The Little Giant of Aberdeen County, by Tiffany Baker

Truly Plaice was born so large that her mother died giving birth to her. Her sister, Serena Jane, is her exact opposite: small & pretty. When their father dies, each girl goes to a separate home to live with family friends. Truly goes to live with the Dyerson's, a poor, out-of-luck family with a daughter her same age, Amelia, who rarely talks. A few years later, Serena Jane is married to "Bob Bob" Robert Morgan, who comes from a long line of Robert Morgans, all doctors. Bob Bob takes Serena Jane to Buffalo, where he goes to medical school & Serena Jane gives birth to a son, Robert "Bobbie". Meanwhile Truly takes care of the horses & does other work on the Dyerson farm. Serena Jane & Bob Bob move back to town & live in the doctor's house, while Bob Bob starts his new practice. Truly moves in with Bob Bob to take care of him & Bobbie, age 7, when Serena Jane leaves. Bob Bob is ashamed that his wife has left him, so he invents the story of her death, and Truly doesn't know the truth. Truly's friend Marcus returns from Vietnam, with injuries to his hand & leg. He becomes the gardener for Dr. Robert "Bob Bob" Morgan. There is an ongoing idea of romance between Marcus & Truly. Truly discovers the secret shadowbook of Tabitha, the first doctor's wife. She begins mixing herbs to try out remedies, and finds that there are herbs that can heal, but also herbs that can cause death. Bobbie moves out the house at age 18 with a secret of his own, estranged from his father. Soon after, Robert Morgan is diagnosed with cancer, and after his death, Truly learns the truth about her sister, who is still alive, and feels betrayed by Amelia, who knew the truth but didn't say anything. This book was hard to stop reading!

Made In The U.S.A., by Billie Letts

15 year old Lutie and her younger brother, Fate are living with their father's ex-girlfriend, Floy, in South Dakota until the day that Floy drops dead of a heart attack at Wal-Mart. Fearful of being put in foster homes, Lutie & Fate steal Floy's car & drive to Las Vegas to look for their alcoholic father. It turns out that their father died a year earlier and the two kids have to live out of the car for several weeks, until Lutie is badly beaten for the little money she had saved to get an apartment. A stranger, Juan, and his dog come to her rescue just in time & Juan drives Lutie & Fate to Oklahoma, where he has family that he hasn't seen in 15 years. The family runs a circus, and after healing up from her injuries, Lutie begins to learn to walk on a high wire. Fate meets a boy who becomes his best friend and the circus family becomes family to both the kids. It is the first real home they have had for years. This story was an entertaining read for me.

Night and Day, by Virginia Woolf

In this novel, Katherine Hilbery must decide whether to be engaged to poet William Rodney, or to have a relationship with Ralph Denham, whom she finds much more interesting. Also in this story is Mary Datchet, a friend of Katherine's who is involved in the Women's Rights movement. Katherine's mother is struggling to put together a book about her late father, a famous poet, with help from Katherine. This book was first published in 1919. It is by far one of the best stories I've ever read.

An Unkindness of Ravens, by Ruth Rendell

A man (Rodney Williams) disappears & it is thought that he has run off with a woman other than his wife. But then a second woman reports that her husband is missing. It turns out to be that same man, for he is secretly married to two different women & has children with both. Later his body is found buried near a wood, and the mystery of his murder is eventually discovered. Turns out that the two daughters from different wives know each other, and the murder was committed by the two of them. This story is another Inspector Wexford mystery. I enjoy these British mysteries very much.

A Guilty Thing Surprised, by Ruth Rendell

This is an Inspector Wexford mystery. A woman (Elizabeth) takes a walk in the woods at the grounds of her & her husband's (Quentin) estate, and winds up murdered. Inspector Wexford and his partner, Inspector Burden, talk with the husband, Elizabeth's brother & his wife, the employees of the estate and a few others. It is initially thought that Elizabeth was possibly having an affair, meeting someone in the woods, and when caught, was killed by either her jealous husband, or the gardener, Sean, who obviously had a crush on her. It turns out a little bit different, a surprising twist at the end. The great writing of Ruth Rendell makes her books hard to put down.

Needful Things, by Stephen King

It's been over a month since I finished reading this one. It takes place in Castle Rock, Maine, where Alan Pangborn is the sheriff. He is also in some of the other Stephen King books. A man named Leland Gaunt opens a new store in town called Needful Things. He sells all different types of items, like an autographed baseball card, a photo of Elvis, a piece of petrified wood. These items don't seem all that rare, but they are powerful. When a person holds one of the items they feel transported to the place in which the item is from. For instance, the Elvis photo takes the woman who holds it onto the stage with him. The price to buy these items is not much in cash, but the buyer also has to agree to play a prank on someone else from Castle Rock. Pretty soon almost everyone in town is visiting Needful Things and then playing a prank on someone else in order to "pay" for their item. A boy throws rocks through the windows of one woman's house. She thinks it was done by another woman with whom she is already having a feud. Someone else kills the other woman's dog, but she blames it on the first woman. They end up meeting on a street corner with kitchen knives in hand. The results are horrifying, as the town is almost completely destroyed by it's residents, all of them getting back at one another. This was Leland Gaunt's plan from the start. It is an interesting book, but at 690 pages I was very glad to be finished with it.

Stephen King Goes To The Movies

This book is five Stephen King stories that all had movies made out of them. The titles are: 1408, The Mangler, Hearts In Atlantis (Low Men In Yellow Coats), The Shawshank Redemption (Rita Hayworth & Shawshank Redemption) and Children Of The Corn. I've seen Shawshank Redemption & Children of the Corn, but not the other three. Of all the stories, I liked Hearts In Atlantis best. The Mangler was also pretty good. Hearts in Atlantis is about an 11 year old boy named Bobby who meets an old man (Ted) living in the same apartment building that he lives in with his mother. Ted "hires" Bobby to be on the lookout for signs of the "Low Men In Yellow Coats" looking for him (Ted). Bobby doesn't quite believe that there is anyone looking for Ted, but after awhile he begins seeing the signs that Ted warned about, such as a child's chalk-drawn hopscotch with a moon & star drawn beside it in a different color, a kite hanging from a telephone wire, or mysterious missing pet ads tacked to telephone poles or upside-down on grocery store bulletin boards. Bobby begins to see these signs but doesn't tell Ted right away, then regrets it later, when his mother turns Ted in for the reward money. It was the longest short story (over 300 pages) in the book, but also the most interesting. The book has introductions by Stephen King before each story that describe the movies they were made into.