The Giant's House by Elizabeth McCracken

This is the kind of book that makes you wonder where the author ever came up with the idea. Peggy Cort is probably what many people imagine a small town librarian to be - lover of organization, a keeper of Cape Cod secrets, and a life lived mostly in her head. She is 23 when she first encounters 11 year old James - all 6 feet of him. By the time he enters his 20's wearing a size 30 shoe and standing over 8ft, he has gained celebrity as "the giant" and Peggy is forced to recognize that she is in love? in like? in admiration? in what? There is too must lust in her need to mother him. There is too much gentle caring and concern in her need to physically connect to him. For all the attempts at stereotypes, Peggy isn't like any librarians I know and I know for sure that much of her thinking was not a part of any Dewey Decimal 101 class I ever took.