LIFE IS A GAME. WE DRAW FROM THE DECK WE ARE DEALT AND DECIDE TO KEEP THAT CARD OR TAKE OUR CHANCES ON THE NEXT.

The day hinted of a spring overdue. It was March 25, 1911, in Greenwich Village, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was on fire. Nell Walker witnesses young women jumping to their death to flee the flames blocking their escape. The raging inferno kills 146 and sparks a flame in Nell that burns. She vows the world she lives in must change-a world divided by class, color and the desires of the heart. Choosing Herself is Nell's story.

A brave, charming yet fiercely independent woman, Nell leaves the comforts of her Manhattan brownstone to reveal the desperate lives of the women and children working in the stifling factories and canneries of upstate New York. Exposing herself to real danger, her reporting introduces her to the headline grabbers of the emerging labor movement, women who seek a better life for themselves and their families and a man with a camera who brings light and shadow to his work and her life.

With captivating insight and heart, prize winning author Maureen Reid weaves fact and fiction into a world of Tammany ruffians, the quest for the perfect martini, and the need to make a difference.

Choosing Herself by Maureen Reid is a highly emotional read (tissues are required!) as Nell struggles to assert herself in her childhood house, and in her adult life.... In writing such a novel Reid has crafted an evocative insight into the life and times of women of that era in East Coast Americas.... Definitely a novel that will linger in the reader's mind."

The Historical Fiction Company. Rating: 4.5 stars.