Book review: The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker

I'm mad at myself for buying this book at the thrift store. It's described as "poignant"; of course it's going to be unspeakably sad! Here's the summary; see if you can guess why I picked it up.

When Truly Plaice's mother was pregnant, the town of Aberdeen joined together in betting how record-breakingly 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 feminine perfection. When he, too, relinquishes his increasingly tenuous grip on life, Truly and Serena Jane are separated--Serena Jane to live a life of privilege and Truly to live on the outskirts of town, 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 doctors for generations. Though they have long been the pillars of the community, the earliest 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 forever.

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.

If you guessed it was the wise woman healing with herbs stuff, you were right. I was also somewhat intrigued by the main character's medical condition, which is a pituitary-caused gigantism. It's the opposite of what I have, almost, but I haven't heard of many books where pituitary conditions are discussed. Anyway, everyone is horrible to Truly, everyone close to her dies or goes away, and the entire thing was super depressing. The worst character who does the worst thing never really gets his comeuppance, apart from getting leukemia and dying a painful, wretched death, which happens to everyone anyway regardless of how nice they are (the death, not the leukemia). The second worst character got a lukewarm comeuppance, nothing like what she deserved. I'm mad that Truly never stood up for herself, but I guess with the upbringing she had it's understandable. I'm also mad at one of the deaths. There was soooooooo much fatshaming and fatbashing. Even though you get dates and the Vietnam war namedropped, the whole thing still feels like it takes place in the thirties or forties. I'm glad that the one LGBT+ character got a happy ending, even if his childhood sucked. Not nearly enough witch and healing stuff. Good writing though. Would not recommend unless you love depressing stories set in close-minded small towns in middle or southeastern America.

Trigger warnings I'd apply to this book: semi-graphic rape depiction/description, child abuse (physical and emotional), neglect, multiple suicides, fatphobia, ableism, cruelty, controlling relationships, alcoholism (at least one character), a character has PTSD, era-consistent homophobia, implied transphobia, era-consistent sexism

Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Read in: September 24-25
From: thrift store
Format: hardcover, with handy attached ribbon bookmark
Status: giving away

Book review: Women and Girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder by Sarah Hendrickx

April was Autism Awareness Month, and I spotted this book in an autism-themed listicle from Book Riot (I think). My sister works with autistic kids, and I have some neurodivergence of my own, so I ordered this book from Link+, my library's book-lending consortium. I'm going to cheat and put the synopsis from Amazon:

The difference that being female makes to the diagnosis, life and experiences of a person with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has largely gone unresearched and unreported until recently. In this book Sarah Hendrickx has collected both academic research and personal stories about girls and women on the autism spectrum to present a picture of their feelings, thoughts and experiences at each stage of their lives. 

Outlining how autism presents differently and can hide itself in females and what the likely impact will be for them throughout their lifespan, the book looks at how females with ASD experience diagnosis, childhood, education, adolescence, friendships, sexuality, employment, pregnancy and parenting, and aging. It will provide invaluable guidance for the professionals who support these girls and women and it will offer women with autism a guiding light in interpreting and understanding their own life experiences through the experiences of others.

I thought this book very interesting and informative, and I think it would be helpful for autistic women*, parents of autistic daughters, and medical professionals and therapists, etc. I found the personal stories very interesting, and I think they would be helpful for anyone on the autistic spectrum. Social skills have never been my strong suit, so I identified with some of the stories and things the girls and women struggled with. The research was also interesting, but many of the studies were done with few girls, so it's hard to make an impact in autism research that way. More studies with autistic girls and women need to be done. Medical professionals and therapists especially should be educated more; there were stories of dismissive doctors etc. that made my blood boil. It wouldn't hurt if early childhood educators were educated on developmental disorders as well. 

Overall, I liked this book and found it helpful, although I would have liked to see some questionnaires in the back of the book or something to help readers gauge if they or a loved one/patient might be autistic. Recommended.

*usually with disabilities you're supposed to use people-first language (e.g. 'people with disabilities' rather than 'disabled people'), but I read that many autistic people prefer to be called 'autistic people' because it's part of their identity. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details so lmk if I'm wrong.

Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Read in: late April to early-mid May
From: Link+, my library
Format: paperback
Status: returned

Things I've found in the library where I work: Things found in books 2

Sometimes you find neat things left inside books. A bound play in book form had several ads and clippings inside. The back side of one had a pin-up ad from the forties.

"I like 'Smooth' Men!" Sorry, Whisker Club.

This pamphlet was found in a different book and is about the "backstage" supporters in hospitals, such as nurses and janitors. I thought it was kinda cute.

Two things I am worried about

• I got my wisdom teeth out Friday and while I've had zero pain or swelling I'm worried I'll give myself dry socket(s?) from eating normally.
• My hard drive, which I use to back up my laptop and save extra files, suddenly for no reason (maybe I stepped on or dropped it one too many times? Never that hard!) became read-only and won't back anything up. My life is in that thing. I need it to work and store things like before! DDDDDDDDD: