An authentic, engaging, and informative look at an autistic woman’s inner world.
An autistic woman explains how her condition shapes her world in Kotowicz’s nonfiction debut.
The author blends autobiography and health reporting as she describes her own experience with autism and offers a perspective on how neurotypical people can best interact with, support, and love the autistic people in their lives. Kotowicz, who received her diagnosis as an adult, explains how she came to understand that she experienced sensations, processed thoughts, and managed her physical and emotional needs differently from the nonautistic people around her. The book addresses theories of autism, common misunderstandings of autistic behavior, and strategies for both autistic and neurotypical people to use to improve their interactions. The concluding chapter is optimistic, focusing on the ways in which the author has embraced her neurological differences, framing them as core aspects of her identity rather than problems to be fixed. Although the chapter subtitles (“How I Take It All In,” “How I Reach a Tipping Point,” “How My Heart Is Healing”) make it clear that Kotowicz’s individual experience forms this well-told and compelling narrative’s core, she describes situations and experiences that are common among people with autism. The book’s dual nature, functioning as both personal history and informational guide, works well, universalizing an individual story while also focusing on the unique details. The author does an excellent job of discussing autism without pathologizing it. Kotowicz is particularly skilled at breaking down her experiences into their fundamental elements and discussing underlying causes, as when she explains that she was able to manage a sensitivity to rain by understanding that, although raindrops caused her no harm, the pain they produced was a valid feeling that she could only process once she acknowledged its existence. The book makes a solid case for developing a global sense of empathy: “Be mindful that someone’s internal state may be different than you expect, and different than you’d feel if you were acting like them.”
An authentic, engaging, and informative look at an autistic woman’s inner world.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2022
ISBN: 9798986482729
Page Count: 118
Publisher: Neurobeautiful
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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