The Midwife

Call The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Jennifer Worth, a young midwife in London's East End slums, writes about her true life experiences - the joy of birth, loss of life, and all the everyday experiences with everyday, down-to-earth people. Trained as a nurse and a midwife, Jenny came to reside at Nonnatus House, a Convent next to a bomb site. The streets were full of children - no one owned a car on the back streets so they were safe to play in. Jenny grew to love the hard-working Sisters at Nonnatus and her patients, mostly very poor and living in terrible conditions.

After seeing Call the Midwife, a DVD that was in our library, I had to read the book. Usually, it's the reversal. I loved the first book as I did the movie and am looking forward to reading the second in the series. Being born in the baby-boom age of 1960, and only 15 years after World War ll ended, I see similarities between the London East End docks and the hills of Appalachia.

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The Time Between

The Time Between by Karen White
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Eleanor's favorite times and worst times were on Edisto Island, where she grew up with the sweetgrass and salt marshes and memories of her loving, piano playing father. Eleanor's guilt holds her prisoner - guilt over her sister Eve's accident on Edisto...guilt over how she feels about her brother-in-law, Glenn. When Eleanor's boss offers her a job taking care of his Aunt Helena on that same island, she jumps at the chance to go back and relive her memories, not realizing that Helena carried her own guilt-ridden secrets.

I had forgotten how much I enjoy Karen White's writing. A favorite line from her book that Aunt Helena, who had suffered and lost so much says, "That adversity in life does not rob your heart of beauty. It simply teaches it a new song to sing."

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Whistling Past the Graveyard

Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Nine-year old, fiesty Starla has had it with living with her strict grandma - who tells her she's going to end up in reform school or turn out like her mother. Well Starla knows her momma is going to be a famous Nashville singer, that's why she left Starla's daddy. When a neighbor calls her "a no-good, cheap trash, just like her momma" Starla hits the road for the big city. Along the way and determined not to die, 'cause it will make her grandma happy, Starla catches a ride with a tall, skinny black woman driving an old rickety truck. When she hops in, Starla finds on the floorboards, a tiny, wrinkled, white baby wrapped in what looks like a pillowcase, and the adventure begins - full of people's kindness, darkness and truth.

Wonderful writing told from the viewpoint of a nine-year old girl in the turbulent '60s of the deep South. Eula and Starla, worlds apart and different colors, are complete treasures...

Favorite quotes:
"My daddy says that when you do somethin' to distract you from your worstest fears, it's like whistlin' past the graveyard. You know, making a racket to keep the scaredness and the ghosts away. He says that's how we get by sometimes. But it's not weak, like hidin'... It's strong. It means you're able to go on.."

“Here’s the thing ‘bout gif’s.” Eula stopped buttering her toast and looked straight at me. “A body don’t know how many the good Lord tucked inside them until the time is right. I reckon a person could go a whole life and not know. That why you gotta try lots of things, many as you can…experiment.”



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The Beekeeper's Ball

The Beekeeper's Ball by Susan Wiggs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bella Vista Chronicles, #2 picks up with Isabel slowly turning her home into a cooking school. The land complete with a barn, beehives, and an apple orchard will lend itself to reserved parties and wedding receptions. The lovely, reserved Isabel has a secret but so does her beloved Danish grandfather Magnus and family friend Annelise. This will be the summer season to free all secrets and feel liberated from guilt and pain.

An excellent book - I did not know about the Danish Resistance (Holger Danske), the Lebensborn program, and how King Christian and his people fought back against the Nazi regime. It is also a story of sharing those secrets that imprison us and hold us captive to old fears.

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