Top Tips for Girls

by: Kate Reardon

Published by: Three Rivers Press

Reviewed by Andrea Sisco

When I was growing up and had a cold, my mother rubbed my neck and chest with something that had a sharp smell and wrapped my neck with a clean cloth that she pinned tightly. I soon stopped coughing and felt better. My grandmother had other wonderful tips and techniques for curing illness, cleaning the house, keeping pests out of the garden and much more. Sadly many of those tips have been lost to most of us.

Enter, Kate Reardon. Her site, www.toptipsforgirls.com, has collected the wisdom of women, for other women. The book is divided into specific categories for easy reference and includes the areas of work, beauty, shopping, safety, cooking, gardening, cleaning and more.

Top Tips for Girls is fun to read and fascinating. I saw some of the tips my grandmother, mother and aunts used and now that I have this valuable little book, I’ll use them also.

Some of my favorite tips are: How to clean odd-shaped vases, how to fill tiny cracks when painting woodwork, how to aerate your lawn (I laughed at the simplicity of it all), how to get rid of a sty in your eye (I needed this recently), and who doesn’t need to know how to remove watermarks from a leather handbag? (see me raise my hand). That bottle of vodka that has been in my cupboard for years will now clean my diamond rings and I now know the secret to brushing sand from the wet bodies of my grandchildren. Hey! All I need to safely dispose of old receipts or papers is a container filled with water.

The hints and helps are often logical, but people rarely pause long enough to think ‘out of the box.’ Ms Reardon and her www.toptipsforgirls.com readers have done it for us.

Armchair Interviews says: Top Tips for Girls is must read and then keep the book on your reference shelf.

Author’s Web site: http://www.TopTipsforGirls.com