100 books like The Spectrum Girl's Survival Guide

I never knew there was a name for what medical doctor Joel Salinas described in this fascinating book: Mirror Touch.

If you are one of those people who flinch/touch your own cheek when you see someone slapped in a movie or physically redden or cringe when another person is embarrassed—you, yourself, may have the “mirror touch” capacity that the doctor describes.

As Dr. Salinas explains, all of us have “mirror neurons,” which allow us to feel empathy with other people going through physical or emotional pain. However, some of us, mirror-touch synesthetes like Dr Salinas, can have twice the usual number of mirror neurons, causing them to feel, in their own bodies, the pain of another person upon seeing or even hearing it described.

The book tells of how the doctor’s gift makes him “feel the pain” of his patients and his struggle to find boundaries that allow him to… show more.

This book made me laugh out loud!

In this winner of the 2023 Independent Publisher Book Award bronze medal, the author tells true tales of his everyday life as a writer in New York City’s East Village and Brooklyn. We hear stories of the quirky situations and characters he encounters, stories that often take a meandering path due to, as the author tells us, his diagnosis of A.D.D. (attention deficit disorder).

The author’s unique, quirky writing style has him begin one funny story, which then leads to another and another, then circles back to the first. As author Tyler Gore himself said in an interview, “I strongly feel that both my sense of humor and my creativity are connected to my A.D.D., and that seems like a fair trade-off for occasionally losing my glasses on the train.”

I was awe-struck by author Daniel Tammet’s first-person account of his experience as both an autistic savant and a synesthete!

He can do complex mathematical calculations in his head, thanks to his ability to “see’ numbers as three-dimensional colored objects. Tammet describes his amazing ability to “see” and recite mathematical pi to 22,514 decimal places!

What’s more, he experiences words and days of the week as colors, which helps him visualize periods of time and learn different languages (Tammet knows 11, including Icelandic, learned in one week).

As a person on the autism spectrum, the book also tells of the author’s social and emotional struggles to relate to other people. A moving and inspiring personal story.

I was bowled over by Maureen Seaberg’s book, which brings together recent research that shows our human sensory capacity is much greater than we believed before!

In these days of rising AI, when we are taking a hard look at the limitations of our human capacities, Seaberg’s book shows that we human beings have much amazing sensory potential that remains undeveloped and can know first-hand the blended sensations of synesthesia or out-of-body experiences.

No wonder the book was included in Malcolm Gladwell’s “Next Big Idea Book Club”! I stayed awake an extra two hours one night because I could not put the book down. This book gave me a jolt of wonder about the world and our place within it.

Confession: as of this writing I am only ⅓ of the way through this book, but I like it immensely and find it immensely soothing and validating. A cursory search on Dr. Julie Smith, a therapist, tells me that she is “TikTok famous” and remains very popular on social media. This is not how I came across her work, or this book. This book is an excellent primer for how to survive being human in this world, with vital inside information from decades of therapeutic practice on how to face daily challenges and become attuned to our mental health. Filled with insights, strategies, and explanations that are both practice and relatable, this is a great book to gift to people of all ages.

New York Divorce attorney Jacqueline Newman’s The New Rules of Divorce: Twelve Secrets to Protecting Your Wealth, Health and Happiness is a great divorce primer, tackling everything from contemplating divorce to dating after divorce. The book is charming and funny as well as deeply practical. While the book will probably appeal the most to wealthy women, it offers useful advice for anyone contemplating or going through a divorce.

The authors ask, "Why is it that a decent person like you, someone you would invite home for dinner, is plagued by the feeling that you will never get it all done? Do you think you invented the word frantic? Your life," they say, "is not a series of little boxes to be checked off as you complete tasks. Life is rough, sweet, sticky, hot and cold, even messy, and enjoyable."

To rearrange your life and get what you want done, they contend that you need a clear picture of your life as it actually is today. Diagramming helps; start with yourself in the middle and add spokes and branches in all directions that define and illustrate your inter-connectedness. Then, when you stand back and look at the pattern, you are viewing your life as it is today, with all of its important facets. All, that is, except for some… show more.

Young people’s mental health is so important to tackle; it’s so prevalent at the moment. Going to university or leaving home is one of the most stressful times in our lives and therefore crucial that we have tools and understanding to help us get through. This book has some great practical advice about how to manage. The author knows his psychology and has obviously worked with students with anxiety before, you feel like you are in trusted hands. It’s an easy to read book and you get to know the author too who writes with a light heartedness which really helps. 

I get this book for every single one of my female friends when they get close to middle-age. Are we maybe confused about the world because we’re growing old, or has the world never made any sense, but we were too busy being young and didn’t notice? And why can we suddenly not see any of it properly anyway?

In true Jacky Fleming style, this little gem is both hilarious and painfully true. It makes me howl with laughter every time I read it.

We presume all animals love their habitat and their lot in life; birds love the sky, snakes love the grass, and bears, of course, love the woods. But not so much for the star of this book; a petulant little penguin who seems to have gotten up on the wrong side of the ice floe. He’s crabby about the too-white snow, the too-cold temperature, the too-salty sea, and his too-lookalike colony of penguin pals. Basically, everything makes him crabby, but in a way that’s amusing. After a day of carping, a wise walrus gives him a lecture about appreciating the beauty of his world and the love of his companions. This improves his attitude…for about two pages.

By the end of the book, the little grump is back to his old self, griping about the weather and the early darkness. It’s refreshing to see a character who doesn’t completely transform… show more.