Book Review Thursday - 3/20

I've been listening to some audio books and I have some reviews!

I believe that I got Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth from Audible during a fall sale - buy 3 books with 2 credits (love these sales!) - and I got around to reading it in February. Once I was done with the first book, I found the other 2 in the series and quickly bought them and listened to them all in order.

 Call the Midwife is the first in the series and focuses on Nurse Jenny Lee and her move into the convent in the East Side of London in the 1950's, her training as a midwife and her life in the convent with the Sisters and her fellow nurses.

Shadows of the Workhouse gives details about the workhouses that were operational in England in the 1800's and early 1900's. This novel gives vivid detail of what it was like to grow up in a workhouse and how it affected the children when they were old enough to try to live outside of the workhouse.

 And Farewell to the East End introduces readers to some of the other characters that Jenny encountered and various other situations that she and the nuns and other nurses braved while working with the East Enders.

I thought that this entire series was fascinating and was sad when I finished the third novel. The explanations of the social systems in London were interesting and in all of my reading, I had never heard of workhouses. And to hear that the buildings that were still standing and condemned after the bombing of London and that people continued to live in the buildings for 20 or 40 years... Amazing, and not in a very good way.

The books have so many characters in them and all of them were so different. While their struggles were mostly the same with little money and too many mouths to feed, many handled the struggles with grace and strength. It must have been incredible to have experienced the joy and sorrow that Nurse Lee did on a daily basis while she lived and worked in the convent.

All of these novels were very enjoyable and knowing that the PBS series is based on this trilogy, I am ready to get on the waiting list for the DVD's from the library.

What are you reading? I hope that I am not the only one who has been in a slump!