The inner workings of the mind are the root of creativity and empathy. Neurodivergence as well as mental disorders figure into many of my books.
While I’m a novelist, I often read nonfiction about everything from schizophrenia and synesthesia to—in this case—the autism spectrum—and memoirs are especially rewarding. I first heard about this book through an article in Discover magazine and was thrilled to come across Jon Elder Robinson’s account of participating in a brain stimulation experiment that awoke parts of his brain he’d never been able to access.
Until this time, he describes being in essence “blind” to social signals and emotional context. His excellent writing and insights help shed light on the potential locked within many, if not all, human minds.
An extraordinary memoir about the cutting-edge brain therapy that dramatically changed the life and mind of John Elder Robison, the New York Times bestselling author of Look Me in the Eye
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST
Imagine spending the first forty years of your life in darkness, blind to the emotions and social signals of other people. Then imagine that someone suddenly switches the lights on.
It has long been assumed that people living with autism are born with the diminished ability to read the emotions of others, even as they feel…
For years, I used to search for books about magic or the supernatural or alternate universes intersecting with the real world. Publishers mostly shunned them except for children’s books.
Today, there’s such a flood of paranormal cozy mysteries that it’s a challenge picking out ones that really work, that maintain believability while entertaining. Nancy Warren’s Vampire Knitting Club (first in a series) is the kind of fun, imaginative story I was looking for, combining a mystery with zany characters and an unusual premise. Vampires that knit? Cats that communicate?
This book lifted me out of the troubled ordinary world into a realm I’d love to visit again and again.
Vampires who knit. A troublemaking witch. Who killed Granny — and is she really dead?At a crossroads between a cringe-worthy past (Todd the Toad) and an uncertain future (she's not exactly homeless, but it's close), Lucy Swift travels to Oxford to visit her grandmother. With Gran's undying love to count on and Cardinal Woolsey's, Gran's knitting shop, to keep her busy, Lucy can catch her breath and figure out what she's going to do.
Except it turns out that Gran is the undying. Or at least, the undead. But there's a death certificate. And a will, leaving the knitting shop…
Like most writers and readers, I love bookstores. And my heart goes out to cats in need of rescuing.
Littered With Trouble combines them with a well-constructed mystery and an engaging amateur sleuth. As a mystery author myself, I understand how tricky it is to create a believable story in which a nonprofessional—in this case, a new widow who opens a bookstore featuring cats available for adoption—encounters a death and confronts clues to help solve the case, while maintaining credibility (such as respecting the work of police detectives).
The author pulled me out of my ever-analyzing brain and swept me along in the story.
Shocking secrets, unexpected love, a cold-case mystery—and a nosy beagle! At age 50, nurse Anni discovers via a DNA test that she has two half-sisters, both of whom were hurt by a con man who has disappeared. Determined to unravel the past, she hires a handsome P.I., and gets more than she bargained for. That includes a dog with a talent for digging up evidence.
A delightful 2023 entry in the Sisters, Lovers & Second Chances series by the author of the Safe Harbor Medical romances and mysteries. #1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber says, “Jacqueline Diamond writes stories from the heart with a wisdom and tenderness that remain long after the final page.”
