Just Off the Needles

Finished this Thursday night -- just in time for the baby shower this week! I could hardly believe my good luck in finding these buttons at Hancock Fabric that exactly matched the colors in the sweater. :)

What I'm Reading

Right now I'm juggling three books, two non-fiction and one novel based on a real person. All three of them are good, full of all those little details that make a story come alive.

From the Amazon description:  In April 1945, the funeral train carrying the body of Franklin D. Roosevelt embarked on a three-day, thousand-mile odyssey through nine states before reaching the president's home where he was buried.... A closer look inside the train, however, would reveal a Soviet spy about to leak a state secret, a newly widowed Eleanor Roosevelt, who just found out that her husband’s mistress was in the room when he died, and the entire family of incoming president Harry S Truman. The thrilling story of what took place behind the Pullman shades...has never been told. On the occasion of the sixty-fifth anniversary of FDR's death, Klara chronicles the action-packed three day train ride during which, among other things, Truman hammered out the policies that would galvanize a country in mourning and win the Second World War.

From the Amazon description:  On November 14, 1889, Nellie Bly, the crusading young female reporter for Joseph Pulitzer’s World newspaper, left New York City by steamship on a quest to break the record for the fastest trip around the world. Also departing from New York that day—and heading in the opposite direction by train—was a young journalist from The Cosmopolitan magazine, Elizabeth Bisland. Each woman was determined to outdo Jules Verne’s fictional hero Phileas Fogg and circle the globe in less than eighty days. The dramatic race that ensued would span twenty-eight thousand miles, captivate the nation, and change both competitors’ lives forever....A vivid real-life re-creation of the race and its aftermath, from its frenzied start to the nail-biting dash at its finish, Eighty Days is history with the heart of a great adventure novel.

From the Amazon description:  In Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, novelist Jennifer Chiaverini presents a stunning account of the friendship that blossomed between Mary Todd Lincoln and her seamstress, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Keckley, a former slave who gained her professional reputation in Washington, D.C. by outfitting the city’s elite. Keckley made history by sewing for First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln within the White House, a trusted witness to many private moments between the President and his wife....Keckley saved scraps from the dozens of gowns she made for Mrs. Lincoln, eventually piecing together a tribute known as the Mary Todd Lincoln Quilt. She also saved memories, which she fashioned into a book....Upon its publication, Keckley’s memoir created a scandal that compelled Mary Todd Lincoln to sever all ties with her....In this impeccably researched, engrossing novel, Chiaverini brings history to life in rich, moving style.