Rating: 
Summary: Great book--quick read
Review: Enjoyed the author's smooth style and transitions from character to character. Makes you feel the pressure midwives are under when it all goes wrong! You won't stop reading until you are finished.
Rating: 
Summary: Concise and neatly written
Review: I wasn't as enthralled with Midwives as I had hoped to be. I read it quickly with little effort and at the end - nothing. This book was entertaining, but it failed to really draw me in. I did not become one with the characters and parts of the storyline were undeveloped. I would have loved to know more about Stephen and Sybil's relationship, or how the father was affected by the trial and ending of Sybil.
Rating:
Summary: I felt like the teenager in the story.
Review: It was hard to believe that a male author had told this story in the voice of a 13-year-old girl. The girl is an only child named Connie who observed her midwife mother's, Sybil Danforth's, profession. The thoughts and feelings of Connie's mother are provided through diary notes that are introductions to each chapter. This book was suspenseful, educational and perplexing. When Sybil's judgement calls don't have the outcome that is desired then lawyers, police, investigators, and judges become involved. It is at that time that Connie has to resort to eavesdropping to keep aprised of what all is happening to her mother as her parents try to "spare" her from the adult situation. When her parents inquire how she is handling the events in the story she says she is okay when she isn't. This is not a story with pages and pages of courtroom testimony. The author skillfully interlaces only the pertinent testimony with all else that the teenager is dealing with, watching the court proceedings, keeping up with homework, her first love, worrying about her mother and father, worrying that her mother's lawyer and her mother are becoming to familiar, and feeling powerless to prevent her mother from the inevitable. . .going to jail. I couldn't believe that I was within the last few pages of the book and I was still hanging in suspense. I closed the book with still more questions but I don't fault the author for leaving out information. The questions I am sure are those that the midwife carried with herself for the rest of her life.
Rating: 
Summary: Grants reader an emotional and educational new perspective!
Review: Midwives is a book that is not only suspenseful and emotional, but also humorous and enlightening. I was very impressed by the manner in which Bohjalian delt with the tender and sensitive issues of life, death, pregnancy, birth, and family. How anyone could say that Bohjalian is anti-Midwifery is beyond me. Sybil Danforth is brilliant--and human--and is portrayed as such. Oh, yes! The ending was very surprising! Not the typical, predictable read. The daughter, Connie, offers a fresh and, at times, funny narrative that has made me rethink all of my formerly conceived notions on home-birthing and midwifery and I'm pleased by the extent of which I have been intellectual and emotionally engaged by this book.
Rating: 
Summary: OVER RATED
Review: I chose this book for two reasons. One, it has a good cover, and two, Oprah promoted it. However, I felt that MIDWIVES was boring. There was absolutely no suspense. I spent hours reading it, trying to get to the end so I would not have wasted my time and money. Unfortunately, midway through, I had to skip about 50-60 pages just to see if the woman was convicted or not. VERY DISAPPOINTED.
Rating:
Summary: "Midwives" is a winner
Review: Chris Bohjalian has written a novel that captures a certain lifestyle of Vermont in the early 1980's. He has an incredible ability to portray women characters that I have seldom seen in male authors. The courtroom scenes and the unfolding family drama are artfully written. I couldn't put this book down. I'd compare it to To Kill a Mockingbird for its gripping plot. Bohjalian made me care about each one of the novel's characters. It's a great read.
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable yet true.
Review: First and foremost ... I couldn't put this book down and read it all in about 10 hours. Secondly, being a midwife, I was extremely saddened by yet another account of the modern-day witch-hunt of midwives. Mr. Bohalian has managed to tell this amazing and tragic story from a perspective suggesting first-hand experience and knowledge of the events and politics involved in midwifery and home birth. HOWEVER, the reader could easily come to believe that maternal deaths are a common occurence in homebirth. Today, the death of a mother in childbirth is extremely rare, whether she is attended at home by a midwife or in a hospital by a physician. The statistics are basically the same for both but the sad truth is, that some mothers (and some babies) die. To think that one, whether midwife or physician, can stop a natural and Divine decision of process when it is inevitable suggests that the practitioner considers themselves the Divine holder of fate. Mr. Bohjalian's portrayal of the persecution of the midwife however is on the money and very commonplace, despite the statistical evidence supporting the safety of homebirth for normal, healthy women. Considering the severity of the circumstances in this account, I am very surprised how well treated Midwife Danforth was by the medical and legal establishment. Believe it or not, many midwives around this country are treated much worse for much less. I am glad the book was written and would like to see the author continue writing about these issues. He seems to have a real talent and the knowledge for it. Thanks for the opportunity to review this novel.
Rating:
Summary: Very favorable.
Review: Beautifully written, with a lyrical sense of rhythm. The book sparked a lively discussion in my book club last month. Most of us had a hard time a man wrote to expressively of womens' issues. The book also brought back the 60's with many fond memories. ( After doing some research, my conclusion is that the laboring woman died of an amniotic fluid embolus.)
Rating:
Summary: Enthralling and provocative
Review: This may be the best book I've read this year. It was compelling to the last page. If you are tired of the traditional courtroom dramas that litter bookshelves and movie screens, this book is for you. The legal setting does not overwhelm this novel's true goal: to tell a tale about PEOPLE. The characters are surprising, engaging, and oh so human, with all their moral ambiguities.
Rating:
Summary: A great impact!
Review: This book had me captured from the beginning. I enjoyed the daughter's perspective of the drama and the hippie-ish journal entries at the start of the chapters. I found myself most affected by the book after I finished it. Sibyl's story was one of joy and sorrow, pain and learning. It was a very realistic and sometimes very charming story. Sibyl had found the calling of her life. This woman really loved bringing life into the world; seeing the pureness of childbirth, and helping women through it-she was amazing. The thought that she could have done something wrong was appalling to her. The book very realisically showed her despair and sense of loss. This was a very good read from start to finish.
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