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Summary: great story told by a great storyteller
Review: I really liked this book and thought it was really well written. The story pulls you in and unfolds gradually, with little glimpses of the truth coming through the diary entries at the beginning of every chapter. You get a real feel of the emotions everyone involved was going through and I was uncertain of the outcome until the very end. Get it, I think you'll like it.
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Summary: A surprise to me...
Review: When I recieved this book, as a gift, I laughed. What would a book named "midwives" do for me? I thought it would be dull and I'd get through maybe forty or fifty pages before it began to collect dust in my Dorm Room. I was wrong.This book was beyond entertaining. It had me waiting for more and more. It was just genius. The combination of a coming of age story with the legal background, not to mention a mother daughter relationship, makes this book a should read if not a must read. To any guy who has stumbled on this review, take a chance on a book you would normally avoid. A book can not be judged by its title and this story proves it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not my cup of tea
Review: Three major cons: 1. Connie's narrative style became annoying right after page 2. She is verbose, erudite and waffles too much when making a point. As Connie is the main voice in the book, this really spoiled it for me. 2. Sybil and her New-Age take on life, her (ab)use of words like "magical" and "energy". 3. My own squeamishness when it came to vivid descriptions of the births, procedures, etc. The most enjoyable things in the book are the brief descriptions of Vermont. Wish he had included more.
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Summary: A novel for any and everyone!
Review: This book has a timeless and capturing story. It's amazingly mesmerizing and just, an excellent read. The story moves quickly but not to the point where things aren't very detailed because that's hardly a problem here. He, Chris Bohjalian, describes things almost magickal with his vast vocabulary and vivid imagination. The characters in this book will truly touch your heart and give you those warm feelings of love and compassion you'd feel for the characters in book classics. This book is beyond thrilling, it's amazing. A MUST buy for anyone who's picked up a book!
Rating:
Summary: Enchanting and mesmerizing
Review: This book is among one of my favorites that I have EVER read. It's incredible and capturing. The characters in the story are so realistic, the words and vocabulary used are absolutely profound when describing things to their last detail, and it's definitely a classic. It's a well, very well, writen book and anyone who enjoys tales that are whole-fully thoughtful and give you those deep-down warm feelings of love and compassion for the characters, this book is a MUST for you! :)
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Summary: I loved it before Oprah had probably even read it!!!
Review: My husband and I bought this novel as soon as it hit the market for two reasons. The book is set in Vermont (my hubby's old stomping grounds) and written by a Vermont author. And second, we are both employed in the field of Obstetrics. We were handing out our much less-famous, but quite heartfelt, recommendations long before the novel hit Oprah's famous list. The character development is well-done. The use of Connie, the midwife's 12 year-old daughter, as the narrative point of view works beautifully. She is a fly on the wall of her own life, and therefore lets the reader follow an extremely complicated story line with an air of detached observation. The story line touches on the physiology, art, and experience of childbirth. Yet, the world of a lay-midwive serves to launch us into a full-fleged courtroom drama. Despite these two completely different and highly specific settings, Bohjalian does not lose sight of the constantly important family drama and dynamics. While the pages often detail the action of the story line, we are constantly aware of the true drama of the characters' thoughts and emotional struggles. Bohjalian shows signs of solid research of the technical and cultural aspects of the story. This, combined with his beautiful writing, allows you to "lose yourself" in the story. It is honestly difficult to remember that the words of Sybil, the female lay midwife, are actually those of Bohjalian, a male author. Bohjalian defines moments in childbirth that I have witnessed, but didn't expect anyone to find words for: "E.J. ducked under the pubic bone for the last time, my mother pressing her fingers against the infant's skull to slow her down and give her mother's perineum an extra few seconds to yawn." This novel is an easy and quick read. But beware of the suspensful plot twists that will always leave you wondering! It's a must own in our opinion.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Perhaps if I hadn't read all the hype about this book, I would have been more charitable. Sure, it was well-written, but I found it really lacked suspense. Started off well, and then dragged. Certainly was not a "page-turner" (as a quote on the cover claimed).
Rating:
Summary: Could not finish this book.
Review: I did not care for the book, I did not finish it, it jumped around alot and did not flow easily. The premise is interesting, I just did not care for the writing style.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the better Oprah selections
Review: Written from a teen-ager's point of view, Connie's whose mother is on trial for a mishap that went wrong during what was supposed to be a normal delivery. This book describes the ordeal that Connie went through while watching her vibrant mother slowly dissolves into a confused woman filled with self-doubt. This is an interesting book ~~ you'll learn more about childbirth than you ever wanted to know ~~ and it does preach the cons and pros of midwives compared to hospital births. This is a story of a love between a mother and a daughter, wife and husband, friendships, loyalties, client and lawyer ~~ it covers a lot of range in this book. It changes the way you perceive things too ~~ I didn't know much about midwives or what their roles are ~~ I usually hear of the old tales where midwives are usually dirty and so forth, but not in this book. Sibyl takes care of her clients better than a lot of doctors do ~~ only something went wrong with one delivery. It seems that Mother Nature was conspiring against her as well as a jealous intern. This book does provoke a few emotions, so be warned. It is a quick read as well and not as depressing as some of Oprah's other books. It's a learning experience.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to describe....
Review: what I really felt about this book. It was slow moving for me, but it kept pulling me forward. I had a hard time associated that the author was a man, but the narrator was a woman looking back on her twelth year when her mother was put on trial for the "murder" of one of her patients. However, the author provided vivid details and wonderful descriptions about the weather in the Vermont countryside and what occurred on the fateful night that made a mid-wife perform a C-section. Extremely graphic, but amazing description of the C-section made me invision everything. But all the wonderful descriptions could not replace that the book was slow reading. I had shared this book with several others and they all expressed the same feelings.
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