The best book I've listened to this year

So far this year, I've listened to about 50 books, and this has been the best of them. I don't read much non-fiction, I'm a guy, I'm an American, and I don't have any children, so a book of memoirs from a midwife in 1950's London shouldn't logically resonate with me at all. I can't explain it, but I thought this book was wonderful.

I read a few other reviews that disliked the narrator, but I thought she did a great job. She subtly captures different voices without making it into a big deal. The recording mix was a little strange, though, so if you have headphones that really accentuate bass tones, you might have a little trouble with the sound.

The book is a series of stories about different people that the author interacts with during her time studying nursing at a convent in London. Some of the stories are funny, some are sad, most of them incorporate interesting historical points about women's health, and all of them are amazing.

I wish I was a better reviewer so I could give a better picture of how great this book is. I'd feel a little silly just writing "this book is awesome" until I hit Audible's character limit, but that would about sum it up.

228 people found this helpful

This is one I didn't want to put down!

Call the Midwife was a truly gripping book for me. I am interested in birth and so reading about how births were conducted 60 years ago was so fascinating.

Yet, Jennifer Worth's story went far beyond that of the stories of the births she attended. It was the story of her maturing as a nurse and midwife, and of her strongly held notions about what was right and acceptable being challenged. She began her midwifery training at an Anglican convent in the dockland area of London's East End with not much more than disdain for people who were strongly motivated by love of God and called to service because of it. She grew to understand the women who mentored her, and to respect the ones whom she wrote off as just nasty or odd in the beginning. Seeing her dawning understanding of faith was lovely.


She also learned so much from the families of the poor and down trodden of an area so different from what she knew before.

Some of the stories she tells in this book are hilariously funny, and others are completely heartbreaking and painful to read. Worth certainly was a gifted storyteller, reminiscent of James Herriott. I hope the other books she wrote will be released on Audible soon.

Nicola Barber is a competent narrator, and not one who will put me off a book, so I was okay at first. But, I was very surprised; she seemed to really enjoy doing this book, and the characters came alive through her excellent narration. I was very pleased!

I don't think guys should be put of by a book about birthing babies, just as Herriott's books are more about the people than the animals. Give it a go.

142 people found this helpful

My favorite this year... but not for all...

Slices of life as experienced by a young midwife in postwar London slums. Similar to James Herriot books, with feel of Potato Peel Pie Literary Society. However, "real life" is shared and it isn't always pretty. It includes several step by step delivery of babies, the story of how a young girl is drawn into prostitution, ups and downs of married life and child raising, a few babies born with "unexpected" color, some heartbreaking abuse, poverty, adoption and horrors of poor house relief. The only portion which is lewd is during the "entertainment" at the brothel, you know it is coming and a 3 minute fast forward would remove it easily without messing with the plot. Language is clean and although some of the experiences are heartbreaking the whole feeling of the book is the beauty of the cycle of life - aptly named birth, joy and hard times. You will smile a lot!

135 people found this helpful

What a lovely story

If you could sum up Call the Midwife in three words, what would they be?

entertaining, sweet, educational

What was one of the most memorable moments of Call the Midwife?

The breech birth scene was so intense and exactingly told I could not put this down. In fact the entire book went by too fast. I think people of all ages would enjoy these stories all from the 1950's East End of London

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

all of it

44 people found this helpful

Fascinating history. Annoying narrator

What did you like best about Call the Midwife? What did you like least?

I liked the history about the Dockland area of London in the mid-20th century and how the people lived. It did much to bring the area and its people to life. I did not like the narrator.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Sister Monica Joan was great fun and had the most depth of character.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Oy. Ms. Barber clearly has a good range of voices, so her decision - and the director's decision to allow her- to read the main character in the tiny, near-whisper, sometimes whiny, nasally voice is beyond my understanding. It was extremely distracting as the voice would get so soft I'd have to turn up the volume and so nasally and whispery that I'd have to strain to hear. And then, suddenly, she'd do a different louder voice, and I'm backing down the volume in exasperation. By the time the book was ending (and the last chapter was, without question, the most annoying of all) I was so distracted by the affectation that I could barely concentrate on the story.

Was Call the Midwife worth the listening time?

It was OK, but could have been SO much better!

Any additional comments?

Listen carefully to the sample before you buy it and realize that, for much of the story, she modulates this voice down to even more of a nasal whisper. .

43 people found this helpful

True Story of Exact Era I Was Born In

I'm a child of the '50s, but here in the US, not in London, post WWII, a time of great uncertainty for many people. I'm usually drawn to historical fiction, but this audio book with true stories of the convent and midwives who served the poor and impoverished citizens is excellent. It's funny, touching, sad, and gives us a glimpse into a profession and lifestyle that most of us would never have the opportunity to know or understand otherwise. The faith of the catholic nuns, which Jennifer at first found to be strange and meaningless, was one of the sweetest and most profound parts of the story, as Jennifer learned first hand the power of a God that heals . . . a God that HEARS. This book is not preachy, it's very understated on the subject of religion, yet very real. Midwives riding bikes through snow and storms to deliver babies, give insulin shots, care for the elderly. Nuns who are as tough as nails, and as kind as Jesus. I purposely have not yet watched the tv series. I'm ready to see it now. I'm sure it won't hold a candle to the book.

37 people found this helpful

Fantastic Book...

If you could sum up Call the Midwife in three words, what would they be?

The PBS series was fascinating, the book was better.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Call the Midwife?

To find out one of the boys became one of Lady Di's drivers. Not only ar there wonderful stories of birth, but so much history after WW 2.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me smile, with so many stories it told.

Any additional comments?

Think this book is for all.

34 people found this helpful

A delightful read!

This is a delightful book and just wonderful to listen to. It is the memoir of a midwife in London of the 1950s. It is hard to believe that before the National Health Service came into being in the late 1940s and made free healthcare available to all, maternity care for the poor was practically non-existent in Britain. But by the mid 1950s nurse midwives were bicycling around the projects of London giving prenatal (the Brits call it antenatal) care and handling home deliveries, or even hospital deliveries for complications. Each story is more delightful or amazing than the others. My only complaint is that I never wanted it to end. The author, an experienced nurse, signs up for midwife training and thinks she is being sent to a hospital but instead it is a community of nuns who lovingly care for their patients and train other nurses to become experienced midwives. Britain was still recovering from the privations of WWII and there was an immense shortage of housing. Poor families lived in incredibly crowded and primitive conditions. Many of the old condemned buildings did not have running water for each flat but were still full of families because there was nowhere to move them. Into this comes all the drama of birth and death and family and money issues and even racial issues (Britian was just beginning to get immigrants of different racial backgrounds). It is just beautifully written, beautifully narrated (the Cockney voices will haunt me) and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

32 people found this helpful

Disappointing narration ruins the book

I recommend reading this book in print rather than listening to the audio. I bought this book two years ago and found the narrator extremely irritating. I've just given it another go, and I cannot focus on the narration for the failings of the narrator. The narration is done in a whisper (for no apparent reason), so it's necessary to turn the volume up all the way. She does a good job with dialects, but so do a thousand other narrators who would have been a better choice. The sound quality is also inconsistent, as if the recording was done by an amateur. The narration ruins this book and detracts from the story.

22 people found this helpful

Masterful

A friend of mine from Sunderland England sent me the trilogy a number of years ago saying she grew up in the East End of London during WWII. I read the books a long time ago but decided to listen to the audiobook just to hear the accents because I could never do them.

The book is Jennifer Worth’s memoirs of her time as a nurse/midwife in the East End of London in the 1950s. I remember the fifties quite well and it was easy to slip back into that time frame in the book. It is amazing how far medicine and society has come since the fifties; we now have Ultrasound, antibiotics, birth control, and an array of other medications. The fifties don’t seem like all that long ago to me, guess that is what happens as one ages.

Worth paints a colorful scene as she describes her training as a midwife while living in an Anglican Nunnery. The nuns were all nurse/midwifes and ran a school to teach nurses to be midwives while they cared for the people in the East End. Worth weaves lots of interesting stories of people and also about the nuns. I found the stories about the work houses most interesting including the fact that after they closed them in the 1930s they were converted into hospitals. It is no wonder the poor people did not want to go to the hospital. The book has little of Worth’s personal life but is mostly about patients and fellow midwifes. In many ways the book is a work history and anthropology of the Docklands of the East End.

I understand there was a T.V. series called “Call the Midwife” based on Worth’s memoirs that was very popular in Britain. Overall I enjoyed the book and the trip down memory lane. Nicola Barber did an excellent job narrating the book.

21 people found this helpful