Illinois State Library

General Information

Name:  Lee Reilly  

Genre:

Audience: Adult;

Born: New Jersey, Illinois

Faber & Faber. 1996

Since single women are statistically happier than married women and single men, the idea that society still considers "old maids" a "condition" to be cured has its roots in mythologies long abandoned to reality. Reilly argues a case for the joys of single womanhood using interviews of 30 women between the ages of 28 and 76 who describe their family and friends, careers, the ways that society perceives them and how they perceive themselves. These women (painter, filmmaker, teacher, fire fighter, nurse) demonstrate the attractive diversity on the other side of marriage where women are doing everything but waiting for Prince Charming to save them. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Ruminator Books. 2000

On a crisp night at the height of autumn, Lee Reilly answered a phone call, leapt into her car, and raced along the dark midwestern highways, desperate to reach her former college roommate who was in labor with her first child. The next day Maggie was born, and Lee was asked to stand as her godmother. Thirty-eight years old, unmarried, and without children, Lee wondered what she could offer this precious little girl from her home nearly 250 miles away. Wisdom, she decided answers to those key issues that imbue the lives of women today. Thus, Lee began composing letters to her only goddaughter, Maggie.