What I really like about Curious Incident... is that it gives you an insight into someone who sees the world in a fundamentally different way than most other people. For instance, I remember the part about jokes, how he'd analysed what a joke is without understanding it.
For me, the book didn't make a difference because the boy had asperger's, but because it really made me think about some aspects of life.
I'm 100% with you on this one, Hanne! I loved how the book made you think about "normality". I never once thought "oh man, so THAT'S exactly what asperger is like...".
I'm 100% with you on this one, Hanne! I loved how the book made you think about "normality". I never once thought "oh man, so THAT'S exactly what asperger is like...".
No I haven't, but it really sounds interesting. Oh I have no time to read at the moment. I've got some unread books (in English) on my shelf: the new one by Dan Brown, A Thousind Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon and a few other books that I don't even remember. Sigh! I also wanna read the trilogy by Stieg Larsson and several other books.
What I really like about Curious Incident... is that it gives you an insight into someone who sees the world in a fundamentally different way than most other people. For instance, I remember the part about jokes, how he'd analysed what a joke is without understanding it.
For me, the book didn't make a difference because the boy had asperger's, but because it really made me think about some aspects of life.
I'm 100% with you on this one, Hanne! I loved how the book made you think about "normality". I never once thought "oh man, so THAT'S exactly what asperger is like...".
Good :-)
Sadly, as someone with AS I've found that a lot of people thought, after reading that book, that it was a kind of factual reference for AS.
@comments about that book the Curious Dog with the Midnight Things He Was Doing or whatever it is called. I didn't like the book. It annoyed me so I stopped reading it. I thought his follow up book was WAY better, the name escapes me now - about a family, really worth the effort - breezy and fun.
@comments about that book the Curious Dog with the Midnight Things He Was Doing or whatever it is called. I didn't like the book. It annoyed me so I stopped reading it. I thought his follow up book was WAY better, the name escapes me now - about a family, really worth the effort - breezy and fun.
Would that be A Spot of Bother? Haven't read it yet but I've got it on my shelf.
Good :-)
Sadly, as someone with AS I've found that a lot of people thought, after reading that book, that it was a kind of factual reference for AS.
That's what Dustin Hoffman did to autists. For many years I thought that most autists have some sort of special gifts. Only after watching a show about it I found out that it's not quite the case.
The son of one of my mum's friends is autistic. When we were children, he was accepted as a part of the group, albeit a bit strange. Today he lives in a protected home where he works with some sort of computer programming. Since he's so skilled in that, I just assumed that all autists has special gifts.
@comments about that book the Curious Dog with the Midnight Things He Was Doing or whatever it is called. I didn't like the book. It annoyed me so I stopped reading it. I thought his follow up book was WAY better, the name escapes me now - about a family, really worth the effort - breezy and fun.
Would that be A Spot of Bother? Haven't read it yet but I've got it on my shelf.
Hmmm, maybe I should give that one a try. Something "breezy and fun" is exactly what I need right now.
I just seen this and have to run BUT I will reply as soon as possible. That's good now that I know you don't like thrillers, I have plenty of recommendations for you! :D
I just seen this and have to run BUT I will reply as soon as possible. That's good now that I know you don't like thrillers, I have plenty of recommendations for you! :D
"The Dolphin People" is an adventure yarn in the grand tradition of "Robinson Crusoe", "The Swiss Family Robinson" and "Lord of the Flies". This is another unputdownable novel from Torsten Krol, master storyteller.In 1946, a young German widow and her two sons arrive in Venezuela to begin a new life. Helga will marry her brother-in-law, Klaus, a doctor, and the boys, Erich and Zeppi, will accept him as their stepfather. Together the family fly out to a distant jungle outpost where Klaus is to be the new medical officer, but en route their plane flies into a fierce tropical storm and crashes into a river in a remote region of Amazonas.They are rescued by the Yayomi, a tribe of stone-age Indians, who assume they are terrestrial incarnations of magical dolphins and accept the family into their tribe. They are not alone among the natives: Gerhard Wentzler is an anthropologist who has been studying the Yayomi for years, too long to be able to leave.At first all goes well, the boys in particular adapting readily to Yayomi ways, but slowly and painfully Erich begins to realize that Klaus may not be the noble figure he thought he was.
The Shack - William P. Young
Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his great sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.
Against his better judgement he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever.
In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant THE SHACK wrestles with the timeless question, 'Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?' The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!
Yes Man - Danny Wallace
'I, Danny Wallace, being of sound mind and body, do hereby write this manifesto for my life. I swear I will be more open to opportunity. I swear I will live my life taking every available chance. I will say Yes to every favour, request, suggestion and invitation. I Will Swear To Say Yes Where Once I Would Say No.' Danny Wallace had been staying in. Far too much. Having been dumped by his girlfriend, he really wasn't doing the young, free and single thing very well. Instead he was avoiding people. Texting them Instead of calling them. Calling them Instead of meeting them. That is until that one fateful date when a mystery man on a late-night bus told him to 'Say Yes more'. These three simple words changed Danny's life forever. Yes Man is the story of what happened when Danny decided to say Yes to everything, in order to make his life more interesting. And boy, did it get more interesting.
The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton
'A haunting story of the search for identity...is packed with memorable characters and evocative settings. '
Keeping Secrets - Andrew Rosenheim
‘This novel is full of suspense but is also unashamedly romantic in a Sebastian Faulks-ish way.’
The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom (Or read Tuesday's With Morrie - brilliant book)
It recounts the life and death of a simple yet dignified old man, Eddie. After dying in a freak accident, Eddie finds himself in heaven where he encounters five people who have significantly affected his life, whether he realized at the time or not. Mitch Albom dedicates the book to his uncle Edward Beitchman. He says that he wants people like his uncle who felt unimportant here on earth to realize, finally, how much they mattered and how they were loved.
Small Island - Andrea Levy
‘What makes Levy’s writing so appealing is her even-handedness. All her characters can be weak, hopeless, brave, good, bad - whatever their colour. The writing is rigorous and the bittersweet ending, with its unexpected twist, touching... People can retain great dignity, however small their island’ Independent on Sunday, 25/1/04 (Independent on Sunday )
The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
On the surface, Henry and Clare Detamble are a normal couple living in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. Henry works at the Newberry Library and Clare creates abstract paper art, but the cruel reality is that Henry is a prisoner of time. It sweeps him back and forth at its leisure, from the present to the past, with no regard for where he is or what he is doing. It drops him naked and vulnerable into another decade, wearing an age-appropriate face. In fact, it's not unusual for Henry to run into the other Henry and help him out of a jam. Sound unusual? Imagine Clare Detamble's astonishment at seeing Henry dropped stark naked into her parents' meadow when she was only six. Though, of course, until she came of age, Henry was always the perfect gentleman and gave young Clare nothing but his friendship as he dropped in and out of her life. It's no wonder that the film rights to this hip and urban love story have been acquired.
I already read "Yes Man" (it seems to be a boardie-favourite!) and loved it. Tried to read "The Time Traveller's Wife", but I think I'm the only female person on earth who didn't really "get it" and stopped reading (unbelievable, I KNOW!).
But I will definitely make a note of the others and look for them in our local English bookstore :)
