A helpful guide for people with autism that may be overly optimistic in its execution.
Diggins explores strategies for people with autism to thrive in a neurotypical world.
In the opening chapter, the author introduces the concept of sensory diets, which are intentional choices that support optimal functioning: everything from the living environment to clothing fabrics that preserve energy. “A first step in creating a sensory diet plan,” the author explains, “is to start with a self-assessment. Ask yourself: When do you feel your best? What environments energize you? What situations leave you drained? What sensory experiences do you seek out, and which do you avoid?” The book offers a three-phase action plan for shutdowns (internal withdrawals) and meltdowns (external expressions of overload), consisting of prevention, crisis planning, and recovery. The author draws on her marriage to a neurotypical man to describe the importance of “I want, I need” language for identifying preferences from non-negotiables: for example, wanting Thai food but needing to eat in a calm environment. A chapter on friendship offers tips for establishing and maintaining friendships, as well as a “Friendship Compatibility Checklist” to identify whether individual boundaries, communication styles, and values align. The author also offers detailed discussions on when to disclose an autism diagnosis and how to prepare for a wide range of reactions. Diggins’ advice for social gatherings includes eating beforehand, planning your outfit, and preparing conversation starters. This discussion extends to “big life events,” in which the autistic person is the center of attention. A chapter dedicated to eye contact considers how it may feel like “intimacy overload,” as well as other ways to demonstrate engagement, including verbal affirmations and body language such as head nods. Making meetings more tolerable—by requesting agendas, goals, and role clarity ahead of time—merits its own chapter alongside one on leadership. The book concludes with a section on adapting the book’s strategies for autistic people with ADHD.
Diggins combines lived experience with tried-and-true strategies to help people with autism navigate a neurotypical world. One of the book’s strengths is its breadth; the author addresses everything from romantic partnerships to family gatherings to work settings. Diggins encourages readers to get to know their limits through self-inquiry; for example, she provides a checklist to identify whether and when you are “masking,” with questions such as, “I rehearse what I want to say before speaking, even in casual conversations.” That self-knowledge is followed by implementable strategies, like “low-risk unmasking experiments” such as “letting your enthusiasm for a topic show.” Actionable advice is almost always phrased in a memorable way, including, “Plan ahead, pace yourself, and protect your energy.” The book also recognizes that not all situations are malleable, like the realization that “just as I want others to respect my working style, I need to respect theirs. Sometimes you’ll just have to sit through meetings that feel like a waste of time to you but that are helpful to others.” However, some suggestions seem unrealistic, such as creating a “user manual” to enhance your professional reports on how you lead, work, and communicate—or writing a lengthy letter to your doctor outlining your sensitivities to noise, lighting, movement, and physical contact.
A helpful guide for people with autism that may be overly optimistic in its execution.Pub Date: June 23, 2025
ISBN: 9798998568909
Page Count: 237
Publisher: Everyday Success Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.
In which the veteran humorist enters middle age with fine snark but some trepidation as well.
Mortality is weighing on Sedaris (Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, 2017, etc.), much of it his own, professional narcissist that he is. Watching an elderly man have a bowel accident on a plane, he dreaded the day when he would be the target of teenagers’ jokes “as they raise their phones to take my picture from behind.” A skin tumor troubled him, but so did the doctor who told him he couldn’t keep it once it was removed. “But it’s my tumor,” he insisted. “I made it.” (Eventually, he found a semitrained doctor to remove and give him the lipoma, which he proceeded to feed to a turtle.) The deaths of others are much on the author’s mind as well: He contemplates the suicide of his sister Tiffany, his alcoholic mother’s death, and his cantankerous father’s erratic behavior. His contemplation of his mother’s drinking—and his family’s denial of it—makes for some of the most poignant writing in the book: The sound of her putting ice in a rocks glass increasingly sounded “like a trigger being cocked.” Despite the gloom, however, frivolity still abides in the Sedaris clan. His summer home on the Carolina coast, which he dubbed the Sea Section, overspills with irreverent bantering between him and his siblings as his long-suffering partner, Hugh, looks on. Sedaris hasn’t lost his capacity for bemused observations of the people he encounters. For example, cashiers who say “have a blessed day” make him feel “like you’ve been sprayed against your will with God cologne.” But bad news has sharpened the author’s humor, and this book is defined by a persistent, engaging bafflement over how seriously or unseriously to take life when it’s increasingly filled with Trump and funerals.
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-39238-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
PROFILES
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