Stephen M. Shore

The author has Asperger’s syndrome and the book describes his life, challenges, talents and successes.

The book is excellently written, but unfortunately I could only read about half of it; I found it too boring.

Stephen is gifted and, among other things, has a degree in music. He is married to a Chinese musician, who tells us that Stephen can hear much higher pitches than she can and turns the volume of the TV down so low that she almost can’t hear it. In other words, he is extremely sensitive. He has learnt some Chinese from her and her friends and pronounces the Chinese language “with all its tones” very well. He sometimes hides clocks under cushions because he can’t stand their ticking noise.

If you yourself have Asperger’s or are interested in the condition, the book may well appeal to you; I just found it too dry to capture my attention.… (més)

One of the things that struck me as especially interesting about this book was the portion discussing neuro-typical brains married to Autistic brains... It was a fascinating validation of my own personal head scratching moments. The entire book was well worth the read, and the lack of blatant advice-giving was a refreshing change from my booklist at the time. The contrast made the book seem more humble and enjoyable. Bonus points to his mother for her senses --an inspiration to those of us in similar shoes.… (més)