The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times in Around the World in 80 Books

Apr 29, 2014 ashleyrebeccah rated it liked it

I read this book because I have been watching the series "Call the Midwife" on PBS, which is based on this book. The author tells the stories of many of the patients she encountered as well as the nuns she worked with as a midwife in East London in the 1950s. I enjoyed reading more into her thoughts and opinions behind her work, the patients, and the area, which doesn't seem to be conveyed as much in the show. For example, she seemed a lot more naive and judgemental in the beginning than I reali ...more

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Feb 04, 2016 Erica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Love the show; the book is great, and of course much more horrifying than anything the show could air. The show hews very closely to the characterizations of all people in the book. Pretty magical.

I had been wanting to know the author of this quote for a while--magically, it came near the end of this book:
Mother Julian of Norwich:
"All shall be well, and all will be well/
and all manner of things shall be well." ...more

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Feb 09, 2017 Diane rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir-biography, pop-sugar-challenge-2017

Loved reading about the energetic sisters, their life in the convent and their stories of the East Enders they worked with.

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Mar 31, 2014 Stephanie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: soldotna-sisters-book-club

What a great book to read.
I love the author's ability to be frank and clear, while weaving her memories into a story. I love that each chapter is a section to itself - which makes it easy to pick up and put down without getting lost.
Her ability to really capture the time period and the language is wonderful!
This is a wonderful memoir to read and I highly recommend it.

PS. I also recommend the BBC TV series. They do a great job of capturing this memoir. ...more

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Oct 12, 2014 Anie rated it liked it

Shelves: female-protagonist, fiction, 2014, female-author, borrowed

This was a charming book---I think it's hard to describe it in any other way. It's not a hard book, or a deeply meaty one, but it makes you smile, and it also makes you think. I wasn't expecting---and was genuinely pleasantly pleased by---the amount of discussion about midwifery and its history, and the history of childbirth. It's interesting, and I'm deeply gratified to see it in there. ...more

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