Autism Acceptance Month Reads

Written By: Astrid Ramsay (Senior Bookseller)

Diversify Your Reading List

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Diversify Your Reading List 〰️

The Secret Life of a Black Aspie: A Memoir by Anand Prahlad

Written by Anand Prahlad, a black man with autism and synesthesia who was diagnosed at 57, this book draws a poetic, uniquely visceral portrait of everyday life in the Jim Crow and newly-desegregated South, predominantly white West Coast college life, and the professional worlds beyond. Prahlad shows us what it’s like to be hypersensitive to a world bursting with colors, sounds, tastes, and textures–a world that would deny him any kind of vulnerability–and tells us how he developed his sense of self in a too-white world that will never stop pressing in. 

Supporting Transgender Autistic Youth and Adults: A Guide for Professionals and Families by Finn V. Gratton

This book begins by demonstrating how neurotypical people tend to dismiss gender dysphoria in autistic people by assuming that any gender nonconformity is a byproduct of autism and showing its readers how shame-based, corrective medical care that autistic people often receive can affect trans people’s feelings toward their gender identity. From there, it helps cisgender/neurotypical people genuinely empathize with the trans autistic people in their lives (or under their care), advocate for better healthcare, set boundaries, keep themselves safe, and develop fulfilling relationships. 

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

Stella, a thirty-year-old woman with Aspbergers, is being not-so-subtly pressured by her parents to “finally” settle down and start a family. She’s willing to try but feels overwhelmed by the actual processes of sex and dating. Enter Michael, the escort she hires to help her date on her terms (and, of course, falls in love with). More than anything, this book is a win for representation. Autistic women and Asian men are usually both desexualized in popular media, and it’s refreshing to read a book where an autistic woman isn’t pressured to normalize herself to find love and an Asian man can be seen as a legitimate, attractive romantic interest without being removed from his race.