the curious incident of the dog in the night-time

I thought I'd read this book in 20 minutes it was so short, but it actually made me wonder about the way people with autism think and if this was an accurate representation, so it took a bit longer. This book was written from the perspective of an autistic teenager. The author, Mark Haddon, is not autistic but in general I found him to be believable. That being said, I think "Look Me in the Eye" was a better representation. At first I really enjoyed how he outlined the way he thought a person with autism would think. After a little while though I found myself getting sick of it and skipping the parts where he outlined his thought process. He certainly highlighted how some people on the spectrum like to talk ad nasuem about random boring technical stuff that no one else cares about. I just didn't care enough about random math principles to read 3 pages about them and look at pictures illustrating what they look like. Instead, I wanted to see some plot advancement. That being said, I thought the plot was exciting and was really shocked a few times. Unlike many conversations people with autism, this book was at times very engaging (forgiving the math principles and the pictures of clouds and so on). We followed young Christopher on his mission to discover who killed his neighbors' dog. Maybe I am slow but I was shocked when the culprit was revealed, but not nearly as shocked by the crazy twist that came before hand. Haddon wrote an engaging story with an un-engaging character, and I think that is pretty impressive.

The Help

I recently completed "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. Why can't all books be as difficult to put down as this one? Stockett has you hooked almost instantly. The book takes place during the civil rights movement in a place that I always would have referred to as bumblefuck until reading this. Now I think this place is too scary to be bumblefuck--more like lynching land. It's from the point of view of 3 people: a young single girl who recently graduated college, and 2 black maids. The single white character really shows us that being single was even worse in olden times. The black maids would probably make anyone feel lazy and spoiled, but not in a bad way. In a "wow, those women are so impressive, how can they still be nice to anyone, and I am so happy I am not them" sort of way. Stockett is white and I think she did a god job of writing in the voice of a black woman from that era. We follow the women from their typical day to day lives through a fight against racism. All of the characters grow and evolve throughout the story and by the end of it you feel proud of each of them. I was surprised that this was Stockett's first book because it sounded like she has been writing forever! When I heard what this book was about I thought it sounded kind of boring but i figured whatever i'll read it anyway. But its NOT boring! It is the opposite of boring (i.e. Eat Pray Love)! I actually chose to read this instead of finding out why Sydney Bristow had been missing for 2 years in Season 3 of Alias (I am completely hooked on Alias right now). I don't know if that gives anyone an idea of how much of a page turner this is, but hopefully you get the gist.