Scan barcode
maximum_moxie's review
4.0
Personal Experience Reading: 3 stars
Importance: 4 stars
I found this book essential reading for the topic alone. As a neurodivergent femme, it’s great to see some of my experiences described and contextualized by someone else who knows the feelings depicted. I especially appreciate how the author makes this about systemic change, not just ‘getting over’ neurodivergence but making a world in which it isn’t disabling. This is something I rarely see in popular psychology books, and though I would have liked to see it taken farther (maybe the modern workplace is hostile to all human flourishing by design and just asking for visibility for certain groups will co-opt them into that hellscape, anyone?), it’s a great strength of this kind of activist writing.
Personally, I found the text itself a bit scattered, though it feels a bit gross to say that when the book is precisely about how the ‘scattered’, unexpected connections neurodivergent people make are valuable. At least for me, though, anecdotes and studies weren’t adequately connected for me to get a central underlying argument until the end, and I skimmed much of the book’s second half. Even so, by including as many neurodivergent lives and voices as possible, the author gives us a useful introduction to a world I always wished I could find—where difference is not necessarily bad and can even help make a new kind of living.
Importance: 4 stars
I found this book essential reading for the topic alone. As a neurodivergent femme, it’s great to see some of my experiences described and contextualized by someone else who knows the feelings depicted. I especially appreciate how the author makes this about systemic change, not just ‘getting over’ neurodivergence but making a world in which it isn’t disabling. This is something I rarely see in popular psychology books, and though I would have liked to see it taken farther (maybe the modern workplace is hostile to all human flourishing by design and just asking for visibility for certain groups will co-opt them into that hellscape, anyone?), it’s a great strength of this kind of activist writing.
Personally, I found the text itself a bit scattered, though it feels a bit gross to say that when the book is precisely about how the ‘scattered’, unexpected connections neurodivergent people make are valuable. At least for me, though, anecdotes and studies weren’t adequately connected for me to get a central underlying argument until the end, and I skimmed much of the book’s second half. Even so, by including as many neurodivergent lives and voices as possible, the author gives us a useful introduction to a world I always wished I could find—where difference is not necessarily bad and can even help make a new kind of living.
calebmatthews's review
2.0
Easy to read, but not what I was hoping for or expecting. The author interviews several people and this book gathers all there opinions, but it was bothersome to me how the author seemed to be out of date. Since this book came out in 2019, I expected an up to date book. I didn’t take a lot away other than that I want to read:
Quiet
The Highly Sensitive Person
Far From the Tree
I hope this author writes another book where she does a deep dive into these topics. For now, divergent mind does an okay job of skimming the surface.
Quiet
The Highly Sensitive Person
Far From the Tree
I hope this author writes another book where she does a deep dive into these topics. For now, divergent mind does an okay job of skimming the surface.