Born on a Blue Day

Daniel Tammet is AMAZING

There are so many things that are great about him

His ability to translate his experience, his beautiful mind and his great kindness

I found  so many things that the author writes fascinating , example he talks about  synesthesia

I always say SPD is the heart of autism

But I am struck by how difficult it will be to teach a child who literally does not see thnings the same way

The author writes that he sees numbers like colors 

and that the way we teach addition in school is very difficult for him 

Though when allowed to do things his own way - he imagines the two numbers like shapes and then they combine together to form a different shape

I always say that my son is "different not less"

But books like this show me what that really really means 

The Case of the Missing Servant Tarquin Hall

Tarquin Hall is AMAZING

A lawyer- Mr Kasliwal -  in Jaipur has been  arrested.

He is accused of murdering his servant- Mary

The lawyer hires "Mr Vish Puri" - Most Private investigator -to  find out who actually murdered Mary .

Mr Kasliwal is convinced that he is being framed- as he is a lawyer fighting corruption

Indeed he is being framed -but the "murder" is about something else altogether

I loved everything about this story and had to read out several of the passages to my husband

If you have ever lived in Delhi - you must read this book !


Vish Puri has renamed his entire staff. - the employee that takes a while to get started in the morning is called "Tube light" , the employee from the village that happens to be the only man that has a toilet is called "Flush", his driver is called Handbrake and he himself is called Chubby

The whole world has turned PC - but not Delhi  and Tarquin Hall bring Delhi to full color in a stunning fashion

Love Lies and Liquor, M.C. Beaton

Another delightful escape!

I read this book on the couch next to a fireplace with the moonlight spilling all around me through the giant windows of our cabin after R went to bed and DH was watching a TV show that I am not interested in ( Breaking Bad )

Agatha Raisin is always in the grip of an obsession with her ex husband James Lacey.

She is delighted when he asks if she would like to take a vacation with him .

She packs a suitcase full of alluring clothes .

But James is taking her to a dreary town called Snoth-on-Sea

 Its a miserable place and Agatha finds that her dreams of a cosy idyll with James are so far fetched

While eating dinner, a woman on a nearby table is very rude to her Agatha is inflamed and threatens to "kill " Geraldine
 Of course, threatening to kill someone, is a manner of speech. A little hyperbole that we are all used to.

But Geraldine, turns up dead 

Unattractive, plump Geraldine turns out to have had three husbands in the past One of them was a jewel -thief , now serving time

 Turns out Geraldine has his stash !

Who has killed Geraldine? Of course I will not spoil the mystery for you.

 But be assured, the murderer will not be discovered, until the other subplot- relating to laundering money - is also solved

 There is yet another subplot in all Agatha Rasins - her romance with James Lacey

 He is cold and bachelor like and only attracted to her in this story because she seems to have recovered from him.

 This is the very first story in which Agatha finally seems to be growing up

 But does she like it? No she does not!

  Because love is the ultimate addiction

The Apprentice : Rizzoli and Aisles

I got interested in this series because of the TV show

The TV shows are great

The books are all eminently readable though I need to flip over the more gory bits

All the killers in this series seem to be sadistic psychopaths.

 I personally prefer a good clean murder - where someone becomes a murderer for a real purpose not just because they like killing

Its a fast moving series with a lot of violence .

I have read all of them and if you would like to read just one - "The Mephisto Club" is particularly spine- chilling ( even though- with its emphasis on good and evil, ancient religions and symbology  it reminded me a lot of the Robert Langdon book - Angels and Demons  )

Death of Chimney Sweep

Pure escapism

Nothing is more blissful than the latest Hamish McBeth mystery and a cup of tea!

Hamish is a truly happy man who lives in a small village called Lochduh - in the Highlands of Scotland

He is the man without any ambition.

He loves to solve mysteries and is a remarkably shrewd and relies a lot on his intuition

(The intuition is a lot  like the other series by this author - The Agatha Raisin Series - which I also love )

I have read every book by MC Beaton ( and in fact re-read several of hers )

The story is about a bossy and controlling Captain Davenport - who moves to the village of Drim with his wimpy wife - Milly

Captain Davenport is a spiteful man who is clearly scared of something

One day he he gets a phonecall

He tells his wife that he will be out for the day and that  a visitor may come. Its imperative that she  tell the visitor that the Captain is abroad

His wife- free of her bullying husband - goes down to the village- after letting the chimney sweep in

However when she returns - she notices that blood is dripping from the chimney !

The Captain has been murdered and stuffed up the chimney in his fireplace

The chimney sweep is suspected but he is dead too

As always, Hamish comes to rescue and a few more dead bodies - and a lot of charm later -the mystery is solved 

My Stroke of Insight

This may be my current favorite book of all time

A beautiful book about a Harvard Neuroanatomist who has spend a lot of her time working on the brain - due to her brother's schizophrenia

She at the exact same age as me ( 37 ) has a stroke

She talks about her experience while having the stroke. She talks about her recovery

And while she is talking about the stroke - I am thinking of how much autistic regression sounds like a stroke

There is such little out there on the biology of a regression - how does a child know how to make eye contact and speak - and how does that same child lose those abilities ?


There is so much press around what causes regression but almost nothing around what is happening inside the brain

This is something I believe all autism therapists must read

“I chose to show up for those professionals who brought me energy by connecting with me, touching me gently and appropriately, making direct eye contact with me, and speaking to me calmly. I responded positively to positive treatment. The professionals who did not connect with me sapped my energy, so I protected myself by ignoring their requests.

my brain craved minimal stimulation. It was not that I was depressed, but my brain was on sensory overload and could not process the barrage of incoming information.”
Chapter 10

“She intuitively understood that to get from A to C, I had to learn A, then B, and then C. It was if I had an infant brain again and had to learn virtually everything from scratch. I was back to the basics. … The process of physical recovery was just like the stages of normal development. I had to go through each stage, master that level of ability, and then the next step unfolded naturally.”
Chapter 11

"I desperately needed people to treat me as though I would recover completely. Regardless of whether it could take three months, two years, 20 years, or a lifetime, I needed people to have faith in my continued ability to learn, heal, and grow.”
Chapter 13

“Scientists are well aware that the brain has tremendous ability to change its connections based upon its incoming stimulation. This ‘plasticity’ of the brain underlies its ability to recover from lost function.”

All in all this is my favorite book and I really believe everbody should read this book and listen to Dr Jill Bolte Taylor on TED tv.

I will end with one of my favorite quotes from her book

“We can all learn that we can take full responsibility for what thoughts we are thinking and what emotional circuitry we are feeling. Knowing this and acting on this can lead us into feeling a wonderful sense of well-being and peacefulness.”

After the Fall

I enjoyed this book by Kylie Ladd

After the Fall is a story about adultery and about those that step outside the bounds of marriage

I have never really understood the concept of adultery after marriage if one is happy with the marriage.

To me, there seems too much at stake- once you are married and if you believe that physical aspect will wane ( as I believe it always does ) there seems no sense once one is married for an upheaval( as the two protagonists - Luke and Kate are )

But even while ensconced in perfect marriages - they are unfaithful to their respective partners

They appear motivated by and enamored by the irresistible passion ( i think for some people the concept of not being able to resist is a drug in and of itself )

Each short chapter is written in the voice of each of the main characters and as I adore seeing things through the eyes of another - I really truly enjoyed this book

The writer is a psychologist by profession and this adds an extra depth to the characters

I found Kate and Luke to be self absorbed. Cressida is obsessed with her career. Steven is the only one I truly felt sorry for

I recommended this book to a friend who had a different experience - he found it very superficial - Each character a cliche

He wrote to me

"Characters were a bit too stereotypical- player golden boy, who is superficial and unfeeling and works in advertising. Serious wife, super busy and crying for cancer ridden children. Cuckolded husband, too staid and steady, cowboyish calmness and silent type. Only interesting part was Kate's feeling that she perhaps loved them both and perhaps loved Luke more."

He also pointed out something that I had not noticed - the huge role that chance plays - in the way the story concludes

The Autobiography of Mrs Tom Thumb

I enjoyed this book very much indeed

The author is Melanie Benjamin.

The story is about Mercy Lavinia Bump - I was delighted to read in the afterword by the author that this was a fictionalized account of a real person who existed and had a form of proportionate dwarfism

In this story she  defies  the predicted path that had been laid out for her -

As a person of small stature - her family eleives she should stay at home under their protection

But  she defies this

She becomes famous not inspite of her size, but because of it

As the mother of a child with autism - I have always known that where there are differences - its always better to make the most of them than try to blend

And for this reason I loved this story and the character

I had some sorrow in accepting her lack of love for her husband General Tom Thumb - but that is only because I am the sort of person that does love a happy ending

Not just in

The One who reads

I adore books

I have a child with autism and also work fulltime outside the home

Reading books was falling off my list until I discovered audiobooks

Now I read a LOT of books - because I listen to them while commuting, taking  a walk or cleaning the kitchen

These are the following genres of books I read

1. Autism 
2. Brain 
3. Mysteries ( prefer the slightly non - gory genre ) 
4. Business Books 
5. Other Fiction