*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 healthas 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.

*****A total 5/5. What a wonderful first novel this author has written. I literally had to pace myself in order not to read it all in one sitting. I loved the main character, Truly, and all the other characters in this wonderful book. I hope to read this one again some day. Now when is her second novel going to be published? I can't wait...............

*SECRETS CAN BE MURDER: THE KILLER NEXT DOOR* by Jane-Velez Mitchell

Respected television news journalist Jane Velez-Mitchell asks a probing, disturbing question: Are killers like Scott Peterson and Andrea Yates all that different from the rest of us?
What kind of monster would do this? When journalists break the story of a child who's been kidnapped, a young woman who's been brutally raped, or a family who's been slaughtered, that's the question most of us ask. Secrets Can Be Murder exposes the hidden motivations behind the most sinister acts of recent times, with a behind-closed-doors look at these sensational crimes that will astound you.
After weighing in on high-profile cases for CNN, Fox News, Court TV, and MSNBC, author Jane Velez-Mitchell helps us understand these infamous crimes by unmasking the deceptions that turned toxic, exploding in rage and violence.
People lie every day to protect secrets, big and small. From desperate Hollywood personalities covering up their eccentric lifestyles to Bible Belt mothers who take the lives of their own children, Secrets Can Be Murder probes twenty-one separate cases. Each illustrates how leading a double life can land you in prison, and how failing to spot liars can get you killed.
Secrets Can Be Murder offers the inside story on each horrific case, unlocking the jaw-dropping secrets of the accused and revealing the common, innocent mistakes of the victims. After all, many of us have gone out alone late at night like Imette St. Guillen, or partied while on vacation like George Smith and Natalee Holloway.
From Dan Horowitz, the high-profile lawyer whose wife was brutally murdered by a teenage neighbor while Horowitz was defending a housewife accused ofmurder, to Neil Entwistle, the British husband who ran out of funds for an extravagant American lifestyle, Velez-Mitchell shows how each of these crimes has its own secrets to spill.
Many of us possess the same trusting nature as victims and carry around the same secrets as criminals—whether it's debt, infidelity, or fetishes. With fascinating new insights from investigators and psychologists plus the friends and family of both the victims and the perpetrators, Secrets Can Be Murder illustrates just how little separates our so-called normal lives from that of a sociopath—and how you can stay out of harm's way.

***Rate this 3/5. I watch Jane's show on CNN and always have found the backstory on murder's as interesting as the case itself. This covered many trials and murders and was quite interesting overall.

*THE BLUE COTTON GOWN: A MIDWIFE'S MEMOIR by Patricia Harman

A debut memoir interweaving a nurse-midwife's personal and professional trials with the intimate stories of her patients In Patricia Harman's exam room, patients open their hearts. Harman, a nurse-midwife, manages a private practice with her husband, an ob-gyn, in Torrington, West Virginia—a practice now providing only gynecological exams and first trimester care because they've been forced by escalating malpractice insurance costs to give up delivering babies. Despite this, the women who sit before her receive nurturing in all aspects of their lives.This unique memoir juxtaposes the tales of these women with Harman's own story of keeping a small medical practice solvent and coping with personal challenges. Her patients include a mother of seven who is stalked by her ex-husband; a teenager who is pregnant with twins and loses first one then the second baby; a young mother addicted to drugs; a long-time patient's dangerously anorexic daughter; and a professor who needs help and support in transitioning to become a man. The nurse-midwife tells her secrets, too. Her outwardly successful practice is in deep financial trouble. She develops serious medical problems, including uterine cancer, and her thirty-year marriage seems on the verge of collapse. This vivid narrative, full of courage, is impossible to put down.

****Rate this book 4/5. Every health professional can read and identify with this wonderful book. We are taught to hold our emotions in check, not get involved with our patients so that we can treat them effectively. This is nigh on impossible to do with some patients, as described in this book. I love the way this author uses phrasing, at one time she describes her emotions regarding patients as being "embroidered on my heart with colored thread". I can so identify that. Over the years there have been patients that I feel the same way about, and yes, they are still embroidered on my heart. I also love the way she phrased her thoughts on one especially starlit night when she sat thinking to herself: "reaching over the porch rail, I hold my hands open and let the starlight pour into them. I take the light and splash it up on my face. Four or five times, I let it pool and pour it over my head". The visual in my mind is breathtaking