Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's, by John Elder Robison

I read this book for my teen book group, although it had been recommended to me beforehand. I hate to steal words out of another reviewer's mouth, but I have found after reading this book that how I look at the world has changed (in a good way). Robison (brother of Augusten Burroughs, of Running with Scissors fame) relives his childhood, adolescence, and journey into adulthood - living both with a dysfunctional family, and Asperger's - a form of autism for which there simply was no diagnosis. Before I continue, I should expand a little on Asperger's itself. Asperger's syndrome is a form of high-functioning autism. Children with Asperger's usually demonstrate intense concentration and interests (for Robison, this was electronics), and generally have a difficult time socializing and making friends. Robison talks a lot about his struggles in the book - from making friends as a child, to escaping his family as an adolescent, to being accepted in society and finding his place in the working world as an adult. Robison adds a fresh point of view on subjects many people experience in their own lives - married life, fatherhood, finding one's place in the world and being accepted. He also explains experiences unique to him - living with an abusive father and mentally unstable mother, living on his own as a teenager and being diagnosed at the age of forty. His persistent wit and unique perspective on life add humor to a very serious subject. One thing I like about Robison is that he tells his story like it is - he does not milk his experiences for emotional heartwrench. Instead, he lets his story speak for itself (and I do distinctly remember crying at different points throughout the book). I would recommend this book to absolutely anyone (although there is a lot of swearing, so maybe not for everyone). Definitely one of my favorite reads.

Overall: 10 out of 10.

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Three Rivers Press; Reprint edition (September 9, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0307396185
ISBN-13: 978-0307396181

The Weather Makers: How Man is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth, by Tim Flannery

This book is exactly the opposite of Gretel Ehrlich's book I reviewed last month, but they make great companions. While Flannery's book gives you the facts, figures and politics of global warming, Ehrlich's is a tribute to what is being lost, giving a face to Flannery's hard numbers.

What I liked: It debunked a lot of global warming myths that I have found hard to explain in global warming debates; for example, the "Medieval Warm Period", when the Earth was thought to be warm due to evidence of wineries in England. As evidenced by global temperature records (ice cores, tree rings, etc.), the Earth was overall cooler, but warmed in a sort of patchy way due to natural stratospheric shifts. Flannery's book gave me a lot of the facts, numbers and predictions I was looking for out of Ehrlich's book, but having read Ehrlich's book helped me clearly envision what he meant. I would highly suggest reading them together. I also liked that he made it clear that even if we stopped emitting any fossil fuels this very minute, the Earth would still warm a little (maybe 2 degrees overall) because of the lifetime of carbon dioxide to stay in our air.

What I didn't like: For all of Flannery's hard facts, putting compassion behind facts is very difficult. Saying that the hole in the ozone is 11 million miles wide (made up number) is not the same as showing it. I often found myself checking the page numbers to see how long I had before I was done.

Overall: I would give it a 7 out of 10.

Alternative review:

Publisher's Weekly:

Mammologist and paleontologist Flannery (The Eternal Frontier), who in recent years has become well known for his controversial ideas on conservation, the environment and population control, presents a straightforward and powerfully written look at the connection between climate change and global warming. It's destined to become required reading following Hurricane Katrina as the focus shifts to the natural forces that may have produced such a devastating event. Much of the book's success is rooted in Flannery's succinct and fascinating insights into related topics, such as the differences between the terms greenhouse effect, global warming and climate change, and how the El Niño cycle of extreme climatic events "had a profound re-organising effect on nature." But the heart of the book is Flannery's impassioned look at the earth's "colossal" carbon dioxide pollution problem and his argument for how we can shift from our current global reliance on fossil fuels [...]. Flannery consistently produces the hard goods related to his main message that our environmental behavior makes us all "weather makers" who "already possess all the tools required to avoid catastrophic climate change."

Details:

Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Grove Press (January 10, 2001)
ISBN-10: 0802142923
ASIN: B001PO66MG