Powerful Tool To Convince Those Who Deal With People With Asperger Syndrome!, 28 Oct 2008
I have noticed Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals has motivated some parents with AS kids to understand the specifics of AS. And they must have been so relieved, if you ask me! They seemed really surprised to find most of the symptoms applied to their AS kids in this book. Although Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals isn't as informative as his most recent book, The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome, both of them will help Aspies and people dealing with them change their attitude toward AS more positively.

Neither of the books include difficult technical jargons and complicated structures. Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals seems a bit old-fashioned to me because it includes more British spellings, but that is a minor inconvenience.

Therefore, how about starting off with this book if you came across people with AS and became diagnosed with AS recently?

Asperger's syndrome a guide for parents and professionals, 30 Dec 2007
I read this book when I had the first AS child in my class. It is a very good introduction to the subject and is easy to read.

Ideal for those new to the world of aspergers, 09 Feb 2006
My daughter has only recently been diagnosed and this was recommended by the Psych.Consultant. Excellent source of information, helpful in lots of areas and really helped us understand what made our little girl tick.

A Safe Choice, 27 Jan 2006
If you are looking for a respectable, straightforward guide to Asperger Syndrome then you will be happy with Tony Attwood's well written and thoughtful offering. This book is one of the best sellers on the subject, and has remained popular despite many similar books continually coming on to the market. It covers diagnosis, social behaviour, language, interests and routine, motor clumsiness, cognition, sensory sensitivity, and frequently asked questions, and includes helpful summaries of practical advice at the end of each chapter. It is easy read but still a very comprehensive introduction, and while it focuses mainly on children, it can be relevant to adults with the diagnosis too. It's not perfect, but nonetheless I consider this book to be helpful and sensitive, and if you are the parent of a child with AS and you are only going to read one book on the subject then this one would be a good choice.

A Place of Honor, 09 Jul 2005
This book is an excellent resource tool regarding Asperger's Syndrome. Asperger's Syndrome (AS)is on the autism/Asperger's (a/A) spectrum and has long been regarded as the "high functioning end of the autism spectrum." Because this IS a spectrum, the behaviors and experiences and manifestations are as varied as there are individuals on the spectrum. However, there are certain diagnostic criteria that have to be met in order to determine if someone has Asperger's Syndrome or a place on the a/A spectrum.

Tony Attwood validates the behavior of people on the spectrum; he writes in a plain, straight forward style that reaches ALL readers from professionals to persons just learning about Asperger's. I like the way he encourages people with Aspeger's embrace and accept this aspect of their lives. Tony Attwood makes it plain that a diagnosis of Asperger's is NOT a death knell or a mental health condemnation; on the contrary, he describes a place on the a/A spectrum as a baseline for behaviors that had previously caused "undefined differences." Asperger's is not a mental illness and this point is underscored throughout the book. Tony Attwood's voice is one of gentleness and acceptance; he describes behavior and sensory issues including synesthesia (linked sensory modes) in a way that invites and opens the door to discourse. Let's raise our glasses to Tony Attwood!

I can't recommend this book highly enough. Tony Attwood not only validates Asperger's, he explains it in a thoroughly logical and accepting way. This book deserves a place of honor among educators, medical/psychological/psychiatric professionals, parents whose children are on the spectrum and people who are on the spectrum. In fact, this is a book for everybody. THANK YOU, TONY ATTWOOD!

Powerful Tool To Convince Those Who Deal With People With Asperger Syndrome!, 28 Oct 2008
I have noticed Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals has motivated some parents with AS kids to understand the specifics of AS. And they must have been so relieved, if you ask me! They seemed really surprised to find most of the symptoms applied to their AS kids in this book. Although Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals isn't as informative as his most recent book, The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome, both of them will help Aspies and people dealing with them change their attitude toward AS more positively.

Neither of the books include difficult technical jargons and complicated structures. Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals seems a bit old-fashioned to me because it includes more British spellings, but that is a minor inconvenience.

Therefore, how about starting off with this book if you came across people with AS and became diagnosed with AS recently?

Asperger's syndrome a guide for parents and professionals, 30 Dec 2007
I read this book when I had the first AS child in my class. It is a very good introduction to the subject and is easy to read.

Ideal for those new to the world of aspergers, 09 Feb 2006
My daughter has only recently been diagnosed and this was recommended by the Psych.Consultant. Excellent source of information, helpful in lots of areas and really helped us understand what made our little girl tick.

A Safe Choice, 27 Jan 2006
If you are looking for a respectable, straightforward guide to Asperger Syndrome then you will be happy with Tony Attwood's well written and thoughtful offering. This book is one of the best sellers on the subject, and has remained popular despite many similar books continually coming on to the market. It covers diagnosis, social behaviour, language, interests and routine, motor clumsiness, cognition, sensory sensitivity, and frequently asked questions, and includes helpful summaries of practical advice at the end of each chapter. It is easy read but still a very comprehensive introduction, and while it focuses mainly on children, it can be relevant to adults with the diagnosis too. It's not perfect, but nonetheless I consider this book to be helpful and sensitive, and if you are the parent of a child with AS and you are only going to read one book on the subject then this one would be a good choice.

A Place of Honor, 09 Jul 2005
This book is an excellent resource tool regarding Asperger's Syndrome. Asperger's Syndrome (AS)is on the autism/Asperger's (a/A) spectrum and has long been regarded as the "high functioning end of the autism spectrum." Because this IS a spectrum, the behaviors and experiences and manifestations are as varied as there are individuals on the spectrum. However, there are certain diagnostic criteria that have to be met in order to determine if someone has Asperger's Syndrome or a place on the a/A spectrum.

Tony Attwood validates the behavior of people on the spectrum; he writes in a plain, straight forward style that reaches ALL readers from professionals to persons just learning about Asperger's. I like the way he encourages people with Aspeger's embrace and accept this aspect of their lives. Tony Attwood makes it plain that a diagnosis of Asperger's is NOT a death knell or a mental health condemnation; on the contrary, he describes a place on the a/A spectrum as a baseline for behaviors that had previously caused "undefined differences." Asperger's is not a mental illness and this point is underscored throughout the book. Tony Attwood's voice is one of gentleness and acceptance; he describes behavior and sensory issues including synesthesia (linked sensory modes) in a way that invites and opens the door to discourse. Let's raise our glasses to Tony Attwood!

I can't recommend this book highly enough. Tony Attwood not only validates Asperger's, he explains it in a thoroughly logical and accepting way. This book deserves a place of honor among educators, medical/psychological/psychiatric professionals, parents whose children are on the spectrum and people who are on the spectrum. In fact, this is a book for everybody. THANK YOU, TONY ATTWOOD!

Funny, 18 Oct 2008
This story is highly entertaining, witty and full of life. A great book to enlighten people whose lives have been touched by vascular dementia.

Memory as Bereavement, 26 Feb 2004
This is a beautifully written book, exploring the consequences of loss - the gradual loss of memory because of illness, the loss of time, of the past, of meaning. Linda Grant's mother had a particular form of dementia - Multi-Infarct Dementia - but this is a book which will have a meaning for anyone touched by Alzheimer's.

This is an exercise in archaeology - in taking people for granted, in wanting to be a teenager, to become an adult in your own right, to escape from your parents. It's only when you lose them you begin to ask the questions you wish had recognised while they were around. Roots. Identity. Where did the family come from, what was their history, how did they cope, how did they live?

Linda Grant's family were immigrants, fleeing from oppression in 19th century Europe. They reached England by accident or design, some on forged documents. They changed their names. Those who remained behind were consumed by the Holocaust. By the time Linda Grant began speculating on her roots, only her mother was left ... and her mother's memories were colander secure ... they were leaking away.

It is a sense of loss to which I can relate: I'm illegitimate; I lost half my roots before I was born. My mother died suddenly - no wasting disease for her. But I'd never talked to her, asked her the sorts of questions I wish I had. How many of us do ask the questions? How many of us do take the time to inquire, to treat our parents' and grandparents' lives and histories as significant?

Linda Grant, and countless thousands of others, have to endure watching a loved one ebb away. It's as if they fade, become invisible.

This is a book on which you can hang your heart and emotions. It is never clawingly sentimental. It does not explore the practicalities of coping. But it does ask essential questions about how we value ourselves and our families: our identities, our 'selfs', are built from memories, are cemented together by memories and personal histories.

You do not need to be touched by dementia to find this book valuable. It is, quite simply, a beautiful book about family, about family history, and about the discovery of self.

Slightly depressing book by a brilliant writer, 25 Aug 2002
Linda Grant is a fine author and, I think, a brilliant writer, but, unlike other reviewers, I did find this book mildly depressing - perhaps because there was no happy outcome for any of the figures in the book - indeed no happy outcome would be possible.

Grant's confusion about the veracity of her past - were the stories, handed down oral traditions, about the various members of her family and incidents of her childhood - true? - interpretations according to the teller? - utterly fabricated? was an interesting angle which must chime with many of us - how can we ever know the truth of much of what we are told about our background and childhood, especially when, as in Grant's case, there is an almost pathological need in her mother to present things in the most acceptable (to herself) light and not "tell everyone our business".

I empathised with Grant's anger and frustration with the Social Services and their appalling 'Catch 22' policies, and with her frustrated irritation with her demented mother - a mother, moreover, who has not been a great mother or even a particularly loving one and who is consequently difficult for Grant herself to love. I appreciated her honesty about this, but found Margaret Forster's novel on a similar theme, "Have the Men had Enough?" more moving.

very humane , very sane and not least depressing., 26 Jun 1999
Why is this book such a success? whether one is interested in dementia or not, families and this one in particular, there is something right about this book. So seemingly effortless is it's fluency, it's grasp of detail, that the impression given is not so much of partial human artifact and all the artifices associated with it, but of self-authentication and integrity. there is little or no ingratiating embellishment so easy when matters of deep emotion are being dealt with.

Scenes recalling the homes for the elderly, old childhood haunts, childhood routes through cities, all these, just ARE, manifest in the present tense of her writing.

No rancour or bitterness for the way things are with an ill and difficult mother, but a calm recognition of our own histories as determining ourselves, the rotten bits included.

Never have i read a book so calm, yet so full of lively recall not shamefully damaging nor confessional and there are enough of those sorts of books. a truely fascinating retelling.

Hilarious, heart-rending account a must-read, 05 Nov 1998
This is the best book I've read in years. It deals with the descent of Grant's mother into the oblivion that is dementia, and the nightmare that is getting her rehoused. Moreover, it is a savage indictment of the Grant family's re-invention and bid to escape from its Jewish roots. This is a woman who knows "mental illness" at first hand, and boy, does she compel the reader. Had me screaming with laughter and shedding tears galore. GET IT.

Powerful Tool To Convince Those Who Deal With People With Asperger Syndrome!, 28 Oct 2008
I have noticed Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals has motivated some parents with AS kids to understand the specifics of AS. And they must have been so relieved, if you ask me! They seemed really surprised to find most of the symptoms applied to their AS kids in this book. Although Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals isn't as informative as his most recent book, The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome, both of them will help Aspies and people dealing with them change their attitude toward AS more positively.

Neither of the books include difficult technical jargons and complicated structures. Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals seems a bit old-fashioned to me because it includes more British spellings, but that is a minor inconvenience.

Therefore, how about starting off with this book if you came across people with AS and became diagnosed with AS recently?

Asperger's syndrome a guide for parents and professionals, 30 Dec 2007
I read this book when I had the first AS child in my class. It is a very good introduction to the subject and is easy to read.

Ideal for those new to the world of aspergers, 09 Feb 2006
My daughter has only recently been diagnosed and this was recommended by the Psych.Consultant. Excellent source of information, helpful in lots of areas and really helped us understand what made our little girl tick.

A Safe Choice, 27 Jan 2006
If you are looking for a respectable, straightforward guide to Asperger Syndrome then you will be happy with Tony Attwood's well written and thoughtful offering. This book is one of the best sellers on the subject, and has remained popular despite many similar books continually coming on to the market. It covers diagnosis, social behaviour, language, interests and routine, motor clumsiness, cognition, sensory sensitivity, and frequently asked questions, and includes helpful summaries of practical advice at the end of each chapter. It is easy read but still a very comprehensive introduction, and while it focuses mainly on children, it can be relevant to adults with the diagnosis too. It's not perfect, but nonetheless I consider this book to be helpful and sensitive, and if you are the parent of a child with AS and you are only going to read one book on the subject then this one would be a good choice.

A Place of Honor, 09 Jul 2005
This book is an excellent resource tool regarding Asperger's Syndrome. Asperger's Syndrome (AS)is on the autism/Asperger's (a/A) spectrum and has long been regarded as the "high functioning end of the autism spectrum." Because this IS a spectrum, the behaviors and experiences and manifestations are as varied as there are individuals on the spectrum. However, there are certain diagnostic criteria that have to be met in order to determine if someone has Asperger's Syndrome or a place on the a/A spectrum.

Tony Attwood validates the behavior of people on the spectrum; he writes in a plain, straight forward style that reaches ALL readers from professionals to persons just learning about Asperger's. I like the way he encourages people with Aspeger's embrace and accept this aspect of their lives. Tony Attwood makes it plain that a diagnosis of Asperger's is NOT a death knell or a mental health condemnation; on the contrary, he describes a place on the a/A spectrum as a baseline for behaviors that had previously caused "undefined differences." Asperger's is not a mental illness and this point is underscored throughout the book. Tony Attwood's voice is one of gentleness and acceptance; he describes behavior and sensory issues including synesthesia (linked sensory modes) in a way that invites and opens the door to discourse. Let's raise our glasses to Tony Attwood!

I can't recommend this book highly enough. Tony Attwood not only validates Asperger's, he explains it in a thoroughly logical and accepting way. This book deserves a place of honor among educators, medical/psychological/psychiatric professionals, parents whose children are on the spectrum and people who are on the spectrum. In fact, this is a book for everybody. THANK YOU, TONY ATTWOOD!

Funny, 18 Oct 2008
This story is highly entertaining, witty and full of life. A great book to enlighten people whose lives have been touched by vascular dementia.

Memory as Bereavement, 26 Feb 2004
This is a beautifully written book, exploring the consequences of loss - the gradual loss of memory because of illness, the loss of time, of the past, of meaning. Linda Grant's mother had a particular form of dementia - Multi-Infarct Dementia - but this is a book which will have a meaning for anyone touched by Alzheimer's.

This is an exercise in archaeology - in taking people for granted, in wanting to be a teenager, to become an adult in your own right, to escape from your parents. It's only when you lose them you begin to ask the questions you wish had recognised while they were around. Roots. Identity. Where did the family come from, what was their history, how did they cope, how did they live?

Linda Grant's family were immigrants, fleeing from oppression in 19th century Europe. They reached England by accident or design, some on forged documents. They changed their names. Those who remained behind were consumed by the Holocaust. By the time Linda Grant began speculating on her roots, only her mother was left ... and her mother's memories were colander secure ... they were leaking away.

It is a sense of loss to which I can relate: I'm illegitimate; I lost half my roots before I was born. My mother died suddenly - no wasting disease for her. But I'd never talked to her, asked her the sorts of questions I wish I had. How many of us do ask the questions? How many of us do take the time to inquire, to treat our parents' and grandparents' lives and histories as significant?

Linda Grant, and countless thousands of others, have to endure watching a loved one ebb away. It's as if they fade, become invisible.

This is a book on which you can hang your heart and emotions. It is never clawingly sentimental. It does not explore the practicalities of coping. But it does ask essential questions about how we value ourselves and our families: our identities, our 'selfs', are built from memories, are cemented together by memories and personal histories.

You do not need to be touched by dementia to find this book valuable. It is, quite simply, a beautiful book about family, about family history, and about the discovery of self.

Slightly depressing book by a brilliant writer, 25 Aug 2002
Linda Grant is a fine author and, I think, a brilliant writer, but, unlike other reviewers, I did find this book mildly depressing - perhaps because there was no happy outcome for any of the figures in the book - indeed no happy outcome would be possible.

Grant's confusion about the veracity of her past - were the stories, handed down oral traditions, about the various members of her family and incidents of her childhood - true? - interpretations according to the teller? - utterly fabricated? was an interesting angle which must chime with many of us - how can we ever know the truth of much of what we are told about our background and childhood, especially when, as in Grant's case, there is an almost pathological need in her mother to present things in the most acceptable (to herself) light and not "tell everyone our business".

I empathised with Grant's anger and frustration with the Social Services and their appalling 'Catch 22' policies, and with her frustrated irritation with her demented mother - a mother, moreover, who has not been a great mother or even a particularly loving one and who is consequently difficult for Grant herself to love. I appreciated her honesty about this, but found Margaret Forster's novel on a similar theme, "Have the Men had Enough?" more moving.

very humane , very sane and not least depressing., 26 Jun 1999
Why is this book such a success? whether one is interested in dementia or not, families and this one in particular, there is something right about this book. So seemingly effortless is it's fluency, it's grasp of detail, that the impression given is not so much of partial human artifact and all the artifices associated with it, but of self-authentication and integrity. there is little or no ingratiating embellishment so easy when matters of deep emotion are being dealt with.

Scenes recalling the homes for the elderly, old childhood haunts, childhood routes through cities, all these, just ARE, manifest in the present tense of her writing.

No rancour or bitterness for the way things are with an ill and difficult mother, but a calm recognition of our own histories as determining ourselves, the rotten bits included.

Never have i read a book so calm, yet so full of lively recall not shamefully damaging nor confessional and there are enough of those sorts of books. a truely fascinating retelling.

Hilarious, heart-rending account a must-read, 05 Nov 1998
This is the best book I've read in years. It deals with the descent of Grant's mother into the oblivion that is dementia, and the nightmare that is getting her rehoused. Moreover, it is a savage indictment of the Grant family's re-invention and bid to escape from its Jewish roots. This is a woman who knows "mental illness" at first hand, and boy, does she compel the reader. Had me screaming with laughter and shedding tears galore. GET IT.

Really informative...but sometimes too much?, 07 Dec 2008
I'm studying learning disability nursing and this is one of the books on our list. While it is mostly always really helpful and covers practically everything, sometimes I can get a little bit baffled when Bob Gates seems to go off on a tangent about something (especially in the Genetics chapter).

I would definitely thoroughly recommend it, however, as everytime I'm not sure about something, I know it's guaranteed to be covered in this book.

This book is great, 03 May 2001
The book centres around learning disabilities and the way policies and procedures have changed for the better. A lot of people do not see past the disabilities and they miss the person behind them who is a human being and deserves the best quality of life the same way the so called normal people would. This book gives you a good insight into the problems that they face and how to deal with them.

Powerful Tool To Convince Those Who Deal With People With Asperger Syndrome!, 28 Oct 2008
I have noticed Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals has motivated some parents with AS kids to understand the specifics of AS. And they must have been so relieved, if you ask me! They seemed really surprised to find most of the symptoms applied to their AS kids in this book. Although Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals isn't as informative as his most recent book, The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome, both of them will help Aspies and people dealing with them change their attitude toward AS more positively.

Neither of the books include difficult technical jargons and complicated structures. Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals seems a bit old-fashioned to me because it includes more British spellings, but that is a minor inconvenience.

Therefore, how about starting off with this book if you came across people with AS and became diagnosed with AS recently?

Asperger's syndrome a guide for parents and professionals, 30 Dec 2007
I read this book when I had the first AS child in my class. It is a very good introduction to the subject and is easy to read.

Ideal for those new to the world of aspergers, 09 Feb 2006
My daughter has only recently been diagnosed and this was recommended by the Psych.Consultant. Excellent source of information, helpful in lots of areas and really helped us understand what made our little girl tick.

A Safe Choice, 27 Jan 2006
If you are looking for a respectable, straightforward guide to Asperger Syndrome then you will be happy with Tony Attwood's well written and thoughtful offering. This book is one of the best sellers on the subject, and has remained popular despite many similar books continually coming on to the market. It covers diagnosis, social behaviour, language, interests and routine, motor clumsiness, cognition, sensory sensitivity, and frequently asked questions, and includes helpful summaries of practical advice at the end of each chapter. It is easy read but still a very comprehensive introduction, and while it focuses mainly on children, it can be relevant to adults with the diagnosis too. It's not perfect, but nonetheless I consider this book to be helpful and sensitive, and if you are the parent of a child with AS and you are only going to read one book on the subject then this one would be a good choice.

A Place of Honor, 09 Jul 2005
This book is an excellent resource tool regarding Asperger's Syndrome. Asperger's Syndrome (AS)is on the autism/Asperger's (a/A) spectrum and has long been regarded as the "high functioning end of the autism spectrum." Because this IS a spectrum, the behaviors and experiences and manifestations are as varied as there are individuals on the spectrum. However, there are certain diagnostic criteria that have to be met in order to determine if someone has Asperger's Syndrome or a place on the a/A spectrum.

Tony Attwood validates the behavior of people on the spectrum; he writes in a plain, straight forward style that reaches ALL readers from professionals to persons just learning about Asperger's. I like the way he encourages people with Aspeger's embrace and accept this aspect of their lives. Tony Attwood makes it plain that a diagnosis of Asperger's is NOT a death knell or a mental health condemnation; on the contrary, he describes a place on the a/A spectrum as a baseline for behaviors that had previously caused "undefined differences." Asperger's is not a mental illness and this point is underscored throughout the book. Tony Attwood's voice is one of gentleness and acceptance; he describes behavior and sensory issues including synesthesia (linked sensory modes) in a way that invites and opens the door to discourse. Let's raise our glasses to Tony Attwood!

I can't recommend this book highly enough. Tony Attwood not only validates Asperger's, he explains it in a thoroughly logical and accepting way. This book deserves a place of honor among educators, medical/psychological/psychiatric professionals, parents whose children are on the spectrum and people who are on the spectrum. In fact, this is a book for everybody. THANK YOU, TONY ATTWOOD!

Funny, 18 Oct 2008
This story is highly entertaining, witty and full of life. A great book to enlighten people whose lives have been touched by vascular dementia.

Memory as Bereavement, 26 Feb 2004
This is a beautifully written book, exploring the consequences of loss - the gradual loss of memory because of illness, the loss of time, of the past, of meaning. Linda Grant's mother had a particular form of dementia - Multi-Infarct Dementia - but this is a book which will have a meaning for anyone touched by Alzheimer's.

This is an exercise in archaeology - in taking people for granted, in wanting to be a teenager, to become an adult in your own right, to escape from your parents. It's only when you lose them you begin to ask the questions you wish had recognised while they were around. Roots. Identity. Where did the family come from, what was their history, how did they cope, how did they live?

Linda Grant's family were immigrants, fleeing from oppression in 19th century Europe. They reached England by accident or design, some on forged documents. They changed their names. Those who remained behind were consumed by the Holocaust. By the time Linda Grant began speculating on her roots, only her mother was left ... and her mother's memories were colander secure ... they were leaking away.

It is a sense of loss to which I can relate: I'm illegitimate; I lost half my roots before I was born. My mother died suddenly - no wasting disease for her. But I'd never talked to her, asked her the sorts of questions I wish I had. How many of us do ask the questions? How many of us do take the time to inquire, to treat our parents' and grandparents' lives and histories as significant?

Linda Grant, and countless thousands of others, have to endure watching a loved one ebb away. It's as if they fade, become invisible.

This is a book on which you can hang your heart and emotions. It is never clawingly sentimental. It does not explore the practicalities of coping. But it does ask essential questions about how we value ourselves and our families: our identities, our 'selfs', are built from memories, are cemented together by memories and personal histories.

You do not need to be touched by dementia to find this book valuable. It is, quite simply, a beautiful book about family, about family history, and about the discovery of self.

Slightly depressing book by a brilliant writer, 25 Aug 2002
Linda Grant is a fine author and, I think, a brilliant writer, but, unlike other reviewers, I did find this book mildly depressing - perhaps because there was no happy outcome for any of the figures in the book - indeed no happy outcome would be possible.

Grant's confusion about the veracity of her past - were the stories, handed down oral traditions, about the various members of her family and incidents of her childhood - true? - interpretations according to the teller? - utterly fabricated? was an interesting angle which must chime with many of us - how can we ever know the truth of much of what we are told about our background and childhood, especially when, as in Grant's case, there is an almost pathological need in her mother to present things in the most acceptable (to herself) light and not "tell everyone our business".

I empathised with Grant's anger and frustration with the Social Services and their appalling 'Catch 22' policies, and with her frustrated irritation with her demented mother - a mother, moreover, who has not been a great mother or even a particularly loving one and who is consequently difficult for Grant herself to love. I appreciated her honesty about this, but found Margaret Forster's novel on a similar theme, "Have the Men had Enough?" more moving.

very humane , very sane and not least depressing., 26 Jun 1999
Why is this book such a success? whether one is interested in dementia or not, families and this one in particular, there is something right about this book. So seemingly effortless is it's fluency, it's grasp of detail, that the impression given is not so much of partial human artifact and all the artifices associated with it, but of self-authentication and integrity. there is little or no ingratiating embellishment so easy when matters of deep emotion are being dealt with.

Scenes recalling the homes for the elderly, old childhood haunts, childhood routes through cities, all these, just ARE, manifest in the present tense of her writing.

No rancour or bitterness for the way things are with an ill and difficult mother, but a calm recognition of our own histories as determining ourselves, the rotten bits included.

Never have i read a book so calm, yet so full of lively recall not shamefully damaging nor confessional and there are enough of those sorts of books. a truely fascinating retelling.

Hilarious, heart-rending account a must-read, 05 Nov 1998
This is the best book I've read in years. It deals with the descent of Grant's mother into the oblivion that is dementia, and the nightmare that is getting her rehoused. Moreover, it is a savage indictment of the Grant family's re-invention and bid to escape from its Jewish roots. This is a woman who knows "mental illness" at first hand, and boy, does she compel the reader. Had me screaming with laughter and shedding tears galore. GET IT.

Really informative...but sometimes too much?, 07 Dec 2008
I'm studying learning disability nursing and this is one of the books on our list. While it is mostly always really helpful and covers practically everything, sometimes I can get a little bit baffled when Bob Gates seems to go off on a tangent about something (especially in the Genetics chapter).

I would definitely thoroughly recommend it, however, as everytime I'm not sure about something, I know it's guaranteed to be covered in this book.

This book is great, 03 May 2001
The book centres around learning disabilities and the way policies and procedures have changed for the better. A lot of people do not see past the disabilities and they miss the person behind them who is a human being and deserves the best quality of life the same way the so called normal people would. This book gives you a good insight into the problems that they face and how to deal with them.

The most engaging and definitive text on disability, 12 Oct 2001
Whether you are a reader of sociology / disability studies or not, this book offers the most enaging and thought provoking understanding of disability that you will find. Featuring seminal writers such as Mike Oliver, David Hevey ('The Creatures that Time Forgot') and Jenny Morris ('Pride Against Prejudice')'Disabling Barriers' uses the social model of disability to address issues of inequality. Looking at the way in which disabled people are represented in the media (David Hevey) for instance, the authors seek to debate that inaccessible environments and social prejudice's 'disable' people.
Through highlighting these concerning issues, 'Disabling Barriers - Enabling Environments' points us towards possible solutions for the future of disabiity culture and equality.

Powerful Tool To Convince Those Who Deal With People With Asperger Syndrome!, 28 Oct 2008
I have noticed Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals has motivated some parents with AS kids to understand the specifics of AS. And they must have been so relieved, if you ask me! They seemed really surprised to find most of the symptoms applied to their AS kids in this book. Although Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals isn't as informative as his most recent book, The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome, both of them will help Aspies and people dealing with them change their attitude toward AS more positively.

Neither of the books include difficult technical jargons and complicated structures. Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals seems a bit old-fashioned to me because it includes more British spellings, but that is a minor inconvenience.

Therefore, how about starting off with this book if you came across people with AS and became diagnosed with AS recently?

Asperger's syndrome a guide for parents and professionals, 30 Dec 2007
I read this book when I had the first AS child in my class. It is a very good introduction to the subject and is easy to read.

Ideal for those new to the world of aspergers, 09 Feb 2006
My daughter has only recently been diagnosed and this was recommended by the Psych.Consultant. Excellent source of information, helpful in lots of areas and really helped us understand what made our little girl tick.

A Safe Choice, 27 Jan 2006
If you are looking for a respectable, straightforward guide to Asperger Syndrome then you will be happy with Tony Attwood's well written and thoughtful offering. This book is one of the best sellers on the subject, and has remained popular despite many similar books continually coming on to the market. It covers diagnosis, social behaviour, language, interests and routine, motor clumsiness, cognition, sensory sensitivity, and frequently asked questions, and includes helpful summaries of practical advice at the end of each chapter. It is easy read but still a very comprehensive introduction, and while it focuses mainly on children, it can be relevant to adults with the diagnosis too. It's not perfect, but nonetheless I consider this book to be helpful and sensitive, and if you are the parent of a child with AS and you are only going to read one book on the subject then this one would be a good choice.

A Place of Honor, 09 Jul 2005
This book is an excellent resource tool regarding Asperger's Syndrome. Asperger's Syndrome (AS)is on the autism/Asperger's (a/A) spectrum and has long been regarded as the "high functioning end of the autism spectrum." Because this IS a spectrum, the behaviors and experiences and manifestations are as varied as there are individuals on the spectrum. However, there are certain diagnostic criteria that have to be met in order to determine if someone has Asperger's Syndrome or a place on the a/A spectrum.

Tony Attwood validates the behavior of people on the spectrum; he writes in a plain, straight forward style that reaches ALL readers from professionals to persons just learning about Asperger's. I like the way he encourages people with Aspeger's embrace and accept this aspect of their lives. Tony Attwood makes it plain that a diagnosis of Asperger's is NOT a death knell or a mental health condemnation; on the contrary, he describes a place on the a/A spectrum as a baseline for behaviors that had previously caused "undefined differences." Asperger's is not a mental illness and this point is underscored throughout the book. Tony Attwood's voice is one of gentleness and acceptance; he describes behavior and sensory issues including synesthesia (linked sensory modes) in a way that invites and opens the door to discourse. Let's raise our glasses to Tony Attwood!

I can't recommend this book highly enough. Tony Attwood not only validates Asperger's, he explains it in a thoroughly logical and accepting way. This book deserves a place of honor among educators, medical/psychological/psychiatric professionals, parents whose children are on the spectrum and people who are on the spectrum. In fact, this is a book for everybody. THANK YOU, TONY ATTWOOD!

Funny, 18 Oct 2008
This story is highly entertaining, witty and full of life. A great book to enlighten people whose lives have been touched by vascular dementia.

Memory as Bereavement, 26 Feb 2004
This is a beautifully written book, exploring the consequences of loss - the gradual loss of memory because of illness, the loss of time, of the past, of meaning. Linda Grant's mother had a particular form of dementia - Multi-Infarct Dementia - but this is a book which will have a meaning for anyone touched by Alzheimer's.

This is an exercise in archaeology - in taking people for granted, in wanting to be a teenager, to become an adult in your own right, to escape from your parents. It's only when you lose them you begin to ask the questions you wish had recognised while they were around. Roots. Identity. Where did the family come from, what was their history, how did they cope, how did they live?

Linda Grant's family were immigrants, fleeing from oppression in 19th century Europe. They reached England by accident or design, some on forged documents. They changed their names. Those who remained behind were consumed by the Holocaust. By the time Linda Grant began speculating on her roots, only her mother was left ... and her mother's memories were colander secure ... they were leaking away.

It is a sense of loss to which I can relate: I'm illegitimate; I lost half my roots before I was born. My mother died suddenly - no wasting disease for her. But I'd never talked to her, asked her the sorts of questions I wish I had. How many of us do ask the questions? How many of us do take the time to inquire, to treat our parents' and grandparents' lives and histories as significant?

Linda Grant, and countless thousands of others, have to endure watching a loved one ebb away. It's as if they fade, become invisible.

This is a book on which you can hang your heart and emotions. It is never clawingly sentimental. It does not explore the practicalities of coping. But it does ask essential questions about how we value ourselves and our families: our identities, our 'selfs', are built from memories, are cemented together by memories and personal histories.

You do not need to be touched by dementia to find this book valuable. It is, quite simply, a beautiful book about family, about family history, and about the discovery of self.

Slightly depressing book by a brilliant writer, 25 Aug 2002
Linda Grant is a fine author and, I think, a brilliant writer, but, unlike other reviewers, I did find this book mildly depressing - perhaps because there was no happy outcome for any of the figures in the book - indeed no happy outcome would be possible.

Grant's confusion about the veracity of her past - were the stories, handed down oral traditions, about the various members of her family and incidents of her childhood - true? - interpretations according to the teller? - utterly fabricated? was an interesting angle which must chime with many of us - how can we ever know the truth of much of what we are told about our background and childhood, especially when, as in Grant's case, there is an almost pathological need in her mother to present things in the most acceptable (to herself) light and not "tell everyone our business".

I empathised with Grant's anger and frustration with the Social Services and their appalling 'Catch 22' policies, and with her frustrated irritation with her demented mother - a mother, moreover, who has not been a great mother or even a particularly loving one and who is consequently difficult for Grant herself to love. I appreciated her honesty about this, but found Margaret Forster's novel on a similar theme, "Have the Men had Enough?" more moving.

very humane , very sane and not least depressing., 26 Jun 1999
Why is this book such a success? whether one is interested in dementia or not, families and this one in particular, there is something right about this book. So seemingly effortless is it's fluency, it's grasp of detail, that the impression given is not so much of partial human artifact and all the artifices associated with it, but of self-authentication and integrity. there is little or no ingratiating embellishment so easy when matters of deep emotion are being dealt with.

Scenes recalling the homes for the elderly, old childhood haunts, childhood routes through cities, all these, just ARE, manifest in the present tense of her writing.

No rancour or bitterness for the way things are with an ill and difficult mother, but a calm recognition of our own histories as determining ourselves, the rotten bits included.

Never have i read a book so calm, yet so full of lively recall not shamefully damaging nor confessional and there are enough of those sorts of books. a truely fascinating retelling.

Hilarious, heart-rending account a must-read, 05 Nov 1998
This is the best book I've read in years. It deals with the descent of Grant's mother into the oblivion that is dementia, and the nightmare that is getting her rehoused. Moreover, it is a savage indictment of the Grant family's re-invention and bid to escape from its Jewish roots. This is a woman who knows "mental illness" at first hand, and boy, does she compel the reader. Had me screaming with laughter and shedding tears galore. GET IT.

Really informative...but sometimes too much?, 07 Dec 2008
I'm studying learning disability nursing and this is one of the books on our list. While it is mostly always really helpful and covers practically everything, sometimes I can get a little bit baffled when Bob Gates seems to go off on a tangent about something (especially in the Genetics chapter).

I would definitely thoroughly recommend it, however, as everytime I'm not sure about something, I know it's guaranteed to be covered in this book.

This book is great, 03 May 2001
The book centres around learning disabilities and the way policies and procedures have changed for the better. A lot of people do not see past the disabilities and they miss the person behind them who is a human being and deserves the best quality of life the same way the so called normal people would. This book gives you a good insight into the problems that they face and how to deal with them.

The most engaging and definitive text on disability, 12 Oct 2001
Whether you are a reader of sociology / disability studies or not, this book offers the most enaging and thought provoking understanding of disability that you will find. Featuring seminal writers such as Mike Oliver, David Hevey ('The Creatures that Time Forgot') and Jenny Morris ('Pride Against Prejudice')'Disabling Barriers' uses the social model of disability to address issues of inequality. Looking at the way in which disabled people are represented in the media (David Hevey) for instance, the authors seek to debate that inaccessible environments and social prejudice's 'disable' people.
Through highlighting these concerning issues, 'Disabling Barriers - Enabling Environments' points us towards possible solutions for the future of disabiity culture and equality.

A classic in medical anthropology, 05 Sep 2002
This is the book that kicked off medical anthropology as a serious discipline in the States. Arthur Kleinman, a psychiatrist and anthropologist compared orthodox medical practitioners, shamans and practitioners of traditional chinese medicine from an ethnopsychiatric and anthropological perspective in Taiwan. He now is Professor of Anthropology at Harvard.

It is a good starting point for physicians and scientists who are stuck in the scientific box to take a look at what different traditions have to offer patients and far enough away from home to avoid too many irritations about practices that are "not scientific".

Thought provoking, a little dated, but written by one of the most respected authors in the field who has avoided becoming polarized in his analysis of medicine and psychiatry (as they relate to culture) throughout his distinguished career and who is never boring.

A milestone in Medical Anthropology. Seminal., 20 Nov 2001
This book compares the differing client-patient relationships enacted in consultations with between western physicians, traditional chinese physicians and ingigenous shamans in Taiwan in the 60's and 70's. It is an absolutely seminal milestone in medical anthropology as a then emerging discipline and will be much enjoyed by all thinking people. Human, thought provoking and rigorous, you'll want to keep this one. Psychosomatic complaints he found (he is Prof in anthropology at Harvard and psychiatrist too)are best treated by the shamans. Any complementary therapists wanting to academically back their practice should read it.

Powerful Tool To Convince Those Who Deal With People With Asperger Syndrome!, 28 Oct 2008
I have noticed Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals has motivated some parents with AS kids to understand the specifics of AS. And they must have been so relieved, if you ask me! They seemed really surprised to find most of the symptoms applied to their AS kids in this book. Although Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals isn't as informative as his most recent book, The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome, both of them will help Aspies and people dealing with them change their attitude toward AS more positively.

Neither of the books include difficult technical jargons and complicated structures. Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals seems a bit old-fashioned to me because it includes more British spellings, but that is a minor inconvenience.

Therefore, how about starting off with this book if you came across people with AS and became diagnosed with AS recently?

Asperger's syndrome a guide for parents and professionals, 30 Dec 2007
I read this book when I had the first AS child in my class. It is a very good introduction to the subject and is easy to read.

Ideal for those new to the world of aspergers, 09 Feb 2006
My daughter has only recently been diagnosed and this was recommended by the Psych.Consultant. Excellent source of information, helpful in lots of areas and really helped us understand what made our little girl tick.

A Safe Choice, 27 Jan 2006
If you are looking for a respectable, straightforward guide to Asperger Syndrome then you will be happy with Tony Attwood's well written and thoughtful offering. This book is one of the best sellers on the subject, and has remained popular despite many similar books continually coming on to the market. It covers diagnosis, social behaviour, language, interests and routine, motor clumsiness, cognition, sensory sensitivity, and frequently asked questions, and includes helpful summaries of practical advice at the end of each chapter. It is easy read but still a very comprehensive introduction, and while it focuses mainly on children, it can be relevant to adults with the diagnosis too. It's not perfect, but nonetheless I consider this book to be helpful and sensitive, and if you are the parent of a child with AS and you are only going to read one book on the subject then this one would be a good choice.

A Place of Honor, 09 Jul 2005
This book is an excellent resource tool regarding Asperger's Syndrome. Asperger's Syndrome (AS)is on the autism/Asperger's (a/A) spectrum and has long been regarded as the "high functioning end of the autism spectrum." Because this IS a spectrum, the behaviors and experiences and manifestations are as varied as there are individuals on the spectrum. However, there are certain diagnostic criteria that have to be met in order to determine if someone has Asperger's Syndrome or a place on the a/A spectrum.

Tony Attwood validates the behavior of people on the spectrum; he writes in a plain, straight forward style that reaches ALL readers from professionals to persons just learning about Asperger's. I like the way he encourages people with Aspeger's embrace and accept this aspect of their lives. Tony Attwood makes it plain that a diagnosis of Asperger's is NOT a death knell or a mental health condemnation; on the contrary, he describes a place on the a/A spectrum as a baseline for behaviors that had previously caused "undefined differences." Asperger's is not a mental illness and this point is underscored throughout the book. Tony Attwood's voice is one of gentleness and acceptance; he describes behavior and sensory issues including synesthesia (linked sensory modes) in a way that invites and opens the door to discourse. Let's raise our glasses to Tony Attwood!

I can't recommend this book highly enough. Tony Attwood not only validates Asperger's, he explains it in a thoroughly logical and accepting way. This book deserves a place of honor among educators, medical/psychological/psychiatric professionals, parents whose children are on the spectrum and people who are on the spectrum. In fact, this is a book for everybody. THANK YOU, TONY ATTWOOD!

Funny, 18 Oct 2008
This story is highly entertaining, witty and full of life. A great book to enlighten people whose lives have been touched by vascular dementia.

Memory as Bereavement, 26 Feb 2004
This is a beautifully written book, exploring the consequences of loss - the gradual loss of memory because of illness, the loss of time, of the past, of meaning. Linda Grant's mother had a particular form of dementia - Multi-Infarct Dementia - but this is a book which will have a meaning for anyone touched by Alzheimer's.

This is an exercise in archaeology - in taking people for granted, in wanting to be a teenager, to become an adult in your own right, to escape from your parents. It's only when you lose them you begin to ask the questions you wish had recognised while they were around. Roots. Identity. Where did the family come from, what was their history, how did they cope, how did they live?

Linda Grant's family were immigrants, fleeing from oppression in 19th century Europe. They reached England by accident or design, some on forged documents. They changed their names. Those who remained behind were consumed by the Holocaust. By the time Linda Grant began speculating on her roots, only her mother was left ... and her mother's memories were colander secure ... they were leaking away.

It is a sense of loss to which I can relate: I'm illegitimate; I lost half my roots before I was born. My mother died suddenly - no wasting disease for her. But I'd never talked to her, asked her the sorts of questions I wish I had. How many of us do ask the questions? How many of us do take the time to inquire, to treat our parents' and grandparents' lives and histories as significant?

Linda Grant, and countless thousands of others, have to endure watching a loved one ebb away. It's as if they fade, become invisible.

This is a book on which you can hang your heart and emotions. It is never clawingly sentimental. It does not explore the practicalities of coping. But it does ask essential questions about how we value ourselves and our families: our identities, our 'selfs', are built from memories, are cemented together by memories and personal histories.

You do not need to be touched by dementia to find this book valuable. It is, quite simply, a beautiful book about family, about family history, and about the discovery of self.

Slightly depressing book by a brilliant writer, 25 Aug 2002
Linda Grant is a fine author and, I think, a brilliant writer, but, unlike other reviewers, I did find this book mildly depressing - perhaps because there was no happy outcome for any of the figures in the book - indeed no happy outcome would be possible.

Grant's confusion about the veracity of her past - were the stories, handed down oral traditions, about the various members of her family and incidents of her childhood - true? - interpretations according to the teller? - utterly fabricated? was an interesting angle which must chime with many of us - how can we ever know the truth of much of what we are told about our background and childhood, especially when, as in Grant's case, there is an almost pathological need in her mother to present things in the most acceptable (to herself) light and not "tell everyone our business".

I empathised with Grant's anger and frustration with the Social Services and their appalling 'Catch 22' policies, and with her frustrated irritation with her demented mother - a mother, moreover, who has not been a great mother or even a particularly loving one and who is consequently difficult for Grant herself to love. I appreciated her honesty about this, but found Margaret Forster's novel on a similar theme, "Have the Men had Enough?" more moving.

very humane , very sane and not least depressing., 26 Jun 1999
Why is this book such a success? whether one is interested in dementia or not, families and this one in particular, there is something right about this book. So seemingly effortless is it's fluency, it's grasp of detail, that the impression given is not so much of partial human artifact and all the artifices associated with it, but of self-authentication and integrity. there is little or no ingratiating embellishment so easy when matters of deep emotion are being dealt with.

Scenes recalling the homes for the elderly, old childhood haunts, childhood routes through cities, all these, just ARE, manifest in the present tense of her writing.

No rancour or bitterness for the way things are with an ill and difficult mother, but a calm recognition of our own histories as determining ourselves, the rotten bits included.

Never have i read a book so calm, yet so full of lively recall not shamefully damaging nor confessional and there are enough of those sorts of books. a truely fascinating retelling.

Hilarious, heart-rending account a must-read, 05 Nov 1998
This is the best book I've read in years. It deals with the descent of Grant's mother into the oblivion that is dementia, and the nightmare that is getting her rehoused. Moreover, it is a savage indictment of the Grant family's re-invention and bid to escape from its Jewish roots. This is a woman who knows "mental illness" at first hand, and boy, does she compel the reader. Had me screaming with laughter and shedding tears galore. GET IT.

Really informative...but sometimes too much?, 07 Dec 2008
I'm studying learning disability nursing and this is one of the books on our list. While it is mostly always really helpful and covers practically everything, sometimes I can get a little bit baffled when Bob Gates seems to go off on a tangent about something (especially in the Genetics chapter).

I would definitely thoroughly recommend it, however, as everytime I'm not sure about something, I know it's guaranteed to be covered in this book.

This book is great, 03 May 2001
The book centres around learning disabilities and the way policies and procedures have changed for the better. A lot of people do not see past the disabilities and they miss the person behind them who is a human being and deserves the best quality of life the same way the so called normal people would. This book gives you a good insight into the problems that they face and how to deal with them.

The most engaging and definitive text on disability, 12 Oct 2001
Whether you are a reader of sociology / disability studies or not, this book offers the most enaging and thought provoking understanding of disability that you will find. Featuring seminal writers such as Mike Oliver, David Hevey ('The Creatures that Time Forgot') and Jenny Morris ('Pride Against Prejudice')'Disabling Barriers' uses the social model of disability to address issues of inequality. Looking at the way in which disabled people are represented in the media (David Hevey) for instance, the authors seek to debate that inaccessible environments and social prejudice's 'disable' people.
Through highlighting these concerning issues, 'Disabling Barriers - Enabling Environments' points us towards possible solutions for the future of disabiity culture and equality.

A classic in medical anthropology, 05 Sep 2002
This is the book that kicked off medical anthropology as a serious discipline in the States. Arthur Kleinman, a psychiatrist and anthropologist compared orthodox medical practitioners, shamans and practitioners of traditional chinese medicine from an ethnopsychiatric and anthropological perspective in Taiwan. He now is Professor of Anthropology at Harvard.

It is a good starting point for physicians and scientists who are stuck in the scientific box to take a look at what different traditions have to offer patients and far enough away from home to avoid too many irritations about practices that are "not scientific".

Thought provoking, a little dated, but written by one of the most respected authors in the field who has avoided becoming polarized in his analysis of medicine and psychiatry (as they relate to culture) throughout his distinguished career and who is never boring.

A milestone in Medical Anthropology. Seminal., 20 Nov 2001
This book compares the differing client-patient relationships enacted in consultations with between western physicians, traditional chinese physicians and ingigenous shamans in Taiwan in the 60's and 70's. It is an absolutely seminal milestone in medical anthropology as a then emerging discipline and will be much enjoyed by all thinking people. Human, thought provoking and rigorous, you'll want to keep this one. Psychosomatic complaints he found (he is Prof in anthropology at Harvard and psychiatrist too)are best treated by the shamans. Any complementary therapists wanting to academically back their practice should read it.

Great to see risk assessment addressed in this area, 10 Dec 2002
I think this is probably the first book available on this topic dedicated to people with learning disabilities. This is an important area, and I was pleased to find that the book had been put together in an accessible way. The book is well laid out, and the text is broken by lots of useful headings. It 's well written and easy to read and find your way around. This means it is suitable for staff and carers at all levels. It should form an important source, easily referred to.

Powerful Tool To Convince Those Who Deal With People With Asperger Syndrome!, 28 Oct 2008
I have noticed Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals has motivated some parents with AS kids to understand the specifics of AS. And they must have been so relieved, if you ask me! They seemed really surprised to find most of the symptoms applied to their AS kids in this book. Although Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals isn't as informative as his most recent book, The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome, both of them will help Aspies and people dealing with them change their attitude toward AS more positively.

Neither of the books include difficult technical jargons and complicated structures. Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals seems a bit old-fashioned to me because it includes more British spellings, but that is a minor inconvenience.

Therefore, how about starting off with this book if you came across people with AS and became diagnosed with AS recently?

Asperger's syndrome a guide for parents and professionals, 30 Dec 2007
I read this book when I had the first AS child in my class. It is a very good introduction to the subject and is easy to read.

Ideal for those new to the world of aspergers, 09 Feb 2006
My daughter has only recently been diagnosed and this was recommended by the Psych.Consultant. Excellent source of information, helpful in lots of areas and really helped us understand what made our little girl tick.

A Safe Choice, 27 Jan 2006
If you are looking for a respectable, straightforward guide to Asperger Syndrome then you will be happy with Tony Attwood's well written and thoughtful offering. This book is one of the best sellers on the subject, and has remained popular despite many similar books continually coming on to the market. It covers diagnosis, social behaviour, language, interests and routine, motor clumsiness, cognition, sensory sensitivity, and frequently asked questions, and includes helpful summaries of practical advice at the end of each chapter. It is easy read but still a very comprehensive introduction, and while it focuses mainly on children, it can be relevant to adults with the diagnosis too. It's not perfect, but nonetheless I consider this book to be helpful and sensitive, and if you are the parent of a child with AS and you are only going to read one book on the subject then this one would be a good choice.

A Place of Honor, 09 Jul 2005
This book is an excellent resource tool regarding Asperger's Syndrome. Asperger's Syndrome (AS)is on the autism/Asperger's (a/A) spectrum and has long been regarded as the "high functioning end of the autism spectrum." Because this IS a spectrum, the behaviors and experiences and manifestations are as varied as there are individuals on the spectrum. However, there are certain diagnostic criteria that have to be met in order to determine if someone has Asperger's Syndrome or a place on the a/A spectrum.

Tony Attwood validates the behavior of people on the spectrum; he writes in a plain, straight forward style that reaches ALL readers from professionals to persons just learning about Asperger's. I like the way he encourages people with Aspeger's embrace and accept this aspect of their lives. Tony Attwood makes it plain that a diagnosis of Asperger's is NOT a death knell or a mental health condemnation; on the contrary, he describes a place on the a/A spectrum as a baseline for behaviors that had previously caused "undefined differences." Asperger's is not a mental illness and this point is underscored throughout the book. Tony Attwood's voice is one of gentleness and acceptance; he describes behavior and sensory issues including synesthesia (linked sensory modes) in a way that invites and opens the door to discourse. Let's raise our glasses to Tony Attwood!

I can't recommend this book highly enough. Tony Attwood not only validates Asperger's, he explains it in a thoroughly logical and accepting way. This book deserves a place of honor among educators, medical/psychological/psychiatric professionals, parents whose children are on the spectrum and people who are on the spectrum. In fact, this is a book for everybody. THANK YOU, TONY ATTWOOD!

Funny, 18 Oct 2008
This story is highly entertaining, witty and full of life. A great book to enlighten people whose lives have been touched by vascular dementia.

Memory as Bereavement, 26 Feb 2004
This is a beautifully written book, exploring the consequences of loss - the gradual loss of memory because of illness, the loss of time, of the past, of meaning. Linda Grant's mother had a particular form of dementia - Multi-Infarct Dementia - but this is a book which will have a meaning for anyone touched by Alzheimer's.

This is an exercise in archaeology - in taking people for granted, in wanting to be a teenager, to become an adult in your own right, to escape from your parents. It's only when you lose them you begin to ask the questions you wish had recognised while they were around. Roots. Identity. Where did the family come from, what was their history, how did they cope, how did they live?

Linda Grant's family were immigrants, fleeing from oppression in 19th century Europe. They reached England by accident or design, some on forged documents. They changed their names. Those who remained behind were consumed by the Holocaust. By the time Linda Grant began speculating on her roots, only her mother was left ... and her mother's memories were colander secure ... they were leaking away.

It is a sense of loss to which I can relate: I'm illegitimate; I lost half my roots before I was born. My mother died suddenly - no wasting disease for her. But I'd never talked to her, asked her the sorts of questions I wish I had. How many of us do ask the questions? How many of us do take the time to inquire, to treat our parents' and grandparents' lives and histories as significant?

Linda Grant, and countless thousands of others, have to endure watching a loved one ebb away. It's as if they fade, become invisible.

This is a book on which you can hang your heart and emotions. It is never clawingly sentimental. It does not explore the practicalities of coping. But it does ask essential questions about how we value ourselves and our families: our identities, our 'selfs', are built from memories, are cemented together by memories and personal histories.

You do not need to be touched by dementia to find this book valuable. It is, quite simply, a beautiful book about family, about family history, and about the discovery of self.

Slightly depressing book by a brilliant writer, 25 Aug 2002
Linda Grant is a fine author and, I think, a brilliant writer, but, unlike other reviewers, I did find this book mildly depressing - perhaps because there was no happy outcome for any of the figures in the book - indeed no happy outcome would be possible.

Grant's confusion about the veracity of her past - were the stories, handed down oral traditions, about the various members of her family and incidents of her childhood - true? - interpretations according to the teller? - utterly fabricated? was an interesting angle which must chime with many of us - how can we ever know the truth of much of what we are told about our background and childhood, especially when, as in Grant's case, there is an almost pathological need in her mother to present things in the most acceptable (to herself) light and not "tell everyone our business".

I empathised with Grant's anger and frustration with the Social Services and their appalling 'Catch 22' policies, and with her frustrated irritation with her demented mother - a mother, moreover, who has not been a great mother or even a particularly loving one and who is consequently difficult for Grant herself to love. I appreciated her honesty about this, but found Margaret Forster's novel on a similar theme, "Have the Men had Enough?" more moving.

very humane , very sane and not least depressing., 26 Jun 1999
Why is this book such a success? whether one is interested in dementia or not, families and this one in particular, there is something right about this book. So seemingly effortless is it's fluency, it's grasp of detail, that the impression given is not so much of partial human artifact and all the artifices associated with it, but of self-authentication and integrity. there is little or no ingratiating embellishment so easy when matters of deep emotion are being dealt with.

Scenes recalling the homes for the elderly, old childhood haunts, childhood routes through cities, all these, just ARE, manifest in the present tense of her writing.

No rancour or bitterness for the way things are with an ill and difficult mother, but a calm recognition of our own histories as determining ourselves, the rotten bits included.

Never have i read a book so calm, yet so full of lively recall not shamefully damaging nor confessional and there are enough of those sorts of books. a truely fascinating retelling.

Hilarious, heart-rending account a must-read, 05 Nov 1998
This is the best book I've read in years. It deals with the descent of Grant's mother into the oblivion that is dementia, and the nightmare that is getting her rehoused. Moreover, it is a savage indictment of the Grant family's re-invention and bid to escape from its Jewish roots. This is a woman who knows "mental illness" at first hand, and boy, does she compel the reader. Had me screaming with laughter and shedding tears galore. GET IT.

Really informative...but sometimes too much?, 07 Dec 2008
I'm studying learning disability nursing and this is one of the books on our list. While it is mostly always really helpful and covers practically everything, sometimes I can get a little bit baffled when Bob Gates seems to go off on a tangent about something (especially in the Genetics chapter).

I would definitely thoroughly recommend it, however, as everytime I'm not sure about something, I know it's guaranteed to be covered in this book.

This book is great, 03 May 2001
The book centres around learning disabilities and the way policies and procedures have changed for the better. A lot of people do not see past the disabilities and they miss the person behind them who is a human being and deserves the best quality of life the same way the so called normal people would. This book gives you a good insight into the problems that they face and how to deal with them.

The most engaging and definitive text on disability, 12 Oct 2001
Whether you are a reader of sociology / disability studies or not, this book offers the most enaging and thought provoking understanding of disability that you will find. Featuring seminal writers such as Mike Oliver, David Hevey ('The Creatures that Time Forgot') and Jenny Morris ('Pride Against Prejudice')'Disabling Barriers' uses the social model of disability to address issues of inequality. Looking at the way in which disabled people are represented in the media (David Hevey) for instance, the authors seek to debate that inaccessible environments and social prejudice's 'disable' people.
Through highlighting these concerning issues, 'Disabling Barriers - Enabling Environments' points us towards possible solutions for the future of disabiity culture and equality.

A classic in medical anthropology, 05 Sep 2002
This is the book that kicked off medical anthropology as a serious discipline in the States. Arthur Kleinman, a psychiatrist and anthropologist compared orthodox medical practitioners, shamans and practitioners of traditional chinese medicine from an ethnopsychiatric and anthropological perspective in Taiwan. He now is Professor of Anthropology at Harvard.

It is a good starting point for physicians and scientists who are stuck in the scientific box to take a look at what different traditions have to offer patients and far enough away from home to avoid too many irritations about practices that are "not scientific".

Thought provoking, a little dated, but written by one of the most respected authors in the field who has avoided becoming polarized in his analysis of medicine and psychiatry (as they relate to culture) throughout his distinguished career and who is never boring.

A milestone in Medical Anthropology. Seminal., 20 Nov 2001
This book compares the differing client-patient relationships enacted in consultations with between western physicians, traditional chinese physicians and ingigenous shamans in Taiwan in the 60's and 70's. It is an absolutely seminal milestone in medical anthropology as a then emerging discipline and will be much enjoyed by all thinking people. Human, thought provoking and rigorous, you'll want to keep this one. Psychosomatic complaints he found (he is Prof in anthropology at Harvard and psychiatrist too)are best treated by the shamans. Any complementary therapists wanting to academically back their practice should read it.

Great to see risk assessment addressed in this area, 10 Dec 2002
I think this is probably the first book available on this topic dedicated to people with learning disabilities. This is an important area, and I was pleased to find that the book had been put together in an accessible way. The book is well laid out, and the text is broken by lots of useful headings. It 's well written and easy to read and find your way around. This means it is suitable for staff and carers at all levels. It should form an important source, easily referred to.

A lovely tale to encourage others, 08 Jan 2005
Some of the terminology in this book seemed awkward and anachronistic, until one looks back and realises it was written nearly 20 years ago, and was unique in its time.

Temple Grandin refers to herself as a "recovered autistic person" - but I don't think you do "recover" as such - not like getting over the measles - autism is with you for life?

However, apart from that 'niggle' I think the book is brilliant. It even starts out with a very simple & straightforward description of autism : "a defect in the systems which process incoming sensory information causes the child to over-react to some stimuli and under-react to others". So succinct & clear.

Temple appears to have had some tremendous Love & Support from her Family & some of her Teachers, but enough mishaps occur along the way to give others warnings about what to watch out for.

I also liked her concluding chapters, some updated in the mid-1990's and still valid today, when she gives advice regarding fixations, observation, food allergies, and most importantly, the role of drug-based treatments.

There have been many autistic biographies since this one, but I can understand the impact it had when it was first published. I wish I had read it when it first came out.

I could relate to this, 04 Feb 2001
My 15yr old daughter was diagnosed as having Aspergers Autism last year. So much of this book was relevant to us and to her it was amazing. I read it, saying, yes, yes, yes, that's her!! I recommend it to any parent or professional who is working with an autistic child in whatever capacity. Remember, they walk to the beat of a different drummer, allow them that, and accept them for who they are.......God does.

I love this book!, 18 Apr 1999
I wish I could say that this inspiring and idyosyncratic little book (instead of the wretched "The Secret of Susan" by insipid old Ann M. Martin back in 3rd grade,) was the start of my lifelong fascination with autism. I can't -- alas! -- but I CAN say that it is immensely helpful in understanding the causes of, the "logic" behind autistic behavior, AND it's a great story. Read it, for crying out loud!

The Autism Experience, 17 Sep 1998
After working with 2 autistic girls, one of which wanted to be like Temple, I had to read her books, partly so I could understand and partly out of curiosity. After reading Emergence, it has changed my understanding and helped me to make an impact on the lives of atleast 2 girls. Thank you Temple.

A classic, 12 Nov 1997
The first ever autobiography written by someone with autism, and still one of the best.