An assortment of enlightening interviews with people with autism and their families.
Members of the autism community have their say in this collection of interviews.
Autism is a spectrum, and those affected by it represent a whole range of experiences. Each person’s autism is different, which is why it is important to listen to as many perspectives as possible. In this work, Aguirre compiles interviews with over 30 advocates from the autism community, including people with the condition and their families. They discuss the ways autism manifests in their lives as well as questions of faith, community, work, school, and what they wish others knew about the condition. Some talk about the way their autism intersects with other issues in their lives, like Ben from Virginia, who has encountered both ableism and racism, often at the same time. Ginny Conroy, also from Virginia, talks about how her brother, Russell, manages with both autism and Down syndrome. She discusses how the autism was in some ways harder for the family to deal with when he was a child. Russell’s situation inspired Conroy—who suspects several of her family members fall somewhere on the spectrum—to embark on a career in special education and behavioral analysis. Several other parents and siblings of people with autism share their own insights, which readers outside the autism community may be surprised to learn. “I would…like others to know that parents of autistic children can be under significant scrutiny from others, including autistic adults,” says Amanda, a third Virginian, whose twins, Noah and Nick, have the disorder. “Some of them are displeased with the parents of autistic children.…I am terrified that my children could feel the same way one day.” Such messages contribute to the author’s portrait of the contemporary autism landscape, one in which increased activism and visibility go hand in hand with differing opinions and occasional misunderstandings.
The book is elegantly formatted, with full-color photographs of each person profiled. Aguirre is a minimal presence as an interviewer, but her short, open-ended questions invite intriguing responses from her interviewees. She frequently speaks with multiple members of the same family, which helps to show how individuals’ autism can shape the lives and relationships of those around them. The variety of experiences within the autism community is on display here even as members of that group admit to feeling sidelined or silenced. “People don’t care that I’m autistic, and they don’t care that I’m an autistic parent,” says Sal from Texas. “People don’t even care that I have my degree and am a practitioner who specializes in autism. They still don’t want to hear what I have to say.” The book is released as a special edition of Autism Parenting Magazine, and the primary audience seems to be those who are already inside or adjacent to the autism community. But readers with little experience of autism or a curiosity to learn more will be well served by this volume, which succeeds in putting a number of faces to the condition.
An assortment of enlightening interviews with people with autism and their families.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-66709-360-4
Page Count: 453
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
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
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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