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I see now that this is the first book of a series: http://www.goodreads.com/series/77112...This book is fun. You are told astounding stories about the author's years working as a midwife at the Nonnatus House Convent in the Docklands during the 1950s. You meet the wonderful Sister Monica Joan, a somewhat "crazy" ninety year-old nun, Conchita Warren who will give birth to both her twenty-forth and twenty-fifth child, the latter premature of only 28 weeks gestation, weighing less than two pounds,
4.5 stars - SpoilersI absolutely love the tv show, it's brilliant. I'm so obsessed with it that I decided to check out the book even though I never read non-fiction. I'm really glad I picked it up because it turned out to be a fascinating, heartbreaking, and lovely read.Random thoughts:-Summary: Jennifer Worth's memoirs of her time as a midwife in the East End of London in the 1950s. There's stories of herself, her patients, and the nuns she lives and works with… And they're all great.-I really
I love the the PBS/Netflix series so I thought I would read the book. The book did not disappoint! It was fantastic and so well written. The stories in this book were very similar to the series. I look forward to reading Jennifer's next two books in the series.
I have had this series by Jennifer Worth sitting on my bookshelves for a year. My sister in law let me borrow the five books -- Call the Midwife, Farewell to East End, In the Midst of Life, Shadows of the Workhouse and Letters to the Midwife -- because I enjoy the PBS television show. I got so tied up in adulting, working, reading new releases for review and other books on my TBR stack, that the books sat there on the shelf. Then I signed up for a 2018 reading challenge.....Beat the Backlist.......
Having given birth with the support of a midwife three times, when I heard about this one, I knew I had to make time to read it. The Midwife is the memoir of Jennifer Worth (“Jenny”) and her experiences in the East End Slums of post-war London. I think three things come together to make this a very interesting book.First, the voice of Jenny. She is candid and real - her storytelling doesn't sugar-coat her experiences or her mistakes. She never pretends that the East End was anything other than w...
I didn't think I had that much interest in 1950's East End London or midwifery but after watching the Netflix show on which these novels are based I can say that I find both to be absolutely fascinating. After watching the first two seasons of Call the Midwife which I love, love, love ( I especially adore Chummy) I wanted to know more about Jennifer Worth's life so I picked up this novel, the first in a series of three. The novel did not disappoint. I was pleasantly surprised to find that many o...
I read the companion book to this last year and hadn't been able to get this in the US, but now I am in the UK with my terminally-ill mother I took the opportunity to find it. You wouldn't think that the world of the 50s was so different as it is now, but this depiction of the 50s, of bombed-out London, health care where antibiotics were the new miracle drug and children played safely in the streets because there were no cars is truly another world. This, though, is also the story of a young nur...
I decided to read this book because I recently watched the BBC/PBS show "Call the Midwife", which is based on the memoirs by Jennifer Worth. I absolutely fell in love with the TV show-- it has a perfect mix of happy and sad, with great characters. That being said, I actually came away from the book "Call the Midwife" feeling a little unsatisfied. I certainly enjoyed the stories that she told. Some were heart-breaking, some sweet or funny. I enjoyed the subplot about Jenny discovering a profound
What a good book! Call The Midwife was funny, tender, and shocking by turns. Set in the 1950s in London, this is the debut of Jennifer Worth's series. A memoir of the beginning of Jennifer's career, this book is a series of anecdotes about all that is midwifery. However, it is also a glimpse of what the poor went through during that time frame. Mostly living in tenements or council housing, huge families lived in just a couple of rooms. Many of the women gave birth to more than TEN children—of c...
Post war London with its bombed out buildings and slums is the setting for much of this interesting and entertaining non-fiction read. There are so many incredible stories in this memoir by Jennifer Worth that it is difficult to pick a favorite, but I loved Chummy with her big ole heart, old-fashioned bicycle and her hero Jack who, as you will see, did become important in his day. Mary's story of prostitution is sad and touching, but Mrs. Jenkin's surrender to the workhouse is just beyond words....
This was a wonderful memoir of a young woman's new life into the midwifery world. It is quite candid in its approach to midwifery, the struggles of women (mostly the poor), and dawn of modern medicine. It is hard to believe that there were never maternity wards in hospitals until the 1950's. Birth control, or rather the lack of it, was such a dilemma for women who were single, overworked, poor, ill, and/or exhausted.
Call the Midwife, the first of a trilogy by Jennifer Worth, née Lee, is a memoir of the author’s work as a midwife, working with the nuns of “Nonnatus House”, in the East End during the 1950s. It is a collection of comical, sad, mischievous, happy, and unexpected true tales of poverty-stricken large families living in post-war London, often in squalid tenements, deemed unfit for human habitation. In this educational, warm, easy, and humane book, the reader gets a glimpse of sleeping by the Cut,
I alternated between wishing I'd had this kind of care and thanking God I hadn't.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I liked the setting -- 1950s London -- but I had been wary of reading 300-plus pages about pregnancies and birthing and midwifery. In movies and TV shows, for instance, I hatehatehate childbirth scenes. It's always the same: The mother cries out in pain, the father looks anxious, the doctor sternly gives orders, and then presto! A sweet and wrinkled baby is handed to the parents.* But "Call the Midwife" (which is also the name of the 2012 BBC seri...
A fascinating read, probably more for women. I learned so much about the conditions at that time in general, and for women having children in particular in that area of the country.
I'm writing this as I'm just about halfway through so I may revise this later. For now, oh man. I have some issues with this book. I started reading it after I watched all of the first season of Call the Midwife on Netflix. I loved the show and got excited to see they were based on actual books. Maybe my opinion is tainted by the fact that the author states she was trying to be the James Herriot of midwives. But as I've been reading, I've had the impression in many places that she was trying to
In a reversal of my usual practice, I began watching this PBS series via Netflix last year, then decided to read the book it was based on. It's the memoir of a young girl who became a midwife in the slums of England's East End in the 1950's. The series has been very true to the stories in this book, including brilliant casting of the nuns and the midwives of Nonnatus House. Both the book and the series are excellent, and I now find that this is actually a trilogy, so I have more to come. Wonderf...
It was an incredible read that was marred by an obscenely disgusting chapter right smack dab in the middle that made me have to question whether I should continue or not. I did continue after skimming past the incredibly gross part and was glad that I did because the remaining stories were very interesting/unique and the final few were inspirational. I just really hated that such a wonderful read had to be almost ruined entirely by a poor editing choice. Granted this was based on real life exper...
Oh, that I could have six stars to give. . . Having originally been smitten with this wonderful British TV series, I am now head over heels in love with the book. It's the first of a trilogy which pleases me to no end. I must get my book club to read this.One of my favorite chapters is about a friendship between Chummy and an adolescent boy. It's barely touched upon on TV. The luncheon party whereJennifer's three male friends are invited to dine at the convent is pure comic genius. The premature...
As a series of vignettes about a very interesting profession in a fascinating historical moment, this book was quick and fun to read. However, I would hesitate to recommend it to friends, because it is not very well written.Insight is not Worth's strength. The book is sprinkled with tired old saws about men, women, and their relationships. Her obvious compassion for the poor shines through, but does not lead her to recognize or question many of her internalized prejudices; the way she writes abo...