Friday, January 16, 2009

Recommended Reading

Here I am, recommending a book - comical. (Me, not the book).
I read this in one night. Easy read, but so real. McCarthy was frank about her feelings and experiences leading up to, and dealing with, the discovery that her son had autism. She seemed so female to me - meaning, her thoughts and actions were just so typical of being a woman and a mom and I found it easy to relate to her (well, mostly). I have been drawn to autism since I was a peer tutor in elementary school in the special ed. classroom. Since then I have been able to help with preschool kids with autism and volunteered one summer at NACD (www.nacd.org) in Ogden, UT. NACD is an agency that has tremendous results in working with autism, basically eradicating the symptoms of it, using many of the forms of treatment similar to those McCarthy discovered and applied with her son.
I love how she states she earned a PhD in Google Research. What a blessing the internet is to moms! I also loved the 3 references to Mormon missionaries, yet felt frustrated that she didn't get that they were a direct answer to her pleas to God for direction and that they came to her door at times when she desparately needed them.
I recommend this book to all women b/c the biggest lessons can be applied to any of us:
1. Take your burdens to the Lord - follow His direction - miracles will happen.
2. Follow your female intuition - you're right. Do not be intimidated by male institutions and those institutions that attempt to control or dominate with power and prestige (it's often lights and smoke).
3. Find a cause - figure out what you were born to do and do it! Be the change you want to see in the world (Gandhi).

3 comments:

Marcee said...

Thank you for posting this. With my son having autism, I cannot wait to read this book!

Quincy said...

I'm looking forward to reading this book, thanks for the recommendation! My mom worked with children with autism when I was in school. And now I have three close friends with autistic children. I have found autism extremely interesting and have read a few books. Have you ever taken a look at the Son-Rise program? Even though I don't have a autistic child (but do have one a little on the spectrum), it totally changed how I interact with my children. There is another book I found interesting "The Elephant in the Playroom". I love the points you took from the book, I'm look into reserving it from the library.

Mark and Kristi said...

I've read this book and Mother Warriors - loved them both. I have read alot on autism since Kendra was thought to have had PDD. I also love the Vaccine Book - I think Kendra's neurological disorder stemmed from aluminum toxicity. A couple of other books that I have liked about autism are "The Soul of Autism" and "Let Me Hear your Voice."