A view of curved bookshelves.

Autistic Voices

| Cinnaminson Library

Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert
No matter how hard Eve Brown tries, everything ends up a mess. Jacob Wayne, on the other hand, always has everything under control. In this romantic comedy featuring two autistic leads, when Eve starts working as the chef of Jacob’s B&B, he may find that his distaste for her chaos slowly turns into something else.

All the Weight of our Dreams: On Living Racialized Autism
Delve into poetry, essays, short fiction, photography, paintings and drawings in the first-ever anthology entirely by autistic people of color, featuring 61 writers and artists from seven countries.

Autism in Heels: The Untold Story of a Female Life on the Spectrum by Jennifer Cook O’Toole
Quite often, autistic girls and women fly under the radar and their autism is missed, leaving them to face years of anxiety wondering why they feel so different from everyone else. The author experienced this and has been sharing her experience with the world, hoping to empower other late-diagnosed autistic women.

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang
Khai Diep is convinced he has no feelings, but his family knows he just processes emotions differently due to his autism, so his mother takes matters into her own hands and returns to Vietnam to find him the perfect bride. Now, Esme Tran finds herself in America, hopelessly smitten with a man who is convinced he can never return her affection.

Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale
Cassandra Penelope Dankworth is a creature of habit. She likes what she likes and strongly dislikes what she doesn't. When her predictable life falls into chaos, she’ll discover that she has the power to go back and change the past. One small rewind at a time, Cassie attempts to fix the life she accidentally obliterated, but soon she'll discover she's trying to fix all the wrong things.

Different, Not Less: A Neurodivergent’s Guide to Embracing Your True Self and Finding Your Happily Ever After by Chloe Hayden
This practical guide from 24-year-old actor and advocate Hayden provides insight on how autism and ADHD present differently in females, advice for living with meltdowns and shutdowns, tips for finding supportive relationships, communities and workplaces and much more. Whether you're neurodivergent or supporting those who are, you’ll be inspired to create a more inclusive world where everyone feels like they belong.

Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn’t Designed for You by Jenara Nerenberg
As a successful Harvard and Berkeley-educated writer, entrepreneur, and devoted mother, the author was shocked to discover that her “symptoms” – only ever labeled as anxiety – were actually autism and ADHD. Being a journalist, she dove into the research about why sensory processing differences are often overlooked, masked, or mistaken for something else entirely when it comes to women.

Fearlessly Different: An Autistic Actor’s Journey to Broadway’s Biggest Stage by Mickey Rowe
As an autistic and legally blind person, living in a society designed by and for non-disabled people, it was always made clear to the author the many things he was apparently incapable of doing. Though he faced many obstacles along the way, he made his Broadway dreams come true, becoming the first autistic actor to play the lead role in the play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and eventually founding the National Disability Theatre.

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang
Violinist Anna Sun is already reeling from going viral on YouTube and discovering that she’s autistic when her longtime boyfriend announces he wants an open relationship before he can make a final commitment to her. A hurt and angry Anna decides that if he wants an open relationship, then she does, too, and that’s where tattooed, motorcycle-riding Quan Diep comes in.

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. Her job lets her crunch numbers all day, but hasn’t given her much time to gain dating experience. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice – with a professional – which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. Soon, their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense, and Stella realizes that there's not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick.

The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism by Naoki Higashida
Using an alphabet grid, the author carefully constructed the words he couldn’t say out loud, sharing his unique point of view on not only autism but life itself. His insights – into the mystery of words, the wonders of laughter, and the elusiveness of memory – are so startling, strange and powerful that you will never look at the world the same way again.

Sensory: Life on the Spectrum: An Autistic Comics Anthology
This anthology features comics from 30 autistic creators about their experiences of living in a world that doesn’t always understand or accept them. It contains illustrated explorations of everything from life pre-diagnosis, to tips on how to explain autism to someone who isn't autistic, to suggestions for how to soothe yourself when you’re feeling overstimulated.

Sincerely, Your Autistic Child: What People on the Autism Spectrum Wish Their Parents Knew About Growing Up, Acceptance, and Identity
This book is an authentic resource for parents and others who care about autism written by people who understand this experience most, autistic people themselves. From childhood and education to culture, gender identity, and sexuality, this anthology tackles the everyday challenges of growing up. Written like letters to parents, the contributors reflect on what they have learned while growing up with autism and how parents can avoid common mistakes and overcome challenges.

Ten Steps to Nanette: A Memoir Situation by Hannah Gadsby
Multi-award winning comedian Gadsby takes us through the defining moments in her life that led to the creation of her show Nanette. It traces Gadsby's growth as a queer person from Tasmania – where homosexuality was illegal until 1997 – to her ever-evolving relationship with comedy, her struggle with late-in-life diagnoses of autism and ADHD, and finally to the backbone of Nanette - the renouncement of self-deprecation, the rejection of misogyny, and the moral significance of truth-telling.

Two Wrongs Make a Right by Chloe Liese
Jamie Westenberg and Bea Wilmot have nothing in common except the mutual understanding that they couldn't be more wrong for each other. But when their friends trick them into going on a date, Jamie and Bea realize they have an opportunity to stop people meddling in their love lives once and for all. They’ll just need to convince everyone they’re madly in love, then break up spectacularly, in this swoony neurodivergent reimagining of Shakespeare’s comedy, Much Ado About Nothing.

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
Aster is used to being called a monster. Sometimes she almost wishes she was one, because then she’d be powerful enough to tear this place down. On board a space vessel that resembles the antebellum South, Aster sees only one option to turn her life around, and to do it, she’ll need to sow the seeds of a civil war.

Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity by Devon Price
Masking is a common coping mechanism for some autistic people who hide their autistic traits to fit in with societal norms, which can be exhausting and comes at the expense of mental health. In this book, Dr. Price blends history, scientific research, and personal stories to create the groundwork for autistic people to unmask, and for society to accept self-expression in all forms.

Audience: Seniors, Adult
Category:
Reading Lists