Take a photo of a barcode or cover
kaleskorner 's review for:
Odd Girl Out: My Extraordinary Autistic Life
by Laura James
I have been conflicted with this book since I started reading it. I believe it had good information and insight into Laura's journey with being diagnosed with autism at age 45. She obviously spoke to a lot of professionals and interviewed psychologists in order to learn more. A lot of that was put into this book but I guess I wanted more.
I struggled with how this book was formatted and how it revealed information. Like I would have liked to start with Laura's moment of diagnosis and instead that was only near the end. And then there were these weird sections where the font and date changed. I didn't understand what those sections were because they were never explained. They were like flash backs mixed with journal entries. I didn't quite understand the personal antidotes behind them. And then instead of organizing it by subject or story it was organized by date of when the revelation or event occurred. Which I do understand but it made it difficult when we would go from being in the middle of a story and then to a professional explanation, then to a new story and then back to the original life story. It was a disorienting for me.
And I think that while yes, this is great for women on the spectrum and provides a voice for a marginalized community, this was very much filtered through the lens of a 45 year old woman. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I believe fully that this book should be on the shelves and a story that needs to be told. As a 26 year old woman, I found a lot of the life stories difficult to relate to, specifically her empty-nester-syndrome, the marriage problems and the motherhood sections in general. Because the story was told in such a clinical manner -- which I appreciated at parts -- I struggled pushing through the sections I had little to no relation to. Again, not bad, just not for me at this time in my life.
Overall, the information was good and valid and will be helpful in my research. But the formatting and the method of storytelling was one that was difficult for me to get through.
Conclusion: Keep but only because I highlighted in it
I struggled with how this book was formatted and how it revealed information. Like I would have liked to start with Laura's moment of diagnosis and instead that was only near the end. And then there were these weird sections where the font and date changed. I didn't understand what those sections were because they were never explained. They were like flash backs mixed with journal entries. I didn't quite understand the personal antidotes behind them. And then instead of organizing it by subject or story it was organized by date of when the revelation or event occurred. Which I do understand but it made it difficult when we would go from being in the middle of a story and then to a professional explanation, then to a new story and then back to the original life story. It was a disorienting for me.
And I think that while yes, this is great for women on the spectrum and provides a voice for a marginalized community, this was very much filtered through the lens of a 45 year old woman. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I believe fully that this book should be on the shelves and a story that needs to be told. As a 26 year old woman, I found a lot of the life stories difficult to relate to, specifically her empty-nester-syndrome, the marriage problems and the motherhood sections in general. Because the story was told in such a clinical manner -- which I appreciated at parts -- I struggled pushing through the sections I had little to no relation to. Again, not bad, just not for me at this time in my life.
Overall, the information was good and valid and will be helpful in my research. But the formatting and the method of storytelling was one that was difficult for me to get through.
Conclusion: Keep but only because I highlighted in it