The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker

When Truly Plaice's mother was pregnant, the town of Aberdeen joined together in betting how recordbreakingly huge the baby boy would ultimately be. The girl who proved to be Truly paid the price of her enormity; her father blamed her for her mother's death in childbirth, and was totally ill equipped to raise either this giant child or her polar opposite sister Serena Jane, the epitome of femine perfection. When he, too, relinquished his increasingly tenuous grip on life, Truly and Serena Jane are separated--Serena Jane to live a life of privilege as the future May Queen and Truly to live on the outskirts of town on the farm of the town sadsack, the subject of constant abuse and humiliation at the hands of her peers.

Serena Jane's beauty proves to be her greatest blessing and her biggest curse, for it makes her the obsession of classmate Bob Bob Morgan, the youngest in a line of Robert Morgans who have been doctors in Aberdeen for generations. Though they have long been the pillars of the community, the earliest Robert Morgan married the town witch, Tabitha Dyerson, and the location of her fabled shadow book--containing mysterious secrets for healing and darker powers--has been the subject of town gossip ever since. Bob Bob Morgan, one of Truly's biggest tormentors, does the unthinkable to claim the prize of Serena Jane, and changes the destiny of all Aberdeen from there on.

When Serena Jane flees town and a loveless marriage to Bob Bob, it is Truly who must become the woman of a house that she did not choose and mother to her eight-year-old nephew Bobbie. Truly's brother-in-law is relentless and brutal; he criticizes her physique and the limitations of her health as a result, and degrades her more than any one human could bear. It is only when Truly finds her calling--the ability to heal illness with herbs and naturopathic techniques--hidden within the folds of Robert Morgan's family quilt, that she begins to regain control over her life and herself. Unearthed family secrets, however, will lead to the kind of betrayal that eventually break the Morgan family apart forever, but Truly's reckoning with her own demons allows for both an uprooting of Aberdeen County, and the possibility of love in unexpected places.



After reading the back of this book, I really wasn't sure what to expect when reading it. This book centers around Truly Plaice. When Truly's mother is pregnant, the whole town places bets as to how big the boy is going to be, and the guesses are high due to the enormous size of her belly. When Dr. Robert Morgan examines her, he notices a lump in her breast, a lump she keeps secret, even though it will kill her. When her water breaks and contractions start, Dr. Robert Morgan tries to help her through the delivery to the best of his ability, but the size of the baby proves to be too much. When he asks her what name she has chosen the last word she utters is Truly. Thus is the beginning of Truly's existence.

Truly is destined to be miserable. Her sister Serena Jane is beautiful by anyone's standards, and not only is Truly homely, she is enormous besides. Her father blames her and the doctor for the untimely death of his wife (even though she would have passed from cancer shortly after her birth) and refuses to seek medical attention for his daughter, even though it is obvious there is something wrong with her.

After the death of their father, the girls are separated. Serena Jane, who is treated as a princess by most of the town, but especially by Amanda Pickerston, is welcomed with open arms into their home. But there is no way they are going to take in something as homely and huge as Truly. Instead, truly is sent to the Dyerson farm, a home of outcasts where she is bound to fit in.

The girls continue to meet weekly, but grow apart even more...not that they were ever really close. They both fall into a pattern with their new families. And Truly continues to grow.

She does have a friend in Amelia, the daughter of the Dyerson's, who becomes like a sister to her. She also catches the eye of Marcus, even if he is the smallest boy in the class, he is full of knowledge and love for Truly, something that get exploited by Bob Bob Morgan, the son of Doctor Morgan, and a boy destined to be the next town Doctor, a tradition that goes all the way back to his great-great-great-grandfather, and his wife Tabitha, who it was rumored was a witch. Bob Bob also has his eyes on Serena, and one night he finally gets her where he wants her, a union that prompts a swift marriage due to her unexpected pregnancy.

Serena and Bob Bob move away and Truly doesn't hear from them for quite some time, with only the occasional letter and picture of her nephew Bobbie. So, when they move back to town she is hopeful that things will change. They don't. That is until Bob Bob (who is now called Robert) comes to tell her that her sister has left and wants her to help him raise Bobbie.

This is the beginning of a fascinating relationship, and a story full of love and incredible deceit. I found the story to be excellent, and truly loved the way the author described the characters. I went through a full range of emotions while reading this, and although it had a happy ending, it was really bittersweet when you realize everything that led to it. Highly recommended!



Tiffany Baker lives in Tiburon, California with her husband and three children. This is her first novel.

Thanks so much to Miriam Parker, of The Hachette Book Group for sending me this ARC to review!

The 2009 ARC Reading Challenge

This sounded like a great challenge to me and I am going to follow Teddy's version of ARC - anything sent to me by a publisher or author-as an ARC. I do know that this isn't truly what an ARC is, but this will help me keep track of the books I receive.

Here are the rules:
1. To sign up, leave a comment and a direct link to your blog post about this challenge that includes your list from rule #2.

2. List all of the ARC's that you have to read right now. Then throughout the year, you must continue updating that list as you receive more ARC's. (This is important). You should also strike out the ones that you finish.

3. a. All of us who have or will have more than 12 ARC's must read and review 12.

b. All of us who have or will have less than 12 ARC's must read all of the ARC's we have. Note, that if you have 11 ARC's and then receive a 12th one you will be bumped up to catagory a.

4. You don't have to make a list of which ARC's you plan to read, but you can if you want.

5. Crossovers with other challenges are allowed and Audio-books are allowed as long as they are ARC's.

6. Read the books and review them on your blog. If you don't have a blog, you can post your review on sites like Powells, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc. Leave a comment on this post with a link to each of your reviews.

7. Please subscribe to my blog, as I will be posting updates to the challenge periodically.

8. Enjoy!

To sign up click here.

Here is my current list:

1. An Offer You Can't Refuse by Jill Mansell

2. Sucks to be Me by Kimberly Pauley

3. Ruby River by Lynn Pruett

4. Modern Magic by Anne Cordwainer

5. Roads to Quoz by William Least Heat-Moon

6. Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst

7. Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand by Carrie Vaughn

8. Be Strong and Curvaceous by Shelley Adina

9. Drood by Dan Simmons

10. Rock Bottom by Michael Shilling

11. Run For Your Life by James Patterson

12. Houston, We Have a Problema by Gwendolyn Zepeda

13. Love and Other Natural Disasters by Holly Shumas - finished 01/02/09

14. Above the Law by Tim Green

15. The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker

16. Cross Country by James Patterson (audio)

17. Call Me Ted by Ted Turner (audio)

18. Along Stone's Throw by Alphie McCourt (audio)

19. No Experts Needed by Louise Lewis

20. Katie and Kimble by Linda Thieman

21. Blood Harvest by Brant Randall

22. Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell

23. Kissing Games of the World by Sandi Kahn Shelton

Wicked Game by Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush

About the book:

ONE BY ONE, THEY’LL DIE…Twenty years ago, wild child Jessie Brentwood vanished from St. Elizabeth’s high school. Most in Jessie’s tight circle of friends believed she simply ran away. Few suspected that Jessie was hiding a shocking secret—one that brought her into the crosshairs of a vicious killer…

UNTIL THERE’S NO ONE LEFT…Two decades pass before a body is unearthed on school grounds and Jessie’s old friends reunite to talk. Most are sure that the body is Jessie’s, that the mystery of what happened to her has finally been solved. But soon, Jessie’s friends each begin to die in horrible, freak accidents that defy explanation…

BUT HER…Becca Sutcliff has been haunted for years by unsettling visions of Jessie, certain her friend met with a grisly end. Now the latest deaths have her rattled. Becca can sense that an evil force is shadowing her too, waiting for just the right moment to strike. She feels like she’s going crazy. Is it all a coincidence—or has Jessie’s killer finally returned to finish what was started all those years ago?

My Review:




20 years have passed since the disappearance of Jezebel “Jessie” Brentwood, but the case is back in the news after bones are discovered at St. Elizabeth’s school. Detective Sam NcNally is hoping that he will finally get the break he deserves, and prove to all of the skeptics that she was murdered all those years ago.

Becca Sutcliff is shocked when she receives a phone call from her ex-boyfriend and true love Hudson Walker. The group of friends that hung out with each other at the time of Jessie’s disappearance is meeting to compare stories. The common belief is that the remains will be identified as Jessie, but they want to make sure that their stories haven’t changed. There seems to be a dark cloud hovering among the members of the group, and when tragedy starts to strike, Becca feels it’s only a matter of time before she’s next.

This paranormal romantic suspense thriller was well thought out and it was impossible for me to tell that it was written by two sisters. I have a feeling I know where the added romance came in, as this isn’t common in most of Lisa’s books. I felt it added nicely to the storyline, and made it appealing to a more diverse crowd.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

About the book:

In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

Brilliant and entertaining, OUTLIERS is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.

My Review:

I received this book audiobook from Anna Balasi with Hachette Book Group. This is the first audiobook that I had listened to in a very long time, and boy was I glad that I started with this one. To be honest, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect when I started listening to it.

I found this book to be fascinating! Although some of the things he talks about may seem like common knowledge, for instance the fact that if you look at some of the best in their field and corelate that with the amount of time they spent to get there, you will see something very similar. The best musicians, The Beatles included, owe their success to the amount of time they spent practicing. While this may seem like a "duh" moment, the way the author brings these facts to light is new and innovative. It really makes you think.

There are many aspects of this book that I enjoyed, but quite possibly my favorite was the section on the hockey players and birth order. It actually had me looking on the internet to check birthdates of the "best" hockey players that ever played the game (by the way, Wayne Gretzky was born on January 26).

Truly a thought provoking book and one I would highly recommend!

About the author:

Malcolm Gladwell is a staff writer for The New Yorker. He was formerly a business and science reporter at the Washington Post.