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Summary: Thought Provoking Reading
Review: The story belongs to Elizabeth Whitley who, like generations of women before her, is a midwife in a remote Virginia mining town. As the story begins (just prior to World War I,) Elizabeth is in training alongside her mother learning the joys and horrible sorrows that are all part of the job. The reader is soon to discover, though that Elizabeth must endure much more than helping babies come into the world. For this is a story of complicated relationships,unrequited love, fierce friendships and redemption. It weaves a complex web and very easily casts a spell over the lucky reader. Enjoy!!
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Summary: imitating old style writing is not enough
Review: The style wont appeal to many people, and copying an old style doesn't make the story better. The style is outdated. Under the guise of 'authentic sounding' dialog its a bit juvenile and phoney. Asside from the style, the story is mediocre, but nothing you haven't seen before. I rate the story a C, abd the stle a D-.
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Summary: My year's best
Review: The year isn't even half over yet, but this is one of the best books I've read in 2004. I wish I were eloquent enough to say how good this book is. The dialogue and the characters were perfect, never a parody or a stereotype of hillbillies, the sense of place so strong, the plot always turned in unexpected but appropriate directions....While reading this wonderful book I felt empathy for my unpleasant grandmother, who was of an age and background with Elizabeth. So, to the author, thank you for opening my heart and my mind. A good, and a beautiful, read. Whatever she publishs next, I'm awaiting eagerly. Anyone who hasn't yet read this is now ordered to do so immediately. (Obviously, my order doesn't have any power, but I'm looking forward to being able to say "I told you so" to whomever ignores this advice).
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book!!!!
Review: This a beautifully written book I think all women should read. It's a touching tale of a girl learning to deal with the rights and wrongs of being a midwife, and also of trying to grow up and become her own person. Don't miss out on this gem of a book!
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Summary: Compelling
Review: This book crept up on me. At first I thought, yes, a pleasant read, nice mountainside, la-la-la. Then the characters pulled me in, and I found the story compelling and couldn't stop reading. The young girl's apprenticeship to be a midwife, observing and not understanding at first, captured my imagination. And then, as she continues in her profession, trying to help women survive child-bearing and seeing their struggles as wives and mothers, I found myself thinking long and hard about the roles of women then and now, their courage or weakness in loves and losses, their generosity or greed when sick and when healthy, and ... this story captured my heart and mind as well. I was humbled by the lives of mountain women who had few possessions and almost no physical comforts, and who often died in childbirth. And, of course, I was ruefully aware that the description of the blindness and foolishness of the protagonist could easily have been a description of my own. (Hmmmmn. I've now read the reviews above. I have to say that the people who slammed the book as being inauthentic in its language and dialects are probably lacking in experience of that part of the country. I have spent time in the Appalachian hollows (and, yes, the locals call them "hollers"), and the language sounded unexceptionable to me. Also, according to my information, the author has been steeped in that culture since childhood. I suspect that the criticism says more about the reader's experiences and preferences than about the book. As for wanting more "modernity," I think that is, again, simply a matter of personal preference. If one wants a terse Hemingwayesque style, fine. Some like that style--some do not. If one doesn't care for the lyrical tone of a storyteller by the fire, fine. But the quiet voice of such storytellers has a role in literature, and I value it. Really, to maul a baker as wholly inept because YOU don't care for rhubarb pie is silly--not everyone likes rhubard pie but it doesn't mean the baker is unskilled. It would be like saying that Hemingway is completely worthless because YOU are left cold by his lean style and "modern" topics. I will say that the ending did not entirely work for me, but the overall impact of the book was so important that I give it Five Stars.)
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Summary: A gorgeous, lush, passionate novel
Review: This book is such an enormous pleasure to read--"pleasure" is an odd adjective to ascribe to a novel so filled with tragedies and hardship, yet Laskas's writing and storytelling are so strong that every page seems to crackle. The characters, the landscape, the story--the life of this once and future midwife--are portrayed with tremendous passion and depth. The rhythms, of language and structure, give the book an epic flair, yet epic in a particularly feminine sort of way. It is filled with blood, sweat, tears--there is suffering, but at the same time, like the Appalachian mountain on which the characters live, something always endures. This is a book for people who are looking for books to cherish, books to lose themselves in, cry over, read passages again and again.
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Summary: Hard to believe this is her first work
Review: This book is the best novel I have read in some time. It follows the chronicles of a slightly reluctant midwife, Elizabeth. She follows a long line of baby catchers, and hers is a tale that you won't soon forget. The reader gets swept into her pre- war Appalacian world of influenzia, poverty and customs. Though she is barren, she raises the daughter of the man that she loves- but one who does not love her back. The reader desires almost as much as Elizabeth herself that she find someone who would be able to give her what she deserves- a husband who cares for her. Even through the trials, though, there is joy and laughter. I look forward to reading more from this author.
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Summary: Not Just Another Midwife Story
Review: This book was amazing. I was drawn to it for the title but it's so much more than a story about a midwife in 1920's Appalacia. The writing is excellent, the story is inspiring, and it will stay with you for weeks after you finish reading it. I promise!
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Summary: it gets credit for trying hard, anyway
Review: This is a novel I really wanted to like. But it is an imitation of a kind of writing that has come and gone a while ago. Like, thirty years ago.And even then, the deliberate folksy-quaintness was cloying. It's got a down-home veneer that reminds me of students in a high school play laboring to drop their g's 'cause this here is a log cabin, yessirree bob, now let's go git our milkin' chores did. The plot could be good, and perhaps this is the sort of novel for which a market does exist ..., but its potential is obscured by the Creative Writing on every page. It's a first novel and should be cut some slack for that, and maybe her next one will have something beyond all the atmosphere and self-conscious first novel aura of this one, but it isn't clear if, in the end she has anything to say. Maybe she does. Maybe she needed an editor to figure out why the writing was getting in the way of the story. Okay, maybe I am just the wrong reader for this book.
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Summary: Brings Into the World a Bright New Talent
Review: This is a wonderful story of bonds of love shared by mothers and their daughters as well as the love between men and women. Elizabeth, the midwife whose tale we are caught up in, isn't perfect but she is strong, smart and interesting. This is indeed a strong telling of a moving story but I wasn't aware that this kind of well-written novel was out of style. One thing I loved about this book was that somehow, though it's not written in the sort of folksy dialect usually used to depict mountain people, the author lets the true voice of these people shine through. It's a very skillful job and gives the reader a real sense of place. I look forward to the next book by this author.
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