Books #9-10
Book #9 was "Nobody Nowhere" by Donna Williams, the autobiography of an autistic woman who grew up before we really knew very much about autism. Today, highly-involved parents pester doctors for answers, create support groups and lobby congress. When Donna was 3 or 4 years old, she got smacked in the face every time she did something stereotypically autistic, what her mother called her "acting like a nut." As an understandably hard-to-handle teen, Donna had her face smashed into a wall every day when she came home from school. It is utterly amazing what this woman went through and how she helped "save" herself by trying to understand who she was and why she seemed so different from most other people. The book contains her insights about autism and a sort of brief guide to how to approach an autistic person in a helpful way. As far as I can tell from her website, as an adult, she's still doing pretty well and has gone on to write other books as well as painting and writing music. Not an entirely easy read but a really fascinating one.
Book #10 was "The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas. This classic of French literature has been filmed so many times you may think you know the whole story, but the book is so much more detailed, including giving background stories to the servants of each of the musketeers and a lot more page time devoted to Lady DeWinter. Incidentally, Dumas is a writer of color- his grandmother was a slave from the Caribbean. I don't know why nobody told me this in high school. I listened to this as an audiobook from Librivox.org, and while I didn't love every reader, it was mostly pretty good. I highly enjoyed this book and have "The Count of Monte Cristo" on my "to read" list for the near future.
1. Trickster: Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection Paperback [fiction/graphic short story collection]- Matt Dembicki -Ed.
2. Light Music [fiction]- Kathleen Ann Goonan
3. The Indian Clerk [fiction]- David Leavitt
4. The Diving Bell & the Butterfly [non-fiction/memoir]- Jean-Dominique Bauby
5. Clarence Darrow: American Iconoclast [non-fiction]- Andrew E. Kersten
6. Blue Champagne [fiction/short stories]- John Varley
7. A Person of Interest [fiction]- Susan Choi
8. Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country [non-fiction]- Louise Erdrich
Book #10 was "The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas. This classic of French literature has been filmed so many times you may think you know the whole story, but the book is so much more detailed, including giving background stories to the servants of each of the musketeers and a lot more page time devoted to Lady DeWinter. Incidentally, Dumas is a writer of color- his grandmother was a slave from the Caribbean. I don't know why nobody told me this in high school. I listened to this as an audiobook from Librivox.org, and while I didn't love every reader, it was mostly pretty good. I highly enjoyed this book and have "The Count of Monte Cristo" on my "to read" list for the near future.
1. Trickster: Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection Paperback [fiction/graphic short story collection]- Matt Dembicki -Ed.
2. Light Music [fiction]- Kathleen Ann Goonan
3. The Indian Clerk [fiction]- David Leavitt
4. The Diving Bell & the Butterfly [non-fiction/memoir]- Jean-Dominique Bauby
5. Clarence Darrow: American Iconoclast [non-fiction]- Andrew E. Kersten
6. Blue Champagne [fiction/short stories]- John Varley
7. A Person of Interest [fiction]- Susan Choi
8. Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country [non-fiction]- Louise Erdrich