inQueer FortyandThe Gay and Lesbian Review.After nearly forty years of medical practice, this is her debut, very personal, and frank memoir about coming out as a lesbian in the late 1960s and training to become a doctor when society disapproved of both for a woman. She chose to write using a pen name to protect the privacy of some of her characters as well as her own. Patricia lives with the love of her life on an island in the Pacific Northwest where she enjoys other peoples dogs, the occasional Orca and black bear, hiking, and wine with friends.