Bold and illuminating writing about autism.
A memoir explores what it means to live with autism.
Born in 2002, Glisik was diagnosed with autism when she was 3 years old. Doctors conceded that they were uncertain that she would ever be able to speak. Growing up, she found that writing “opened a window to the world” that she thought was “locked shut.” In this book, the author endeavors to come to know herself by reflecting on how autism has shaped her life. She touches on key life events, such as the experience of being an “American kid” who relocated to Slovenia in the third grade. But the memoir’s emphasis is on describing the emotional effects of autism. Glisik addresses in detail how aspects of the world would overwhelm her as a child, such as everyday sounds and contact with specific materials. As an adult, she explains how she struggled to “tune into” all forms of nonverbal communication. The author also recounts coming out as a lesbian with autism. This work can be read as a stand-alone or in tandem with Don’t Look Away: My Child Has Autism (2022), which offers the perspective of Glisik’s mother, Mojca. Glisik is a smartly descriptive writer who displays the ability to place readers in her position. Her actions as a child, which perplexed others, are explained with clarity—such as her “becoming a human police siren” in reaction to invasive noises: “My high-frequency shrieks would draw my attention away from those hostile vibrations in the air. After all, what’s more soothing than my own screams?” The author’s writing also demonstrates an acute self-awareness. With regard to her obsessive behavior, such as repeated hand-washing, she writes: “I’ve been caught in the same Catch 22: listening to those obsessive thoughts and acting out my compulsions eased the anxiety, but it also made me downright miserable.” Glisik is also mordantly incisive when it comes to the stereotyping of autism, such as referring to it as a “superpower”: “Telling me…that the reason I missed my mom’s graduation party was because of a superpower is merely insulting.” The author’s brilliantly expressive memoir is important: It not only opens readers’ eyes to how an individual with autism feels, but also articulates the burden of skewed societal expectations.
Bold and illuminating writing about autism.Pub Date: May 23, 2022
ISBN: 9789619544846
Page Count: 258
Publisher: IGM LEGACY d.o.o.
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A rags-to-riches how-to as entertaining as it is wise.
In this debut memoir, Bahamian millionaire Bastian offers insight into building a business.
The author was a millionaire by the time he was 19, an impressive feat considering he began his working life filling stockpots and rolling napkins in his father’s Nassau restaurant, a locals’ hole-in-the-wall far from the city’s tourist hotels. “In many ways, I started ten steps behind the starting line in a world where opportunities felt few and far between,” writes Bastian in his introduction. A poor student with a gambler’s risk tolerance and a salesman’s eye for an unserved market, the author dropped out of college to launch his own satellite installation business—the first of its kind in the Bahamas—eventually expanding into prepaid phones and other electronics. With this book, Bastian uses his personal experiences to illustrate the steps aspiring entrepreneurs should consider when building their own empires. “My goal isn’t just to tell my story,” he explains; “it’s to provide you with a starting point, a strategy, and the encouragement you need to take your first step toward something bigger.” The book alternates between memoiristic chapters describing the author’s youth and career and instructional chapters outlining the best practices to “become a lion” (his preferred metaphor for a brave, risk-taking captain of industry). From evaluating one’s skill set and choosing a suitable goal to the practicalities of regulation and taxes, Bastian walks the reader through the complicated processes of starting and maintaining a successful enterprise. While much of the advice is of the boilerplate variety, the author offers it with clarity and candor, devoting an entire chapter, for example, on how to fail productively. It is the biographical material that lends his advice unusual weight—Bastian’s stories of flying back and forth between the Bahamas and Miami to personally import satellite dishes are fascinating enough to stand on their own. Readers may be unable to replicate his success, but there is no denying that his tale is inspiring.
A rags-to-riches how-to as entertaining as it is wise.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9798891882485
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Advantage Media Group
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.
The former iCarly star reflects on her difficult childhood.
In her debut memoir, titled after her 2020 one-woman show, singer and actor McCurdy (b. 1992) reveals the raw details of what she describes as years of emotional abuse at the hands of her demanding, emotionally unstable stage mom, Debra. Born in Los Angeles, the author, along with three older brothers, grew up in a home controlled by her mother. When McCurdy was 3, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she initially survived, the disease’s recurrence would ultimately take her life when the author was 21. McCurdy candidly reconstructs those in-between years, showing how “my mom emotionally, mentally, and physically abused me in ways that will forever impact me.” Insistent on molding her only daughter into “Mommy’s little actress,” Debra shuffled her to auditions beginning at age 6. As she matured and starting booking acting gigs, McCurdy remained “desperate to impress Mom,” while Debra became increasingly obsessive about her daughter’s physical appearance. She tinted her daughter’s eyelashes, whitened her teeth, enforced a tightly monitored regimen of “calorie restriction,” and performed regular genital exams on her as a teenager. Eventually, the author grew understandably resentful and tried to distance herself from her mother. As a young celebrity, however, McCurdy became vulnerable to eating disorders, alcohol addiction, self-loathing, and unstable relationships. Throughout the book, she honestly portrays Debra’s cruel perfectionist personality and abusive behavior patterns, showing a woman who could get enraged by everything from crooked eyeliner to spilled milk. At the same time, McCurdy exhibits compassion for her deeply flawed mother. Late in the book, she shares a crushing secret her father revealed to her as an adult. While McCurdy didn’t emerge from her childhood unscathed, she’s managed to spin her harrowing experience into a sold-out stage act and achieve a form of catharsis that puts her mind, body, and acting career at peace.
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982185-82-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
