Tippe's Nonfiction Picks
Little Fixes: 54 Clever Ways to Extend the Life of Kids Clothes - Reuse, Recycle, Repurpose, Restyle by Disney Powless
Disney Powless offers 54 tips to repurpose children’s clothing. Little skill is needed, only creativity and imagination as she shows the reader how to reinvent children’s outgrown clothing. Simple ideas become cost saving alternatives to discarding the clothes; such as a jacket that becomes a vest once the sleeves are removed. Each of the tips is accompanied by step by step instructions and colorful illustrations. Sue G.
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott
A detailed and well-researched look at the Civil War experiences of four women: Washington D.C. socialite and Confederate sympathizer Rose O’Neal Greenhow, who manipulated Congressmen and Union officers into revealing military secrets; Richmond abolitionist Elizabeth Van Lew, who created a network of Union spies in the Confederate capital; teenaged Belle Boyd, Confederate spy; and Emma Edmonds, who disguised herself as a man and served in the Union army. At a time when women were seen as weak and inferior, unsuited to the “manly” business of fighting a war, these women often used Victorian conventions and attitudes to screen their activities on both sides of the conflict. Chris G.
Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill
The Hotel Florida in Madrid was the wartime headquarters of the Spanish Loyalist government’s international press bureau, and Vaill takes it as a focal point for a new perspective on the Spanish Civil War. Through the experiences of Arturo Barea, head of the bureau, and several correspondents—Robert Capa, Martha Gellhorn, Ernest Hemingway, Ilsa Kulcsar, and Gerda Taro, we see both the idealism and brutality of the war that became a dress rehearsal for World War II. Chris G.
The Big Tiny: A Built-It-Myself Memoir by Dee Williams
The Big Tiny is more of an inspirational story than an instructional story on building a tiny home. The author, Dee Williams, writes how her life changed in an instant when at the age of 41 she was diagnosed with a heart condition. She embarks on a simpler way of life by building an 84 square foot home with just the essentials. A motivational read aimed at appreciating the simple things in life. Sue G.
Flea Market Fabulous: Designing Gorgeous Rooms With Vintage Treasures by Lara Spencer
The host of the HGTV show Flea Market Flip tackles nine common design dilemmas in nine different homes and solves them by finding and restoring flea-market finds to show that readers can achieve a gorgeous space at bargain prices. Sue G.