Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I'm looking forward to receiving Michael Palmer's newest book, Oath of Office,  to read and review as one of my next book projects. I can hardly wait as he is one of my favorite authors! You can pre-order the book now at Amazon. It is being released on February 14th.

The sewing project in Limpio Paraguay

No this post is not about a book review although I am excited that a Best selling author has asked me to read and review his book that is coming out in February. He is shipping it to me next week, so I'm really looking forward to that as he is one of my favorite authors.

What I write about today is a duplicate of my sewing blog post. Even if you aren't interested in sewing, this is a worthy project that needs attention.

Throughout our life, we have always given a portion of our earnings back to charitable causes whether to our church or other worthwhile needs. I'm sure those of you that have been reading my sewing blog for a while know that I love helping assist in needed causes, such as the Project Linus quilts I make and the Little Dresses for Africa. These I do personally in between my own sewing projects. I feel so grateful for what I've been given in sewing machines, fabric and notions that I want to give back in tangible ways. We have wanted to find a charity that would be a good fit for our store, Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts, to help support. We wanted especially to find a charity that was sewing related, helping women to learn sewing and help them to earn a living to help support their families in a respectable manner. We wanted a charity that the buyers of our goods would appreciate that a portion of their purchases would be going to help other women in their sewing endeavors. After some studying and searching via the Internet, we found the perfect charity in a recent copy of The Quilter magazine.

We will now be sending a portion of the proceeds of our pattern sales monthly to "The Sewing Project in Limpio/Paraguay". This project is run in Paraguay by Albert and Sylvia Hill. Sylvia was asked to teach women how to sew and over the years this project has blossomed. The better seamstresses are now learning how to produce Fair Trade goods to sell to help support themselves. The women are growing in self esteem and now have a way to sew and make gifts for their families as well as earning much needed income. This is a worthwhile project that helps impoverished women to be able to start their own businesses. We are very excited to partner with this project. Your purchases will help provide needed funding. You can learn more about this project here: http://norbertandsylvia.blogspot.com/

You can also make your own personal donations to the Sewing project by way of fabric, notions, sewing machines, and money. Some of the women need bus fare just to get to the sewing classes and money is needed to help pay for more sewing teachers as the project grows. They also are very much in need of those who can help to sell and distribute their Fair Trade articles that the women produce. You can send monetary donations and find out more about the project at The Sewing Project in Limpio Paraguay . To enquire about the project write to the following address or to send a donation make the check payable to: "The Project for the People of Paraguay - sewing project!” Send the check, enquiries or donations to: PPP P.O. Box 251 Avon, Minnesota 56310. You will get a receipt for your donation. Thank you for your help in this cause in what ever way you can. This group also would appreciate prayers if you are so inclined.

The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey

Yet another review from a book received from the Amazon Vine program. It seemed like for a while I was only getting the dreariest, dark, depressing books that I could barely finish. This one however was different and I did enjoy it although the author is not in the same league as Charlotte Bronte.

Introducing The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey

If you love the novel Jane Eyre then you should probably love or at least enjoy this book as it is a modernized Jane Eyre story. Some incidents in the book are almost identical to what happens in Jane Eyre and others are only reminiscent. If you have never read Jane Eyre, you should still enjoy this book. It was so nice to read a novel that has a happy ending just like Jane Eyre did! I’ve had way too many books that were dark dreary books come my way lately that left me feeling depressed. So I was glad to have a happy book even though many of the events in the book are sad.

I had received a Jane Eyre DVD starring Timothy Dalton as a birthday present that unfortunately had glitches in it so I had to exchange it. This meant that when my new copy came, I had to run it to see if the new DVD ran correctly. So while reading the modern day Jane Eyre novel (The Flight of Gemma Hardy) I was seeing the Jane Eyre story unfold before my eyes and actually was reading the same part of the novel that was being shown on the screen. Rather an interesting experience. For those of you that aren’t acquainted with this particular piece of literature and don’t want to track down a copy of Jane Eyre to read, the DVD will give you a fairly good idea of the novel, although no movie can replace reading ever!

Instead of gothic England, this book took place in the 1960's, so obviously some of the previous scenes were impossible to capture in the new book. Also, how does one rewrite a top of the line novel like Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights or Jane Austen's novels? But, Margot Livesey did her best and shows, along with Charlotte Bronte, that when one has no money and has no friends, no matter what the era, you are sure to have trouble getting by in life.

Creating social fans

After posting the review about Off the Hook Marketing, which heavily emphasizes content and reader participation, etc. I found this blog entry at Biz Ladies called Creating Fans from Scratch. Not all the suggestions would probably go along with all the book's ideas, but many would help you get ideas flowing on how to get that content and participation in your blogs and social media that is so necessary to great blogs, websites and social media and to help bring in the money you may be looking for.. All great advice, now all I ask is some more time in my day and the physical well-being to do what needs to be done!

Off the Hook Marketing: How to Make Social Media Sell for You

Off the Hook Marketing: How to Make Social Media Sell for You by Jeff Molander


In the world of books on how to sell on line, I have noticed many books make big promises but fail to deliver. In this book however, not only does the author take a different approach and thought pattern to using social media to sell on line, he also gives logical and practical examples. He gives urls to sites that show what he is talking about so that you can see how the different people took action to build their companies and make money via social media. After reading this book, not only was I full of new ideas for our home based on line business, but with the need to do homework. That homework consists of going to those many websites that he referenced in the book, reading the various blogs, websites, Facebook posts, and then studying their techniques so that I can truly understand all of what he was talking about and also to glean more ideas to put into practice. I have lots of work to do. I can say though, I took just one of the ideas that popped into my head while reading the book and applied it and got positive comments in return. Suddenly by customers were communicating with me in a way they never had before! Amazing! Of course, the whole idea is to make money, but I wasn’t even sure that my customers read anything I wrote. Now at least I know that some are paying attention and that more will as I continue to develop the concept that I am working on which will make customers want to buy from me instead of someone else.

We have been selling at various sites over the last ten years and one of the biggest problems I found to marketing and promoting our products was just exactly how to draw people into our store by way of our blog, Facebook posts or website content. What kind of content should we be using? The author makes it very clear what types of content to be using and what types of things to avoid, such as sending emails marketing a company on a daily basis which I think most of us hate. After a while that company’s e-mail heads to the junk/blocked box instead of the in-box.

If there was one bone that I had to pick with the author, it was in his use of the word ‘sexy’ in referring things like software and cell phones (at least 9 times that I counted in the book). I don’t know when our society started using the word ‘sexy’ to be a descriptive word for inanimate objects that by their very nature have nothing ‘sexy’ about them. There are so many other words that could and should have been substituted such as: captivating, fascinating, enthralling, educational, etc. Check out a Thesaurus and find some words that are more descriptive of what you are trying to say.

All in all a great book for trying to understand what you should be doing as a business person when faced with social media. This book does not help beginners learn how to start a business page on Facebook or start a blog, but it does help you to understand the types of content and information you should be posting.

You can visit the author at his website or at his blog where you can get a lot more good information about using social media to sell.

Facebook for Business in 10 Minutes by Bud E. Smith

If you have never been to Facebook and own a business, then Facebook for Business in 10 Minutes by Bud E. Smith should give you some knowledge about setting up an account for your business as it does go step by step. I am familiar with Facebook and read this book to see what I might be missing. Well, I got it the week that Facebook did it’s latest major change (the need to scroll on the right side of the page to see your friends posts) so I knew it was already a bit outdated. I read the book looking for bits that would help me have a better Facebook page for my customers to see and relate to. However, when finished with the book, I could only remember one thing that I hadn’t known prior to reading the book and that was about the Facebook Insights page. Other than that it was pretty cut and dried and really only a book for beginners. It really doesn’t help you understand what kind of content to post or ways to make sales for your business with Facebook. If you want that kind of information you might want to try this book Off The Hook Marketing: How to Make Social Media Sell for You.

Seven Keys to Unlock Autism by Elaine Hall & Diane Isaacs

This is another book review that I did for the Amazon Vine Program. As a mother of a high functioning autistic son, I was thrilled to see how these women wrote a book with understanding of these special children. It is always obvious to me when someone is writing from the base of personal knowledge or one where they read some information about autism or saw Rainman and base all of what they write on these misconceptions.

Seven Keys to Unlock Autism: Making Miracles in the Classroom by Elaine Hall and Diane Isaacs

As a mother of an autistic man, I read this book with great interest. Both of the author’s of this book have boys that are autistic and it shows. It shows in their deep understanding of ones who live with this day in and day out. They aren’t talking ‘theory’ but what they have learned in the trenches and through their work with other autistic children and those that work with them.
Although this book is directed at teachers, it would be good for anyone in contact with autistic children and adults to read to get a fuller understanding of these people that due to developmental difficulties don’t progress at the same levels as so called ‘normal’ people. Actually at times they progress faster and then some things are very or completely delayed. Even if a teacher doesn’t have an autistic child in their classroom, the many ‘keys’ given in this book, I would think, would be helpful in maintaining a smoothly functioning classroom.
The last statistic that I saw on autism stated that 1 in 110 children have this difficulty. Some may have autism mildly and others much more profoundly, yet each of these child can teach us something and all of them want their voices to be heard. By learning more about them and how they function you will be doing yourself and them a favor of being someone that understands their needs and desires and can help bring understanding to others.

The Color of Rain by Michael and Gina Spehn

This is from a book review I did for the Amazon Vine program. I'm very behind in reviews that I would have liked to have written this year as it has been a rough year physically with 2 surgeries on my knees. I have found that too much pain keeps me from reading anything deeper than a cozy mystery. Hoping to get more on track this winter.

The Color of Rain: How two families found faith, hope & love in the midst of tragedy by Michael and Gina Spehn

This book was certainly a tear jerker. Gina nurses and cares for her husband with cancer and during cancer treatments over the course of three years. He dies on Christmas day leaving her a widow with two young boys. She is blessed to have a huge church family and supportive neighborhood that pitched in with food, help and prayers both before and after his death.

Michael's wife, a member of the same church as Gina, hears of her troubles and writes an email to Gina's friend asking what she can do to help this sad family. She never gets a chance to help herself though, as a month later she too dies from a fast growing brain tumor. Michael is left with three children, two boys and girl.

This book is how they came together to help each other in their grief and how God put love for each other in their hearts and they eventually marry and combine families with full support of their children and relatives.

This is a charming book of people helping people. Of people letting God lead the direction in which they should walk. It also shows the often forgotten outpouring of love to the bereft families in the way of food and help. Michael and Gina got so much help, that they had to turn it aside finally, but how nice if more people thought of doing this act of charity towards others in distress and medical problems. This book includes pictures of the family. There is one big editing flaw that I found. No one double checked the spelling of the medications that were mentioned and there certainly was some creative spellings. Read this book with a box of tissue nearby.

I truly enjoyed this book even though there were times that the tears were flowing down my face. I love seeing how God can work and minister in people's lives, especially as they walk through the deep dark valleys of life.

Freeman Process Service

What in the world does Freeman Process Service have to do with books? Well the truth is, not much except for the fact that it is run by my son Ron Freeman who is a great lover of books and when we get together he is always ready with an oral book report for me. I've had a lousy summer and am now recuperating from surgery so haven't been up to doing many book reviews myself but have several books lined up to review when my head is a bit clearer (currently on many narcotics for pain). Ron lives in the Columbus, Ohio area with his lovely wife and is happy to help you out in your process servicing needs, especially those lawyers and legal types in other states that aren't hooked in with a process server for the State of Ohio. Get to know more about Ron and his strangely funky views on life at his blog: I Trust Ron Freeman.

Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book

While I've been having a lousy summer physically, most of my reading has been cosy mysteries or sewing magazines and books. Then a few weekends ago I was able to get to my first yard sale of the season, which shows just how ill I've felt since I love going to yard sales! Not only did I find some nifty sewing notions, I found a great book that I picked up for $2. It is called Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book: What to do and what not to do in cooking by Mrs. Mary J. Lincoln. My copy is a revised edition that was published in 1906 by Little, Brown and Company. The book was originally published in 1883.

I love to read cook books as they are much more interesting than many history books, yet also show the history of our world and what was happening during the time frame of the book's writing. After reading the first few pages of this book, all I could think was why didn't this book get republished in the pre-Y2K preparation? It apparently has been republished in 2010 but to have had this book if the world had come crashing down, would have been  a treasure to have on the reference shelf. Of all the cook books I have ever read, this was the first to actually explain in great detail (everything in this book is explained in great detail) how to get your fire going and how to bake and roast items in your wood stove or if you are really up with the times a coal stove. I had read a lot of books pre-Y2K and never saw one that truly explained how to use the wood stoves that people were buying in preparation. It instructs on how to cook meat in the stove or on top of the stove after telling how to debone it if needed. It has many scientific explanations for everything, although how accurate scientifically they are after 125+ years is questionable. But if you want to know why meat needs seared quickly before putting in on to cook for hours this book will tell you.

You will learn more than you ever wanted to know about wheat and grain and the different ways it is ground and which are the best flours depending on what you will be using it for. Fiber and the wheat bran are condemned roundly as being indigestible and not good for you. I was happy to see that Pillsbury was considered to be a good flour and one that was available back then in Boston. You will learn how to make your own yeast if you don't have a friend or family member to loan you some and then how to keep your yeast growing so that you have it for all your bread making needs.

You will be instructed on saving drippings and meat and poultry fat to make your fat for cooking and if your meat looks like it will be too dry with cooking, how and what to 'lard' it with. How to measure accurately. Cautions to be sure you don't burn yourself on your stove or the pans you are using. How to have extra space for working near your stove--a wooden box is recommended to be drawn up near the stove. While reading you start to feel like you have been transported back in time to a kitchen at it's minimum. It makes you grateful for regular ovens, much less microwave or convection ovens! So many of the tasks that used to fall on women back during the 1880's have disappeared from sight at this point. I can't imagine trying to keep a cook stove going to bake the family bread during our current heat wave, although true to how she wrote, the author suggests that in the summer you might want to do your baking early in the day before it gets too hot. Thank you, but I will buy my bread from the store when it is 80 degrees out.

The book has many recipes and also a glossary of cookery terms used in that day. I love finding little treasures that help me to understand what is being talked about in older books as it is too easy to think a word means something else than what it is being used for.

If you love poking your nose into history by way of cook books, you will want to track down a copy of this book for yourself. I would hope that the republished book has stayed true to the original and weren't updated for today. The charm of reading this book in the first place is it's old time flavor.

Kristian Strom, Bookseller: The 21-Day Reading and Writing Challenge

Read the blog entry of a bookseller that breaks up with his girlfriend and how he has decided to combat the depression and seek action in his life. Kristian Strom, Bookseller: The 21-Day Reading and Writing Challenge

Outsmarting Google by Evan and Bradley Bailyn

I know I haven't been around for awhile. I had knee surgery in April. Very successful surgery I might add. I figured during my recuperation time I would have lots of time to catch up on my book reviews and other sit around projects. Well between physical therapy, time laying in bed using a CPM machine I was exhausted. Sitting at the desk computer was totally uncomfortable until this past week or two and I discovered that using a laptop while having an ice pack on your knee defeated the purpose of the ice pack as the heat from the laptop kept melting the ice. I finally gave up. But I'm back again until the doctor revises my other knee.

One of the things that I do to keep busy is run an online sewing pattern store called Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts. I'm always looking for ways to get my site noticed more, so when this book came up as an option on the Amazon Vine program, I grabbed it and was very glad I did! Here is the review on Outsmarting Google by Evan Bailyn with Bradley Bailyn that I did for the Amazon Vine program.

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Many people have a website, an ecommerce site and a blog or two. But how do you get the attention you want and need. You especially need search engine attention if you are using your website or ecommerce site to earn money. If you aren’t getting noticed (i.e. you aren’t showing up in the first page or two of the search engines), you may be blaming the economy, the war, politicians, PMS or the phase of the moon. But really when it comes down to it, are YOU doing what you need to, to receive search engine attention and especially Google’s attention? This book tells you what to look for in your site and how to correct things so that you can progressively increase your ranking when someone searches for one of your keywords. This is a very practical book written for normal speaking people as opposed to a book written in techno-geek-speak. After reading the book, I immediately sat down to figure out what I could do to further the cause of my website, store and blog and you should too.


My only problem with the book itself was that the examples/illustrations were too small and I needed a magnifier to see and understand them. I would have also liked to see a simple step-by-step “to do” list at the end of the book as a easy guide to be sure you are doing what you need to do and keep your priorities straight. Then I realized that the Table of Contents takes care of that need fairly well.
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When checking the reviews from other readers, most of them were also enthusiastic about the book. A few felt that the authors were making guesses and were just writing about what everyone knew anyways. Well, I didn't know some of what was in the book and I felt like I learned a lot and that is what was important to me. I have more ideas to try. I hope you find that this book is useful to you also.

Japan Earthquake Relief

Due to the devastation in Japan, we wanted to let you know that now, March 14th through March 31, 2011, 10% of the sales at our store, Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts will be donated to Japan Earthquake Relief by way of CAMA Disaster Relief Fund the relief branch of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. With so many lives lost and property washed away, we wanted to be able to reach out a helping hand as best as we can. Thank you for your purchases or direct donation to the CAMA Diasaster Relief Fund.

The Frugalista Files by Natalie P. McNeal

The Frugalista Files: How One Woman Got Out of Debt Without Giving Up the Fabulous Life
I'm always interested in reading the latest book on frugal living, especially if I'm given it for free. This one, The Frugalista Files by Natalie P. McNeal, I got through the Amazon Vine Review program. Below you will find my review of the book. My suggestion however is check out the author's blog: thefrugalista.com ,some of the other links I give you or do a Google search for the word 'frugal living'. You will swamp yourself with ideas and ways to make your money go further. I did visit her blog for a few minutes and saw some references to and links to sites that will help you keep the cost of life down. Here is my review:

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When a young single woman in Miami realizes that she is over $20,000 in debt and getting worse each month, she decides she has to do something significant about it. She wants to be able to lose the debt but still wants to live a fun life without doing without anything that is truly important to her. She decides to do a `no spend month' and ends up saving over $400. She also begins blogging about her journey and trying to learn everything she can about saving. This book takes us through her first year as a "Frugalista", during which time she pays off over $7000 in debt. Her blog is located at thefrugalista.com where you can check on her continued progress in saving and being frugal.


As someone who has been frugal most of my life, I was surprised at the things she did to be frugal as they were things that have never even made it into my budget in the first place. Most of the info wasn't new to me but for those who haven't yet been able to get their finances in order, they should learn some valuable information from this book. The best info being, that being more frugal doesn't mean giving up everything important in your life. The author's natural exuberance for life and helping others to be more frugal shines throughout the whole book. This book is written in a style to cater to the 20-30 year old age group with many expressions that I've never even heard of in the book.

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For more info, visit her blog thefrugalista.com  or these other great sites that can help you save such as Groupon for great discounts, Big Crumbs for cash back and savings on on-line purchases, and places like Saving Advice for all round information on saving money to the max.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

As a seamstress and a reader, I was impressed by this book. Even though there might have been technical flaws with the timeline of the book, the story itself was astonishing. In our world today, most of us who sew have sewing machines, if not more than one. We also may have embroidery machines, all sorts of notions and gadgets, access to all sorts of fabric and the freedom to use them any way we like. Here is a story of women risking their lives to sew to provide needed financial help to their family. This book will make you appreciate your freedom to sew. This review is from my Amazon Vine book review.

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The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe
by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon


As a seamstress I was fascinated by this book. When their world has gone mad and life as they know it had changed, the women of Afghanistan found themselves in a peculiar situation. They could not leave their homes without a male escort, they could not work out, they had a new dress code that was so old fashioned many of the women had to borrow clothes to leave their home as they didn’t have the proper dress to satisfy the Taliban. As many of them found that they were widows with children to support they were left in a quandary. How do they support their families, feed their children and keep a roof over their heads and still follow the rules? If they didn’t follow the rules they could be beaten, tortured and killed. For women who were used to going to school (now no longer allowed), holding down jobs, and being able to shop and visit at will, not only were they in financial straights but bored beyond belief. They were essentially under house arrest.

For one family of many daughters, Kamela Sediqi found a way to be productive, earn an income and involve not only her many sisters but other women and girls from her area. She became a seamstress. With one sewing lessons from her married sister that was a tailor, she set up shop and made her first garment. Escorted by her younger brother, she went to the market, avoiding the Taliban soldiers, and took orders for the dresses she and her sisters would make. As someone who has sewed for 40+ years, she did something I would never even think of attempting. But she got orders and took them home and carefully she and her sisters cut the cloth and hand sewed and embroidered the garments. Her business grew, all being secretly done in her home, to the point she was able to hire other women and girls to help her and thus also help with their financial difficulties.

Sewing by lamplight and eventually with sewing machines during the times of infrequent electric power, Kamela and sisters and friends, beat their boredom, supported their families and showed that even when the chips were down, they could succeed against all odds,

I very much enjoyed this book although there were some areas that were confusing, especially the timeline. I was reading the advanced reading copy so I hope someone caught the discrepancies before actual publication. Other than that, it was a very inspirational true story that I enjoyed very much.

Jubilee Dishes: Patriotic Recipes for the 21st Century by Marguerite Patten

Last year, I had mentioned to a friend that I was interested in learning more about the rationing of food that went on in England both during World War II and for many years after. She was kind enough to send me this book, Jubilee Dishes: Patriotic Recipes for the 21st Century by Marguerite Patten OBE. As I have to sit and take frequent breaks while cooking, I keep this book handy to read during the breaks. I was very surprised to find a recipe that I used to use fairly often. I had found the recipe in a Taste of Home magazine for frosting only the book calls it Mock Cream. This is a wonderful item that if made correctly becomes the texture and close to the taste of the white Twinkie or HoHo filling. Yum. The books recipe though, gave the ingredients in teaspoons and tablespoons of ingredients instead of cups, as everything was carefully measured to make it stretch and it calls for ingredients that were in short supply, sugar and fat.

Rationing of food lasted in Great Britain until 1954. If you would like to read about and actually experience the taste of food from that era, this book includes many recipes developed to use with the rationed food and with the food that was supposedly unlimited, or such things as powdered eggs as fresh eggs were rare and precious. One interesting recipe was for a mock banana sandwich filling made using parsnips.

Reading this book makes me very glad for the plenty I see in the grocery store and also makes me realize what a spoiled nation we are. Most of the items, we couldn't get our children to eat. Obviously no chips, no pop, no candy, no abundance of anything. Yet during this period of time the British people were very healthy as they had a low fat, low sugar, low meat, high vegetable diet.

Mary Russel - Author

I just found a children's book author on Facebook. I haven't had an opportunity to read any of her books yet but they certainly sound interesting. If you have a young child that like animals and mysteries, you may want to check out her blog . One of the best things you can do for your child is get them reading!

Redemption: A Story of Sisterhood, Survival and Finding Freedom Behind Bars

No I haven't stopped reading, but between the holidays and an almost non-stop arthritis flare up through the month of December, I got very behind on my book reviews. I also had some lousy pablum type books that I wouldn't inflict the reviews on you. I'm not sure why, but I wasn't offered very many good books in my last few times of picking books for the Amazon Vine Program.

This book however was an exception. Redemption: A Story of Sisterhood, Survival, and Finding Freedom Behind Bars by Stacey Lannert and Kristen Kemp. Stacey Lannert was sexually abused by her father for 10 years and tried to protect her younger sister from his advances by placing herself as the sacrifice until the day that he finally grabbed her little sister and raped her. Later she did the unthinkable and shot her father as he slept off a drinking binge on the couch. Stacey was arrested, spent 2 years in jail while waiting for trial and then was found guilty of murder and given a life sentence without parole. 18 years later a compassionate outgoing Governor Matt Blunt commuted her sentence and she was free. This book is her story of a family that became progressively more dysfunctional, a father that she loved as a child becoming her worst nightmare, and the years she spent in prison where she truly did restore her life. While doing her prison work she became a leader and also worked with the helper dog program.


Her story is troubling in that any child could grow up in such circumstances and unfortunately the last statistic I heard is that 1 in 4 girls will be sexually abused by a male relative in her home. Her home that should be a place of safety not one of ultimate terror.

Here is my Amazon Vine Review. I gave the book 5 stars. Everyone should read this book if only to know that this does go on perhaps next door or even in your own home. We all have to stop turning a blind eye. Visit her website Healing Sisters to learn more.
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This was a very interesting book, but I think it could have used some better editing to have it flow better. Some parts of the story seemed to be repeated only with the details slightly changed and the time line falters as well. Those things aside this is a story of horrendous sexual and physical abuse of a daughter by a father and her ultimately killing dear old dad.


Two main things frustrated me about the story. One the legality of her arrest and questioning, lack of a lawyer when she requested one and being taken to the scene of the crime while her father was still laying in a pool of blood. This is supposed to be a true story. How is this possible for that to have happened in the USA? The case should have been thrown out of court for legal violations. If these scenes really didn't happen then how can we believe the rest of the story? Since I assume that this really did happen, then I am very glad that finally someone saw the light and released her from jail.

The other thing that frustrated me the entire time I was reading this book. The statistics of girls being abused by a male relative in their own home are staggering and it seems nothing is being done about it. Every decent human being needs to help children understand that these kinds of 'secrets' aren't secrets and should be told. Teachers, social workers, police, the OTHER PARENT and each and every one of us have a responsibility to stop this terror. If a child's home isn't a place of safety what is? We have to stop having the attitude of not wanting to be involved. When a child's safety and well-being is at risk we have to step in. Abusive fathers (or mothers as the case may be) need lengthy jail terms and counseling. This cycle must be stopped!