I finally made it through all the posts on the February What’s On Your Nightstand? and was surprised by how non-fiction heavy so many of the lists are. While I do read non-fiction, I tend to heavily favor novels. I did still find quite a number of books for my TBR list, though.
As we move into the third month of the year, I am still on my Mercedes Lackey kick and enjoying it very much! And I have even read some more short stories, which is a sort of personal challenge for this year.
Here are my thoughts on my most recent reads:
The Best Kind of Different: Our Family’s Journey with Asperger’s Syndrome
I picked up this “diagnosis memoir,” as I tend to think of them, on a whim from the library and am glad I did. The writer is refreshingly open about her experiences becoming a wife and mom while her husband is involved in a demanding baseball career and shares candidly about the ups and downs of parenting a child with Asperger’s Syndrome both before and after the diagnosis.
We hear a lot about the grieving process that parents can go through upon receiving the news that their child has a disability. Some parents feel intensely sad that their dreams for their child may not be realized and some may also feel guilty for things they think may have done to cause the problem. While Shonda does not mention these, she does touch on something that I had felt but not verbalized as being a part of grief. Here’s what she says:
It was both comforting and upsetting to read these Web sites. On the one hand they offered a clear explanation of why my son acted the way he did. On the other hand it hurt to realize how clueless I’d been about my own child and how I hadn’t been doing right by him. I could only read so much, a little at a time.
I think this is as good a representation of the combination of relief and sorrow that came upon me once we had a diagnosis of autism for Michael as I have read. I was so glad to have some direction, but so sad that no one had been able to tell me how to communicate with him and help him earlier. And I think the sadness and anger, and sometimes fear, that sometimes hit me even now are directly related to my desire for everyone in his world to treat him with the understanding and respect that he deserves while teaching him in a way he can understand how to be a good friend and student and, later, employee and citizen.
I would recommend this to book to anyone who wants to understand more about Asperger’s Syndrome. You do not have to be at all familiar with disability to connect with the story or the family in the book. There is also quite a bit of discussion about the dad’s role in the family and the struggles and growth they have experienced both in their marriage and their parenting over the years. Many books about family stories are focused on mom’s experience much more than dad’s, but this book has a lot that dads in this situation can likely relate to, even if they aren’t baseball stars!
What I Didn’t See and Other Stories
After several years of avoiding short stories, I decided I needed to stop the silliness and read some this year. I think I was avoiding them partly because I wouldn’t want to get engrossed in a story only to have it be over so much earlier than a novel would be.
Having read this collection, I am reminded that another reason I have tended not to read them was that, when done well, they require your attention at every moment. But that’s also the beauty of a great short story, that you can experience an entire world in just a few pages.
Fortune’s Fool (Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, Book 3)
This one was just as much fun as the first two, and perhaps even more as we see two characters from very different cultures and environments meet and fall in love, only to be separated by danger and have to use all of their wits and skill to find a way out.
Reserved for the Cat (Elemental Masters, Book 5)
I’m still waiting on book 3 to come in at the library, but I definitely enjoyed this one much more than book 4. It really gives you the flavor of the entertainment world at the time, both in France and England. And the cat is great!
Finding the Way and Other Tales of Valdemar
Wow – my third short story collection this year already! I enjoyed most of the stories in this book, although there were a couple that seemed to miss the mark on readability and didn’t seem (to me at least) to fit in as well with the theme.
You can see all the books I’ve finished so far this year on the bookshelf on my Books page or read all of my mini reviews by clicking on the 2011 Reads tag.
I'm a mom with Asperger's raising an amazing son with autism, which means I'm basically the case manager/advocate/cheerleader/chauffeur. The rest of the time, you can usually find me with my nose in a book!
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I enjoyed reading your reviews. I will be on the lookout for The Best Kind of Different. My ds3 was diagnosed with Asperger’s a few years back. Thanks for stopping by my WOYN post.
Thank you so much – glad you enjoyed them! It’s great to meet another “spectrum” mom.
I loved what you had to say about short stories. I too have never read them, though I’m not sure why, but I think that your description summed it up nicely.
I posted a review of You Know When the Men are Gone recently — a short story collection. It’s gotten lots of attention, and I’m really glad I read it.
If you wanted to submit a guest post for On Reading about Short Stories, I think that would be cool (why you didn’t read them, and what you like about them — just expounding on your sentences above).
Thanks for the comment and the invitation to submit a post. I’ll definitely be in touch!
All the books you mentiones are new to me.
I hope you find something you like. I always love to find a new-to-me author!
I like this idea of posting what’s on your nightstand. I love to read and really enjoy hearing what other people are reading. I’m going to have to check some of these books out. I’ve been reading a lot of autism books and need a break!
Glad you stopped by then – I can only handle so much information before I totally need an escape!