Sunday, September 16, 2012

The Sunday Book Review, September 16, 2012: Atypical

The subtitle is "Life With Asperger's in 20-1/3 Chapters," and the author is Jesse A. Saperstein. Madame L found this book on the "Our Staff Recommends" shelf as she was leaving her local library the other day; she's glad the staff recommends it, and she does, too.

Madame L has known some people with Asperger's, and this book has helped her understand a little about what's going on with them.

Of course, everyone with "autism spectrum disorder" has his/her own place along that spectrum and unique ways of manifesting the "disorder" and different ways of coping with the rest of us. But this author has a sense of humor and a certain lack of self-pity that enable him to show us his world.

By the way, the big "news" that has recently been trumpeted on TV and on the front pages of airport newspapers, that the risk of a child's having schizophrenia and autism and other disorders on the autism spectrum disorder, including Asperger's, rises with the age of the child's father, is not really news. 

But the latest study being trumpeted has used a new technique to distinguish between genetic mutations of the father and of the mother, showing definitively that it's the child's father, not mother, who is more likely to have experienced the mutation causing these disorders.

Back to the point: Madame L recommends "Atypical" for all her readers, whether they want to understand an acquaintance with Asperger's or be a better teacher or just want to know more about being human.

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