April 2nd is Autism Awareness Day: SO here’s some books with some Autism Rep!

As a medical student, I’ve been trying to make myself more aware about all the different World Health Days and I think it would be helpful to shed some light on the topic before I dive in with the (very limited) recs that I have!

I don’t want to speak for those that feel like their own voices aren’t being heard, but as someone going into the healthcare profession I want to educate myself and others about things that people tend to stigmatize and stereotype.

Autism Spectrum Disorder is exactly what it says it is: a spectrum of conditions that involve behavior and speech in varying degrees. It’s a developmental disorder that isn’t always diagnosed. Some people go most of their childhood without being diagnosed because people aren’t properly educated about it and dismiss common characteristics as just being “weird”, but research has shown that early diagnosis can lead to more positive outcomes later in life!

For more information about ASD, visit: the WHO website ; or the CDC website

Books I’ve Read/Want to Read

Disclaimer: I am not autistic (I’m just a medical student) and so if any of these books were not an accurate representation, please let me know! I don’t want to provide any recommendations if they’re offensive!

The Kiss Quotient was one of my favorite reads of 2018 and I really loved the plot and how th eprimary focus wasn’t JUST Stella having Asperger’s (ALSO IT’S A GENDER BENT PRETTY WOMAN?! LIKE YES). And it’s #ownvoices !

A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there’s not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick.

Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases — a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.

It doesn’t help that Stella has Asperger’s and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice — with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can’t afford to turn down Stella’s offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan — from foreplay to more-than-missionary position…

Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but to crave all the other things he’s making her feel. Soon, their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic…

I read The Rosie Project and enjoyed it because it was just a cute rom-com style book!

An international sensation, this hilarious, feel-good novel is narrated by an oddly charming and socially challenged genetics professor on an unusual quest: to find out if he is capable of true love.

Don Tillman, professor of genetics, has never been on a second date. He is a man who can count all his friends on the fingers of one hand, whose lifelong difficulty with social rituals has convinced him that he is simply not wired for romance. So when an acquaintance informs him that he would make a “wonderful” husband, his first reaction is shock. Yet he must concede to the statistical probability that there is someone for everyone, and he embarks upon The Wife Project. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which he approaches all things, Don sets out to find the perfect partner. She will be punctual and logical—most definitely not a barmaid, a smoker, a drinker, or a late-arriver.

Yet Rosie Jarman is all these things. She is also beguiling, fiery, intelligent—and on a quest of her own. She is looking for her biological father, a search that a certain DNA expert might be able to help her with. Don’s Wife Project takes a back burner to the Father Project and an unlikely relationship blooms, forcing the scientifically minded geneticist to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie—and the realization that love is not always what looks good on paper.

The Rosie Project is a moving and hilarious novel for anyone who has ever tenaciously gone after life or love in the face of overwhelming challenges.

I’m excited for The Boy Who Steals Houses by C.G. Drews because I absolutely loved A Thousand Perfect Notes and I know this is going to be just as amazing! This comes out April 4th, 2019! This is also #ownvoices

Can two broken boys find their perfect home?

Sam is only fifteen but he and his autistic older brother, Avery, have been abandoned by every relative he’s ever known. Now Sam’s trying to build a new life for them. He survives by breaking into empty houses when their owners are away, until one day he’s caught out when a family returns home. To his amazement this large, chaotic family takes him under their wing – each teenager assuming Sam is a friend of another sibling. Sam finds himself inextricably caught up in their life, and falling for the beautiful Moxie. 

But Sam has a secret, and his past is about to catch up with him.

OTHER AUTISM REP

• I know a lot of people really enjoy The Good Doctor which is a television show based off of the Korean drama. I personally didn’t get into it, but I know it’s really popular and I’ve heard good things!
• Abed in the old show Community has been depicted as a college student with Asperger’s. It’s heavily implied but not downright stated.
• There was this old show (that sadly got cancelled, though it was a really good show) called Touch with Kiefer Sutherland playing a father of a nonverbal autistic child who communicates using numbers. This was such a good show, y’all. Like… my family and I watched it together and it was intense.
• Okay I haven’t seen this movie (strangely enough) but the Bollywood movie My Name is Khan shows an Indian-American man with Asperger’s and it also deals with racism (post 9/11)!