The Birth House
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Narrated by:
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Geneviève Steele
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By:
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Ami McKay
About this listen
The Birth House is the story of Dora Rare, the first daughter to be born in five generations of Rares. As a child in an isolated village in Nova Scotia, she is drawn to Miss Babineau, an outspoken Acadian midwife with a gift for healing. Dora becomes Miss B.’s apprentice, and together they help the women of Scots Bay through infertility, difficult labours, breech births, unwanted pregnancies and even unfulfilling sex lives. Filled with details as compelling as they are surprising, The Birth House is an unforgettable tale of the struggles women have faced to have control of their own bodies and to keep the best parts of tradition alive in the world of modern medicine.
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Critic reviews
2020, Governor General's Literary Award—Translation
2007, OLA Evergreen Award
"The Birth House is a poignant, compassionate, bittersweet and nostalgic look at early 20th-century Nova Scotia. . . . Reading McKay’s novel is like dipping into a saner, more intimate, past; a past that’s long gone. . . . McKay is not only a new author to note, but one to look forward to with anticipation."—National Post
"From the beginning of Ami McKay’s debut novel, The Birth House, we know we’re in for a bit of magic. . . . The Birth House is compelling and lively, beautifully conjuring a close-knit community and reminding us, as Dora notes, that the miracle happens not in birth but in the love that follows."—The Globe and Mail
"The Birth House is filled with charming detail. . . . McKay has a quiet and lyrical style that suits her subject. . . . [It is] a story of individual human tenderness and endurance. . . . McKay is clearly a talented writer with a subtle sense of story, one that readers will look forward to hearing from, again and again."—The Gazette (Montreal)
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- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Raised in post-Revolution Granville, Massachusetts, James Gould could only imagine the beauty and warmth of the lands to the south. It was there that he longed to build bridges and lighthouses from his very own designs and plans. His gripping story unfolds as Gould follows his dream to the raw settlement of Bangor on the Penobscot River, St. Simons Island off the coast of Georgia, lawless Spanish East Florida, and back - at last and finally - to St. Simons.
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Re: Wonderful Story
- By Cmorgan on 01-27-23
By: Eugenia Price
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Belle Cora
- A Novel
- By: Phillip Margulies
- Narrated by: Graham Rowat, Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 25 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
In the home where Arabella Godwin was raised it is forbidden to speak her name, and her picture is turned to the wall. But in the turbulent America of the 1850s, everyone knows her as "Belle Cora", madam of San Francisco's finest bordello. Judges and senators do her bidding; a vicious newspaper editor plots her downfall; a preacher looks at her from across his pulpit and tries to forget that once she was his wife. Merchant's daughter, farm girl, prostitute, mother - the only thing that never changes is her tireless pursuit of the one man who can see her for who she really is.
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excellent
- By Patricia on 05-15-20
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The Third Mrs. Galway
- By: Deirdre Sinnott
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s 1835 in Utica, New York, and newlywed Helen Galway discovers a secret: Two runaway slaves are hiding in the shack behind her husband’s house. Suddenly, she is at the center of not only the era’s greatest moral dilemma, but her own, as well. Should she be a “good wife” and report the fugitives to her husband? Or will she defy convention and come to their aid? Within her home, Helen is haunted by the previous Mrs. Galway, recently deceased but still an oppressive presence.
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Never thought I'd enjoy a novel so much.
- By HBvideo on 12-01-21
By: Deirdre Sinnott
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The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna
- A Novel
- By: Juliet Grames
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 16 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
For Stella Fortuna, death has always been a part of life. Stella’s childhood is full of strange, life-threatening incidents - moments where ordinary situations like cooking eggplant or feeding the pigs inexplicably take lethal turns. Even Stella’s own mother is convinced that her daughter is cursed or haunted. When the Fortunas emigrate to America on the cusp of World War II, Stella and her sister, Tina, must come of age side by side in a hostile new world with strict expectations for each of them.
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Misogyny at its worst
- By brenda on 01-15-20
By: Juliet Grames
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The Bermondsey Bookshop
- By: Mary Gibson
- Narrated by: Anne Dover
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
Set in 1920s London, this is the inspiring story of Kate Goss' struggle against poverty, hunger and cruel family secrets. Her mother died in a fall, her father has vanished without trace, and now her aunt and cousins treat her viciously. In a freezing, vermin-infested garret, factory girl Kate has only her own brave spirit and dreams of finding her father to keep her going. She has barely enough money to feed herself, or to pay the rent. The factory where she works begins to lay off people and it isn't long before she has fallen into the hands of the violent local money-lender.
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A glimpse into the past
- By Luci-Lu on 10-27-21
By: Mary Gibson
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A Life Once Dreamed
- By: Rachel Fordham
- Narrated by: Teri Clark Linden
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Six years ago, a shocking secret sent Agnes Pratt running in search of a new start. She found it in Penance, a rugged town of miners and lumberjacks in the Dakota Territory, where she became Miss Aggie, respected schoolteacher and confirmed old maid. But the past has a way of catching up with people. When childhood friend and former sweetheart James Harris accepts a position as the town doctor, Aggie's pleasantly predictable days suddenly become anything but.
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Beautiful Dream!
- By A+D on 08-04-20
By: Rachel Fordham
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The Twelve-Mile Straight
- A Novel
- By: Eleanor Henderson
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 17 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Cotton County, Georgia, 1930: In a house full of secrets, two babies - one light-skinned, the other dark - are born to Elma Jesup, a white sharecropper's daughter. Accused of her rape, field hand Genus Jackson is lynched and dragged behind a truck down the Twelve-Mile Straight, the road to the nearby town. In the aftermath, the farm's inhabitants are forced to contend with their complicity in a series of events that left a man dead and a family irrevocably fractured.
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Great read!
- By S. Clay on 11-01-17
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A Family for Gracie
- By: Amy Lillard
- Narrated by: Andrea Emmes
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Gracie Glick is known for being the helpful one, always available for a relative in need. But now that she’s longing for a home and family of her own, it’s time to help herself. With few eligible men in Pontotoc, Gracie’s choices, and her time, are limited. So she takes a bold leap of faith: She proposes to Matthew Byler, a handsome, recently widowed, father of five. It’s not until after they’re married that Gracie learns Matthew doesn’t want more children.
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Not great
- By Kindle Customer on 11-14-22
By: Amy Lillard
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The War Nurses: A Moving Wartime Romance Saga Full of Heart
- The War Nurses Series
- By: Lizzie Page
- Narrated by: Marian Hussey
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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You will love every moment of this absolutely brilliant wartime saga, perfect for fans of Diney Costeloe, Soraya M. Lane, and Nadine Dorries. As war takes its toll, the love and care of two brave young nurses become everything to the wounded soldiers they tend... 1914. Two plucky young nurses pledge to help the war effort: Mairi, a wholesome idealist hoping to leave behind her past and Elsie, a glamorous single mother with a weakness for handsome soldiers. Despite their differences, the pair become firm friends.
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I really really wanted to like this book...
- By Teresa M. Thornborough on 09-26-19
By: Lizzie Page
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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
- By: Jules Verne, Lisa Church - editor
- Narrated by: Rebecca K. Reynolds
- Length: 2 hrs and 33 mins
- Abridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Jules Verne’s classic science fiction fantasy carries its hero - Professor Aronnax of the Museum of Paris - on a thrilling and dangerous journey far below the waves to see what creatures live in the ocean’s depths. In the process, Verne imagined a vessel that had not yet been invented: the submarine.
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Didn't enjoy the performance.
- By Nick A. Wyse on 12-10-19
By: Jules Verne, and others
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The Secret Orphan
- A historical novel full of secrets
- By: Glynis Peters
- Narrated by: Anna Cordell
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
As the Nazis’ relentless bombs fall during the Blitz of Coventry, six-year-old Rose Sherbourne finds herself orphaned and under the guardianship of a Cornish farmer's daughter, Elenor Cardew. Elenor knows that the only way to protect spirited Rose is to leave the city and make a new life for themselves away from harm. But soon Elenor discovers that Hitler’s firestorm is not the only thing she must fear when she learns a devastating secret about Rose....
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Am I missing something?
- By Linda Suzuki on 12-05-19
By: Glynis Peters
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1830. After a violent storm, a woman is found alone, naked and near death, on the Northumberland moors. She has no memory of who she is or how she got there. But she can remember how to help a woman in labour and how to expertly dress a wound and can speak fluent French. With the odds against her, a penniless single woman, she starts to build her life from scratch, using her skills to help other women around her. She finds a happy place in the world. Until tragedy strikes, and she must run for her life.
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I love the way the author describes her characters
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Ok...good...hurry up... Better....geez
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I so want to give it 5 stars...!!!!
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In a rare and gorgeous departure, beloved novelist Alice Hoffman weaves a web of tales, all set in Blackbird House. This small farm on the outer reaches of Cape Cod is a place that is as bewitching and alive as the characters we meet. These interconnected narratives are as intelligent as they are haunting, as luminous as they are unusual. Inside Blackbird House more than a dozen men and women learn how love transforms us and how it is the one lasting element in our lives.
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Agnes is a wild creature who walks her family’s land with a falcon on her glove and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer, understanding plants and potions better than she does people. Once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose career on the London stage is taking off when his beloved young son succumbs to sudden fever.
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A masterpiece
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Daughter of the Forest
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Lovely Sorcha is the seventh child and only daughter of Lord Colum of Sevenwaters. Bereft of a mother, she is comforted by her six brothers who love and protect her. Sorcha is the light in their lives and they are determined that she know only contentment. But Sorcha's joy is shattered when her father is bewitched by his new wife, an evil enchantress who binds her brothers with a terrible spell, a spell which only Sorcha can lift - by staying silent.
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Compelling story--but only at 1.5x
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What listeners say about The Birth House
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amy Potts
- 07-01-23
Highly enjoyable!
Some of the reviews discouraged me, and I almost passed on it. So glad I did not.
Having recently visited Nova Scotia, I was specifically looking for a novel in that setting, and this one perfectly captured the magic of the place as well as the humor and homespun nature of the people.
I also thought the book did a great job capturing the attitudes about women of the time and a slice of the history of midwifery.
It also touches on the ship-building of the day. A crucial industry in the maritime for decades.
The reader was exceptional.
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- Kimberley
- 10-05-24
Fascinating tale of a remote east coast village!
I’d read this book 15+ years ago and rated it 5 stars. It’s a rare occasion when I like a book written a while ago just as much today as I did back then!
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- Kathy
- 10-17-23
Fantastic story
Excellent reader. The story was so fascinating- one of the best I’ve read in awhile…
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- Mary Gallagher
- 01-01-24
womens suffrage
lovely writing, great research, very interesting story! another chapter in women's history to remind us from whence we come
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- swampatoo
- 02-14-23
Really Interesting
a kind of historical fiction full of “old wives tales” and actual homeopathic remedies. more importantly shows how woman’s symptoms were once treated as hysterical. touches on the suffragette movement.
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- Elizabeth Baer
- 09-20-24
As a midwife, I would highly recommend this book
There was something just perfectly beautiful about listening to the epilogue of this book as I drove home under Moonlight after finishing a day of prenatal visits out on the Oregon coast.
People like to read about what they do, and this book just really resonated with me as a midwife. The characters are so true to what I have seen experienced in my own life, both the midwives and the mothers.
I would highly recommend this book as a beautifully written work of historical fiction.
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- Tea
- 03-09-24
I love the relationship between Ms. B and Nora!
I absolutely loved this book! The narrator was fabulous. So far, my favorite book of 2024!
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- K. George
- 04-09-24
Enchanting!
I loved the historical references, the totally believable characters and the story. Definitely one of my all-time favorite books.
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- AMH
- 05-18-23
Not what I expected
This story was not what I expected. Had some sexual content and more biographical than about midwifery.
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- Nik
- 10-03-24
Excellent read
Engaging, interesting, and thought provoking. I didn’t want to stop listening to Doras story. The characters were relatable even though there’s a large time gap.
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