The Book Depository Aspergirls by Rudy Simone
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Price: £13.99
Brand: The Book Depository
Description: Aspergirls : Paperback : Jessica Kingsley Publishers : 9781849058261 : 1849058261 : 15 Jun 2010 : Rudy Simone guides you through every aspect of both personal and professional life, from early recollections of blame, guilt, and savant skills, to friendships, romance and marriage. Employment, career, rituals and routines are also covered. Simone rejects negative views of Aspergirls and empowers them to lead happy and fulfilled lives. The Book Depository Aspergirls by Rudy Simone - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: The Book Depository
Product ID: 9781849058261
MPN: 1849058261
GTIN: 9781849058261
Author: Adult Aspie
Rating: 5
Review: In typical Aspie fashion, as soon as I learned I had the syndrome I set out to find out as much as I could about it (kind of strange I know, since I've lived with it for over 40 years!). Having waded through two books on the subject so far by NT clinicians/'experts' and felt alternately patronised and at least partially misunderstood, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind now that if you truly want to know what it's like to have AS, you need to read books by authors who have it. Rudy Simone is one such author, and a great one at that. From the very first page of this book to the very last I finally felt that here was someone who had lived a near replica of my life - apart from her reported terrible childhood at home, which I didn't share, we could be twins. She writes in a chatty, upbeat style that is really easy to read (I got through the book in a day) and I found myself annotating the pages for my family - copious 'YES!' comments started appearing and I lost count of the amount of times I stopped in my tracks at the sheer accuracy of the account. This is the first book I've read on the subject that has made me laugh, cry and feel genuinely understood and positive. And they say that Aspies have emotional difficulties - don't believe a word of it! Unsurprisingly with a syndrome as diverse as this, there are still one or two little things that aren't relevant to me (for instance, I disagree with Rudy when she says we would prefer a small shop to a supermarket - I feel I can be anonymous in a supermarket, whereas in a small shop I always feel hassled by assistants), but I found far less to disagree with than in the other books I've read and my overwhelming feeling about the book was positive. If you are a female Aspie, or if you have any female in your family with AS or suspected AS, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. If you or a 'specialist' have ever dismissed a diagnosis for your loved one because the books tell you Aspies should have impaired imagination and your loved one has the most vivid imagination you've ever come across, or because we're supposed to be 'cold and unemotional' and your loved one is more touchy-feely than any NT you've ever met, this book will enlighten you. In fact, you don't even need to read the whole book - the chart of female symptoms in the back of the book is worth the price alone. As it says in the subtitle, a truly empowering book.
Author: Miss Jones
Rating: 3
Review: There is useful info in here to look further into (which is why I have given it 3 stars and would recommend it for that reason). Onto the negative in my opinion: At the beginning of the book she does specify the fact that everyone is different and not all will experience all of these things, however she then continues to use the pronoun ‘we’ continuously. This can’t help but read like she’s severely overgeneralising and gives the wrong impression if you forget what she mentioned at the beginning. Even if you do remember it, it feels confusing to me. I am guessing she used ‘we’ to attempt to help with empowerment, to help 'aspergirls' feel they belong to a group who share similar differences, to contrast with most of their lives where they have probably felt very alone in their differences. However in my opinion the book would be more empowering, read less cheesy, less patronising, more accurately, more consistently with her beginning assurances, less giving the wrong impression, if it was written in the third person and more formally (with references to help people do further research into her ideas). Also, to me personally at least, I’m not sure seeing ourselves as ‘we’ and ‘them’ is helpful. I feel like my individuality in personality regardless of possible Asperger's (I am not diagnosed but need to be assessed as I struggle so much with these symptoms), is squashed with the tone of this book. Despite her inclusion of such quotes as the below: P21 “I do not mean to say that we are all blindingly smart; if you are an Aspergirl without a “zone passion”, and you have no savant skill, you are not alone. “What really makes me uncomfortable is when Aspie campaigners couch that “leave us alone” argument in the myth that all AS people are super intelligent mathematician science savants and some sort of master race. That makes me feel, as an Aspie who doesn’t have any of that, I’m a double fail – I fail at being normal, and also fail at being AS.” (Polly). - I feel like these quotes aren’t enough to override the fact that the book then goes on to do exactly that: stereotype with ‘we’, which makes me uncomfortable and I think could actually feel alienating to some, which I gather was the opposite of the author’s intention. For example: P31 ‘Alone, we are talented, graceful, witty, and smart…’ - I know this was meant to read as empowering, but to suggest every Aspergirl is talented, graceful, witty and smart, I think would make anyone who isn’t those things feel sad. I also find it patronising, as no I am not all of those things, but I think the message should be ‘it’s okay to not be all of those things, we aren't all that similar as we are all unique’, rather than having the patronising insistence that ‘we’ are so smart and brilliant, which sounds a bit big-headed. I think it is also rather subjective whether someone is ‘witty’ :P