Rice Bags for Hot and Cold Packs

This is a review I did for Amazon's Vine program for some washcloths.

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The minute I saw these washcloths as available for a Vine pick, I wanted them. Not because I needed washcloths as such, but because THESE washcloths had evenly spaced channels down them. I make rice bags for myself and family members for all our various aches and pains. Rice bags can be heated in the microwave (cautiously!) or put in the freezer for cold packs. They can be made in any size or shape, but the easiest and most efficient that I have found is to make them with washcloths. Generally, when making them I should measure out the spaces since you can't just fill two washcloths together and fill them with rice. With these already having the spacing, all I had to do was pin the channels in place, sewed down the channels with a triple thread stitch for sturdiness, fill each channel with rise, and then sew up the top and you are good to go. They make a nice practical, quick to make, if not a bit homely gifts. Each rice bag takes around a pound of rice, being sure to leave space at the top so you can flattened the end enough to sew the ends closed without sewing over rice. For use in the microwave, until you are used to each bag and how they respond to your microwave and its wattage, heat them for 30 second increments checking on them as you go until they are very warm but NOT burning hot. And yeas you can end up with problems when overheating them. Other than maybe another layer of toweling wrapped around them during use to keep them clean. Do NOT wrap them up in lots of towels etc. - ask me how I know this?? They can spontaneously combust if you heat them too hot and then wrap them up too much. Be very careful using these with the elderly, children or those that do not have good nerve sensation in their skin. You can just put them in the freezer to use as ice packs when needed. Before a couple of knee replacements, I made a whole bunch of them so I could keep rotating them. Besides the warm/cold properties they also add some extra weight to the sore, achy spot which in itself can help remove some of the pain. I've gone through 4 knee surgeries as well as suffer with arthritis and I don't know how I could have gotten through the surgeries without the constantly rotating cold packs.

I'm sure they make good washcloths as well, but these won't be used that way! And they come in other colors as well.

 

Magdalen Girls by V. S. Alexander

Magdalen Girls by V. S. Alexander, to be publishes December 27, 2016 by Kensington. ISBN ISBN-10: 1496706129 or ISBN-13: 978-1496706126. Paperback, Audio CD or Kindle e/Book.

I had the privilege to read this book for the Amazon Vine program. If you are a frequent reader of my blog, you know I don't consider it a privilege to read a lot of the books from the Vine program as many of the newbie writers just aren't that good. Below is my review of Magdalen Girls.

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From the first sentence, I was immersed in this book. The book is based on the true happening at places called Magdalen Laundries. Where girls if they were unwed, too pretty, flirted too much, mentally challenged, etc. were sent to live and work without due process of law. These laundries, many of them attached to convents, were run in silence for the most part, cruel nuns, poor food, poor clothing, inadequate heat and light and no education for girls that were still school age. If one of them somehow managed to escape, the Guard/police (this book taking place in Ireland) would find the girls/women and bring them back. New girls coming to the laundry/convent were placed initially in a penitent’s room. It contained a stool, no windows, no lights, complete blackness while the girl contemplated her 'sins'. Note that for many of the girls, they may have done nothing at all to be sent away, but had been trapped by what others had done to them.

This book covers a little over a year in the life of three of the girls as they managed to make friends with each other. One of the first things they had to give up on admission was their own names and take on the ones assigned to them that were ‘Godlier’ apparently. Then they had to give up their hair as it was chopped short and kept that way. They were given uniforms and aprons to wear with no variation. Monica and Teresa spent every minute they could contemplating escape. Teresa (real name Teagan) is the main character in the book had been caught up in a lie by her parish priest. Monica (Nora) had been caught kissing her boyfriend. Some of the women were 'fallen' in the traditional sense of the word, yet did they deserve a life sentence washing dirty clothes because of it? Remember, these young women were sent here at family’s requests, not by any legal means. They were not released on their coming of legal age birthday, but had to stay there until or if, and it was a very big IF, someone such as a family member came and requested their released.

This was a fascinating story of the inner workings of the inner working of a fictionalized Magdalen Laundry. If you would like more information about them, do an internet search for Magdalen Laundries and I'm sure you will be very surprised. The thing that surprised me the most, was not that this was happening in the 1860's, but the book took place in 1962! the last one closed in 1996. Some women too old to live on their own and with no family left, and after having spent their lives as inmates, are still living at the convents. A movie about this has also been made that can be rented via Amazon. Actual copies seem hard to find and expensive.

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Many thoughts came my way as I read this book. The horror of it for one thing; that a girl can be happily be going to high school, starting in with a first boyfriend, and due to circumstances beyond their control find themselves locked away in a place such as these Magdalen Laundries....for the rest of their lives! One of the simple things that I find hard to comprehend while reading this book as well as the fictional Jane Eyre and others like them; was why were the cooks in these places always burning the toast, burning or undercooking the food constantly? Considering that many of these places emphasized frugality, why were they purposely wasting food or making it so terrible that no one would eat it. Wasn't it enough that the people are locked up and their freedom taken away, but they had to eat deliberately spoiled food? Why would any cook worth the name deliberately make food bad as an extra punishment? I talked to my Mennonite cleaning lady about this and she too was appalled at the thought of wasting food in that way by deliberately not cooking it correctly. It takes less effort to make toast without burning it than burning it intentionally.

Lousy food was just one way to poke these girls with a stick. They also were rarely allowed to talk to each other. In this book they slept in a unheated attic garret in winter and with only one window that could be opened in summer until the nuns nailed it shut. And they wore rags. This book, as I had to keep reminding myself, took place in 1962. These were teen aged girls that had grown to like pretty clothes and showing their personality through what they wore and how they did their hair. Not so at the laundries. They wore uniforms with an apron and their hair was kept super short with haircuts every two weeks to keep it that way. No way would or should these girls look desirable to any guy was the apparent reason. The whole idea of these laundries was awful; yet they or similar ones were operated around the world until the 1990's! Who knew?

GeoSmart Educational Set - THE Children's Gift This Holiday!

What a terrific thing that I got from Amazon to Review this time. Some of the toys I have been sent were cheaply constructed, hard to put together, didn't have much to hold the child's attention, but this one, YES! I will admit to be about to turn 61 at the end of the month, and I had fun playing with this set and had to drag myself away because I had other things to do. You do need to check this GeoSmart Educational Set. Here is my Amazon Vine Review:

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If you are going to buy your child only one big (price wise) gift this year for Christmas, Hanukkah, birthday, etc. this GeoSmart EducationalSet, 100 Pieces should be it! Buy this toy!!! If I could I would give it 10 stars and 5A+++. Someone with a brain or a team with a brain designed it. I opened the set with no kids around (my boys are grown-up) and got myself lost in making things and seeing what this GeoSmart Set could do. I made a mini-version of the Pope-mobile. As a quilter, I was putting together some quilt blocks. You or your child could spend hours making things and rearranging the pieces. I can hardly wait for my cleaning lady to bring her boy over for him to play with the set as I know he will love it.

Of note, just like my other favorite children’s toy, Legos, this set also has more sets that can be purchased with will add on more pieces and more specialized pieces to make all sorts of interesting things, especially space related. With the other sets, you can make a lunar rover, space station, solar spinner, etc. Of course, as anyone knows that the more sets of Legos you have the more things you can make whether the Lego folks thought of it or not. The add on sets to the GeoSmart main set works the same way and we aren’t talking 3-4 piece sets. Some of the add-on sets have 70 more pieces including the specialty pieces for that set.

I was delighted to find that the pieces were much bigger than they looked on the computer. For instance, the wheels for the set are 2 1/2” across, the square pieces are 2 ½” on all sides. The set is for ages 5+ and up, so the bigger pieces will be easier to manipulate for small hands. They seem just the right size for making projects so they don’t get way too big or too tiny to work with. The set is made in nice bright colors and the different colors come in multiples of two, four or six, so whatever you are making you can have a matching color on the opposite side of the first color. The magnets are imbedded in the pieces and don’t feel sharp at all. All pieces seem to be big enough so that younger brothers and sisters can’t swallow the pieces.

This is a great set and I highly recommend it!

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Revlon RVST2160 Pro Collection 1" Wide Fast Pass X-Long Plated Flat Iron

Revlon RVST2160 Pro Collection 1" Wide Fast Pass X-Long Plated Flat Iron

Here is my review of this Flat Iron for hair that I received from the Amazon Vine program:

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As a girl that grew up during an era when every girl that could manage it had long straight hair, I was the odd one out. I had wavy, unmanageable hair. Fast forward many years and I'm much older, still have wavy hair and as it has been growing out for several years, it is long and wavy and fly away so I was delighted to try out this flat iron for hair. After I got past trying to turn it on. I had to look in the directions to find that you have to hold the on/off button down until it comes on. The control buttons are tiny! It heated up very fast and I then got to try it out. I soon realized that I needed hair clips to hold most of my hair out of the way as you are only supposed to use a 1-inch section of hair at a time in the iron. But I made do with what I had and at least got the top hair in the front straight. So for the first time in my life I saw myself with straight hair! I actually did it before going to bed, and this morning the areas that I had straightened last night were still straight. I did like the fact that you use this iron on hair that has already dried as showering and washing my hair are exhausting for me due to chronic health problems, so doing anything to wet hair is out of the question. This iron did everything that it was supposed to. I'm sure most women using this won't have the physical problems that I do and so will find this a quick and easy way to straighten hair.

I received this book from Amazon to read and review as part of the Amazon Vine program. The Murder That Never Was: A Forensic Instincts Novel by Andrea Kane, published by Bonnie Meadow Publishing, (c) 2016, ISBN 9781682320006, Hard cover with dust jacket, 382 pages. This is the review I wrote:

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This was my first book by this author, Andrea Kane. Apparently the book is the fifth in the Forensic Instincts series. On the dust jacket, they give short terms to classify each member of the FI team. It reminded me of the TV show Scorpion and each of those geniuses’ particular skills. The book did give some background on the team and bit about they have done in the past, but not so much that you felt like half the book was taken up with retelling the first book. In some respects, I felt like I was having to juggle too many main characters in my head. Generally, in most detective type books, there is one or at most two people working their way through to a resolution of a crime. In this book, there were 6 people plus a dog on the main team and then add in several boyfriends, girlfriends, wives and brothers and team grows. Two of the women’s names started with the same letter so for about half the book I kept mixing up Casey and Clair in my head. Then add in the clients, three more people. The ‘bad’ guys numbered six named individuals. There were a lot of folks to remember. I think this is why, even though the story itself was interesting, I wasn’t devouring the book at my usual pace.

Much of the team’s actions revolved around one guy, Ryan, and his remarkable computer skills including hacking. Another team member, Claire who could see into the past by holding onto an object of another person and could feel and see them in their distress. There were several scenes of couples having sexual marathons and thank goodness the author didn’t feel the need to describe them in detail, but in my opinion they didn’t add a thing to the story.

Perhaps if I had read the first book in this series, I would have been able to identify with the characters better, but somehow I felt something was missing from the book that I can’t put my finger on. Not saying the book was bad, it did have an interesting story involving athletes working towards the prize of a place on the Olympic team and performance enhancing drugs (PED). Something else that I had to figure out for myself. Unless I missed it, from the beginning of the book they referred to PEDs but it was many chapters later that you understood what those letters stood for. In this case if you aren’t into sports or sports news, this would perhaps go right over your head. For those that have missed being able to ‘boo hiss’ at Russians (in novels) since the USSR dissolved there is even an evil Russian to hate in the story.
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This is one of those books that you want to be enthusiastic about. It has a different slant on a topic that would be very newsworthy if the book were true. It lightly touches on what some children go through as part of the foster care programs. There is a competent team of detectives racing time to solve the mystery, yet it just didn't highly impress me and I gave it 4 out of five stars. If you read it, perhaps you could comment on your take on the story or any of the other books in this series.

All the books in this series are available on the Kindle. Don't have one? Today is a great day to buy one. I thought I wouldn't like one and would miss the feel of a book. Believe me, when reading on my Kindle I don't miss the feel of a books in my hands at all as I didn't realize how much of my hand pain was associated with holding  a book open, especially a paperback.

Country Living Chadwick Nightstand, Cherry

 

This review is for the Country Living Chadwick Nightstand, Cherry  that can be purchased on Amazon ASIN B0116M9Y16. You can get the entire bedroom set as well. This is a review that I did for Amazon.com.

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First off this nightstand is gorgeous! The wood is beautiful and the color of the wood gives this nightstand a rich warm look.

Secondly, the nightstand came fully assembled. My husband had already told me no more bits of things that need put together. I really read the product page but still wasn’t sure if it was going to come in a box of wood and screws, but I was crossing my fingers that it would be in one piece. Coming fully assembled, it meant it could be put right into place. I am not using it for a nightstand, but as a table to hold my Janome 300e (the latest model being the 400e) embroidery machine as well as the machine’s hoops. The drawer I had been keeping them in also had a large amount of quilting rulers and templates and so things were a bit of a jumble when I needed to pull out a hoop.

 

It will be so nice to embroider something without having to reach up and aggravate my shoulder arthritis. I’m trying to turn my whole sewing room into a place that is easier to use as this disease eats away at me. I have gotten many things that help, but this piece of furniture is the best looking thing by far. My husband loves it and felt it was well put together. As he works with wood in his business, he was also very impressed with the construction and the wood used in the nightstand.

Please note that that in the attached photos, the ones with the drawers open show the color of the nightstand best. It has one top drawer and one bottom drawer, although it looks like two drawers, the bottom drawer looks like it can hold a lot depending on what you are using it for. I would have no problem using this piece anywhere in the house. It does come with levelers if needed as well as care instructions. You do not need to use furniture polish and its use is discouraged.

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My sewing room is slowly starting to get sorted out and I have a stack of projects waiting in the wings, especially some embroidery projects. Janome has been coming out with some spiffy new machines lately. I've downloaded the manuals to read, and they sound wonderful, but they are not in the budget of someone that lives mostly off a SS check! Also another one called the Janome Memory Craft 9400 is coming out in a few days, that is strictly a sewing machine with 9mm wide stitches, and about 100 more stitches than my 7700. This is dreamland for me.

 

Review of DII Zig Zag Weave Kitchen Dishtowels

I was given the opportunity to review these towels for Amazon. DII 100% Cotton, Basic Everyday, Machine Washable, Monogrammable, 16 x 28" Zig Zag Weave Kitchen Dishtowel, Set of 4- Neon Lime. Here is my review and what I did with one of them and what I plan for the rest.

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There are three things that I check for when buying towels of any kind. How well made they are, including how thick or thin. Towels that are too thick can take a really long time (thus money) to dry in the dryer and if you line dry your laundry, they can take a lot longer than other things and end up scratchier and stiffer than your other towels. So on this item, these towels were exactly right. Not too thick or thin, and as they would generally be used for dish towels, they have enough 'oomph' to dry more than one or two dishes before getting saturated. In regards to washing and drying them, the tag states that they are 100% cotton, made in Pakistan, wash in cold water and tumble dry low, low iron. Does anyone really iron their dish towels? By their very nature and what use they are put to, I don't ever wash towels on cold water. I wash them in hot or at the minimum warm water as I want at least a bit of a chance of killing off any germs they may have picked up. They also get the hottest drying of anything else in our laundry. So I do need to report that if you wash towels like I do, you can expect them to shrink up lengthwise about an inch and half. I saw no measureable difference in widths between the washed towel and the unwashed one. See photo. The top towel was the one that went through the wash and the bottom towel was still brand new. A piece of white paper was inserted between the two to highlight the difference.

The second thing I look at, actually probably the first as that is what catches my eye, and that is color. Believe me, I would never ever pick lime green towels to come into my house but that doesn't mean I didn't find a use for them! So far I have turned one into a burp rag for a baby. The rest will follow made up as the first.

The third thing I am concerned about is whether or not I can hoop the towel and do machine embroidery on it. If a towel is too thick the hoop pops open in the midst of the embroidery which pretty much spoils the design. These towels were great for embroidery as the pictures show. I make Project Linus quilts and the ones that I am currently working on are blue and green frog based. So for the mostly blue based frog quilt (boy) I made a burp rag with a frog design on one end and a saying "Burp Baby Burp!" on the other. The frog design is from Embroidery Library #C7977, my most favorite site for getting machine embroidery designs. Don't forget that when embroidering on terry cloth, to use a wash away stabilizer on top of the towel to keep the terry loops from getting in the way. I'm not sure what happen to the close up photo of the words as I'm just getting used to the camera and downloading photos.

These towels I would give 5 stars and wish I could have gotten them in colors I would use in my house, but instead they will eventually be part of a charitable gift, so the color was actually the perfect one to receive.  I hope this gives you some ideas if you end up with some weird colored towels that you don't know what to do with, make them into fashionable Burp Towels for baby.

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DII Home Essentials Foldable Fabric Storage Containers

I was delighted to use and review these DII Home Essentials Foldable Fabric Storage Containers being sold by Amazon.com.

 

I was pleased to have a chance to try these collapsible boxes out. I’m always on the prowl for items that I can use in my sewing room to make me more efficient or to help me better organize items. When I received these, I was in the process of cutting up scraps pieces for scrap quilts. Since scrap quilts are my favorite, I have specific sizes of pieces that I cut and those can make many different types blocks. However, I was running out of storage places especially since I decided that when possible I would cut a 10” square out of the scraps in case I needed a larger or more sizes of pieces or for the Kaleidoscope quilt that I just found in a magazine. I’ve wanted to make one of those for a long time and this one called for 10” pieces to cut down.

 

It was very easy to set the boxes up and for those that wonder what the ‘loose’ square is for, it fits in the bottom to give strength and help the boxes stay open. It would be nice if they had a lid.

 

This is my first time using this camera and I don't know how to set the date yet.   This box shows four different sizes of quilts pieces; 2 ½” squares, 4 ½” squares, 2 ½” x 4 ½” rectangle and a 5” square that can be used as is or used in triangle production. All of these sizes fit easily in the second box.  They are going to be a great help in my quilting process.

I especially like the color of the boxes since red is my favorite color. However, there are many different colors as well as sizes to chose from when purchasing.

 

DII 100% Cotton, Professional Stripe Bib Apron

Here is a review of a great apron I just got through the Amazon Vine program. I love it but there are a few things to think about. One things I didn't notice until I had finished my review and looked at some others, this is a rather long apron. Since I like wearing longer skirts, etc. I didn't notice, but if you are short and don't have the ability to hem the apron up you might want to reconsider buying this particular apron. Since it is a heavy cotton, I would recommend for hemming the use of a sewing machine instead of by hand.  For the current price of $10.99 it is a good value as well when you consider the time and cost of fabric to make it yourself .

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I love wearing chef's or butcher type aprons. When I make aprons for myself, this is the style I choose, so I was very happy to get this one to try. Right out of the package it had a slight funny odor to it. While it is advertised as having two front pockets, mine only has on large one. If I feel the need for two, I can sew a seam down the middle of the pocket and end up with two pockets so this is not a problem for me. If I got that ambitious I would also make a loop to have a towel hang from which is also a preference of mine that I make when making an apron.

The apron is also advertised as having the ability to have the ties wrap around and tie in front. I think that ability is solely dependent on the height and weight of the wearer. This apron has something I have never seen before and I wouldn't mind trying to mimic it on the next apron I make. Instead of the separate neck loop and separate side ties, the ties come around the neck and through a casing on the upper edges of the apron and then come out to be tied in back. This is great for being able to adjust the apron to cover you where you most want it and to accommodate different heights of cooks. For me at 5'8" and overweight, I can only tie the apron in the back which is fine with me. Unless you are super skinny and a bit on the short side, I don't think you will be able to tie the apron in front. Or if you can manage to tie it in front, you will only get just a small bow or knot.

The apron is made of 100% heavy cotton fabric which will help prevent spills from soaking through. I like it very much and it is comfortable to wear. Once I wash it, I plan on machine embroidering a design on it but I want any potential shrinkage to happen first. The tag states that the apron is made in India for those concerned about where your products come from.

Even though it doesn’t coincide with what is stated on the product page, I am very happy with this apron and plan on using it often, thus the 5 stars.

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Christmas Baking

Well I won't claim to be the champion cookie baker this year like in many years past, but I did make one batch with the help of a mix. I did get to try out some new great products that I got sent via Amazon Vine. I just love it when I get stuff for the kitchen the office or sewing room. Lately it has been the kitchen. So here is the review I wrote for Tovolo Mats. I used my new set of Kitchen Aid Bowls that were also from Amazon Vine. The cookie mix and candy mix ins courtesy of Betty Crocker and M&M's.

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As someone that grew up and learned to cook and bake in the pre-microwave era, it has always been hard for me to get past my reluctance to use rubber when cooking or baking. Not so my husband. Ask me what has happened to my rubber spatula for use when using the mixer? He honestly thought it was silicone! So anyhow I am faced with silicon baking sheets to put in my pans. They were a little to big and as they said they can be cut to size, I might try that next time. I haven't been up to baking Christmas cookies in a very long while, so by 'cheating' (using a Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie mix and some Christmas M & M's) I mixed up the dough in my NEW Kitchen Aid bowls. They are lightweight to use and I didn't have trouble with them scooting around or holding on to them. I put the cookie dough onto the pans on top of the Tovolo Mat and then popped one pan at a time into the oven, which I have found is best to not have unbaked or over baked cookies. When done I took the cookies off the pan and they slid right off onto the spatula, and some did try to scoot around on the mat, but I think that was because of me taking them off of the pan as soon as I got them out of the oven when the recipe said to wait 2 minutes. All in all I think these will be a great asset in anyone's kitchen that bakes. Since nothing sticks to them you also, if you lack sufficient quantity of pans, won't have to clean off the baked on crumbs off of the pans in between batches.  My taste test of the cookies showed them to be yummy!
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It was only when turning the big oven on that I realized just how dependent we have gotten on our little toaster oven that I got about a year ago from the Amazon vine program as well. We use it all the time and big oven isn't using up lot of electricity and is rarely used anymore other than the burners. I have really appreciated the things I have been sent to review.

Brooklyn on Fire by Lawrence H. Levy

I read Brooklyn on Fire by Lawrence H. Levy for the Amazon Vine Program that I am part of. It is the second book in the Mary Handley series, the first being Second Street Station. If you have a chance I would read the first book in this series first as the second book builds a bit on the first book. However, Brooklyn on Fire is fine as a stand alone book. I liked the book and gave it 5 stars while I noticed others were not so thrilled with it. Is this book going to go down in history as a pivotal piece of literature? Hardly. Undoubtedly within 10-15 years people may no longer even care to read the book which happens with a majority of cozy mystery books. I do think that at times you might enjoy a book more than if you had set down to read it on a different day and time. I needed a book to relax with and get absorbed in so that I would forget some of the pain I was in. I did find it interesting to read all the historical portions and how life was lived in the 1890's. I hope you enjoy the book as well.

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I’ve read many books, but it is rare to find one that jars my way of thinking in the very first paragraph. This book began with an old woman talking to her friends Vicky and Albert while thinking on her life. As she reminisces she realizes that she is in her 7^th decade at the age of 64. That might not mean much to some of you younger readers, but nearly a month ago I turned 60 and I never thought about the fact that I was in my 7^th decade. In my mind that means you are in your 70’s and that does sound old.

Age aside, this was a rather interesting cozy mystery novel. The author took a chance that most authors don’t and that is including many historical figures in the story. And I’m not talking about someone obscure in history, but the Rockefellers, the Carnegies, and the Vanderbilts including Geoge Vanderbilt that built the Biltmore mansion in North Carolina. Even the main character in the book, Mary Handley, was a real person and worked at one time under the Chief of Police and helped bring a murderer to justice for which she earned a $1000 reward.

Needless to say this book this book was a bit different with a very different heroine for the era that she lived in. Women detectives have come a long way since the first one appeared on the scene and it is interesting to seeing authors lately that instead of having the sleuth working during the current era, they have gone back into history such as several WWII female sleuth novels and now this book goes even further back to 1890 where ‘Ladies’ apparently had weaker constitutions than they have now and all news and crime stories were kept from them as much as possible. So it is very interesting to see a book where they have no telephones or fancy cars to get around in. No internet to research from. Families that are embarrassed and shocked that their daughter would want to do so masculine a job and how would she ever get married if the eligible men found out what she was doing. But Mary Handley didn’t care about that. She was thrilled with her office that was located in a used book store and her 20 business cards that a friend had had made for her. Once the call came for her to help, she didn’t waste time and took no thought for herself physically to the point that in one scene she needed a blood transfusion. At that point only 50% of those getting them survived the process (no blood typing at the time). She also donated blood and when she later passed out for lack of fluids and food a doctor was about to do a ‘bloodletting’ procedure to help her when someone remembered she had donated some blood that day. Interesting thought, you pass out due to low fluid balance only to have a doctor try to fix the problem by cutting you and letting more blood out.

These item mentioned, not to spoil the book for you, but to let you know some of the interesting things about life over 100 years ago in the life of a young woman that was not following the normally mores of the time. And interesting book that is also a fairly quick read.