Better Than New: Lessons I've Learned from Saving Old Houses/ Nicole Curtis/ 239 pages

Better Than New: Lessons I've Learned from Saving Old Houses written by Nicole Curtis follows her life from a high school graduation to the present and how it led to rehabbing and her own television show. Nicole left Michigan for Tampa Florida with her then boyfriend.  Working double jobs, waitressing double shifts, she bought her first house.  Before the birth of her first child she relocated back home to Michigan.  After some time bartending, and cleaning apartments and selling real estate she used her saving to buy a run down home to restore.   She was discovered and offered a television show, Rehab Addict on HGTV.  While Nicole's houses are loving restored, her life is one of chaos, often brought on by her own decisions.  The reader will find that even a TV star can have the same problems that normal people encounter.  It was interesting read in which the author revealed what she wanted revealed.  If your looking for a book that follows the ins and outs of creating a TV show, this book only glosses over that aspect of Nicole's life.

Leave Me:a Novel/ Gayle Forman/ 340 pages

Leave Me: a Novel written by Gayle Forman deals with an almost near death experience and it's impact on those around the patient.  Mary Beth is a busy New York working mother trying to keep umpteen balls in the air at once.  She feels her friend Elizabeth has moved on and her husband, Jason, does not appreciate all she does.  After ignoring chest pain for a day, Mary Beth finds herself in an ER with a diagnosis of heart attack.  She endures open heart surgery and comes home to recover.  But how does the mother of twin preschoolers possibly rest and recover?  Mary Beth runs away from home to Pittsburgh to rest and recuperate.  Along the way she makes some new friends, sorts out her feelings and learns how her husband truly feels about her.  He learns a few things along the way as well. This was an interesting read that any working mother could relate to.  It could be an eye opening read for the husband of a working mother.

Rocket Girls/ Nathalia Holt/ 338 pages

Rocket Girls by Nathalia Holt traces the history of the Joint Propulsion Lab computers.  Not the current microchip bolstered version.  No Holt takes us back to the original computers.  Young women with strong math skills and a love of mathematics.  These early computers, yes they were called computers, worked on tissue thin paper with mechanical pencils solving complex problems that put the US into the Space Race.  Along the way, some dropped out to start families only to return to the work place later.  Some were present for the  early failures and few successes as the US rushed to catch up to the Soviet Union.  Eventually the pencils gave way to mechanical calculators, room size computers filled with tubes and finally person desk top computers.  Along the way the engineers almost always preferred the calculations done by the women over the machines.  This is an interesting read that combines flight test, space travel, and interplanetary travel into the tale of women in the workplace.