Mockingbird

I wrote previously about how the non-fiction work "Watching The English" could be useful to English Aspies. I book I read some time ago may also be useful: Mockingbird. No, I didn't buy it mistakenly thinking it was part of the recently popular Hunger Games trilogy. It is the story of a young girl with Asperger Syndrome as she tries to help her father out of depression after the murder of her brother. Cheery stuff... But for people on the spectrum and not on the spectrum, I think it's worth a read.

Written in the first person, it really gets you into her thought processes, so you really understand the character and her decisions. If you're not on the spectrum, I would say it gives good insight into someone with Asperger Syndrome, not all of us, but some of us.

Give it a go. Kathryn Erskine. Mockingbird.

Reading "Watching The English"

Reading this book I almost get the same levels of clarity and revelation as I did when I first seriously researched Asperger Syndrome. I'm only partway through Kate Fox's anthropological study of my home people, and already I'm seeing things I've observed myself, but more importantly I'm learning things that could be useful.

Of course, most people out there are not English (which is unfortunate for them), so this book loses quite a lot of relevance. But I do think an outside view of customs and rituals can be very helpful for those who don't instinctively know them. So far, I have noticed a few differences between the observations in her book and my observations of my immediate social group. It could be generational, but even if it isn't it's still generally true. It's a good read.