ashleysbookthoughts's reviews
639 reviews

Shoutout to @a_girl_named_tommi who messaged me about this book as she was reading it last year because she thought I’d like it. She was right! Every review I’ve seen of The Trees mentions that it’s a dark, complex mystery that’s surprisingly funny. And every one of those reviews is spot-on. I read the entire book on a plane and couldn’t put it down. It was so compelling, so funny, so horrifying, and so creative. When I finished it, I was disappointed, because I wanted to keep reading. I can see why it was shortlisted for the Booker. It’s completely unique and Everett has a lot to say.

I loved this book. It just made me happy. I loved the different paces and styles of the three different parts and the banter was top notch. 

And if you’re someone who loves a book boyfriend, Noah Brewster may be soon added to your list. He’s smart, sweet, funny, and goes to therapy? That’s what we want in a male romance lead. His personality reminded me so much of Zaf from Take a Hint, Dani Brown, who is the icon all romance MCs are measured against in my brain. Also, for whatever reason, I pictured him as Noah Reid (aka Patrick from Schitt’s Creek) in all his guitar strumming, Simply the Best glory. And now that I think of it, they have some personality traits in common too. 

Sally was often frustrating, but generally in a relatable way, and I was definitely rooting for her. Her friendship with Viv and Henrietta was lovely, as was her relationship with her stepfather. This is the perfect book for the beach or to pull out of a reading slump. It went down easy and gave me all the warm fuzzies. 

Hey Macmillan, can we get a print version of this book in the States? I’m obsessed with it and have been recommending it to everyone, but only the ebook is out here, which makes it less accessible. 

 

Love and Autism is my new favorite book about autism. It features real autistic adults whose stories have been collected and lovingly told by a talented autistic writer. I love Kay Kerr’s writing. She is honest and empathetic, and her sense of humor leaps off the page. I want to read all of her fiction books now too.

 

I really appreciate the diversity of experiences Kerr highlights in the five people she features. They come from a variety of backgrounds – different races, religions, sexual orientations – and have experienced varying degrees of inclusion and exclusion at different times in their lives. Some are in relationships, while others are not, some have children or pets, and some were diagnosed as young children while others only recently learned they were autistic.

 

I don’t know what else to say about this book that will truly do it justice. Read it if you’re autistic, you know someone who is autistic, or if you want to learn more about autistic experiences. Basically, read this book – it’s for everyone.

I was eight years old when Nirvana released Nevermind. Obviously, I wasn’t in their target demo. But when I discovered them a few years later at age 12, I was hooked. My friends Kristin, Kristen, (yep 2 but with different spellings) and I would channel the band during any free choreography in our modern dance class (much to our teacher’s dismay). I was always Dave, air drumming and headbanging my 7th grade heart out. 

When the first Foo Fighters album came out, I immediately got my mom to drop me at Record Town (the cd shop at the mall - I’m old!) to buy a copy. All this to say, I’ve loved Dave Grohl for most of my life. But this book made me love him even more. 

Dave tells great stories about discovering his passion for music, experiencing Nirvana’s meteoric rise, the grief of loss, how the Foo Fighters came to be, meeting his heroes, and fatherhood. I listened to this on audio, which I highly recommend. Dave’s love and passion come through as he reads. 

I loved it! All the stars! (And, if you’ve never seen them, the Foo Fighters put on an awesome live show. Definitely recommend).

At first glance, The Elissas looks like a snappy mystery/thriller about the dark side of suburbia. What it really is, is a deeply personal piece of nonfiction, in which Samantha Leach reconciles with the death of her former best friend, Elissa, while learning more about the friends Elissa made in a troubled teen program (named Alissa and Alyssa) who also died young. The similarity of the girls’ names, and their deaths within eight years of each other, drew Leach’s attention.

 

In this book, she attempts to tell each girl’s story, based on her own memories of Elissa, interviews with friends, family members, and other girls who knew them at the residential “treatment” programs they attended. The result is an empathetic portrait of three girls, interspersed with facts and reporting on the Troubled Teen Industry, its lack of regulation, and how it preys on wealthy families’ fears to convince them to pay exorbitant amounts of money to “rehabilitate” their children, while often traumatizing them or worse.

 

This seems like the right moment for this book, as awareness of the Troubled Teen Industry is starting to increase following Paris Hilton’s documentary and coverage on podcasts such as @soundslikeacultpod . The Elissas is a gentle, deeply personal look inside the lives of these girls that the industry spits out and asks, what could we have done differently to save them?

This is out June 6th!

I love a good thriller, but I’m so often disappointed by them. It’s a fine line to walk in which a twist feels earned but you don’t see it coming from miles away. The Angel Maker kept me guessing the entire time I was reading it, and while I predicted a couple of reveals, it still managed to surprise me. However, if you are a person who likes to know things for sure, this may not be the book for you. The plot is complex and there are a LOT of moving pieces that mostly come together, but at the end, so many things are still unexplained. This made the ending only about 75% satisfying. BUT, it was a good book to get lost in on the beach in Mexico, and I enjoyed it for what it was. It’s worth picking up, but not a new favorite.

For background, I am a neurodivergent (but not autistic) psychologist who specializes in autism diagnosis. So, for me, a lot of the information Price presents was old news. I tried not to take personally his sweeping generalizations about MH providers’ incompetence regarding autism diagnosis, though at times he made it seem as if no one in the mental health space understands autism. While lots definitely don’t, we do exist!

There are some good things here. Particularly the discussion of how some populations are often misdiagnosed due to cultural perceptions and how exhausting masking can be. For a lot of adults I’ve worked with, the diagnosis comes as such a relief because it finally explains why things that seem so easy for other people have always been so difficult for them. Price does a good job of outlining the learning differences common in autism, including executive function difficulties and bottom-up processing/central coherence. However, on the whole, I wanted to like this book much more than I did. 

Given Price’s background as a social psychologist, I assumed that the book would be based on a solid research foundation with references to back up his claims. While there is an extensive reference/notes list, the vast majority of these are from popular media and anecdotal accounts rather than scientific sources. I understand the cost, time, and structural barriers to publishing research, but given his credentials, I was really disappointed. Some claims he makes don’t appear to be backed up by anything other than his opinion, which is a little icky when he is attempting to speak for all autistic folks. 

Price makes some statements that are just factually incorrect. Like stating that an adult was evaluated using the ADOS, “a test designed for children.” Yes, the ADOS was originally developed for assessment of children, but there are 5 modules (versions) of it currently, one of which is specifically designed for diagnosing adults. It is an essential component of diagnosis, particularly in adults who mask, as it probes for those specific learning and processing differences Price describes. 

The overview of ABA therapy in particular is purposefully inflammatory and misleading. ABA is a teaching method. You reinforce (reward) what you want to see more of and don’t reinforce what you don’t. (This process exists naturally to shape our behavior even when no one is specifically setting out to do so). Reinforcement (rewards) have greater impact on behavior than punishment, so most  people who practice ABA don’t use aversive consequences. There is no part of ABA Therapy that dictates what skills you focus on teaching. It can be used to teach someone to tie their shoes. Yes, ABA in the 60s and 70s was more punishment-oriented and did a lot of harm, but the profession has moved away from that on the whole. Are there problematic therapists out there? Definitely. Was Lovaas a dick? Absolutely. But portraying an entire profession as abusers trying to punish the autism out of kids is inaccurate and incredibly harmful. 

I read this book because it was recommended to me by a client and since reading it, I have recommended it to other clients (with the above caveats). I think for adults newly diagnosed with autism, there is a lot of good information here that can be incredibly validating and helpful when understanding what autism means for them. But please don’t read this book as if it presents unassailable facts supported by research, because that just doesn’t seem to be the case. 

I liked this book a lot, but didn’t love it. The writing is beautiful, made all the more impressive by the fact that this is the author’s first book in English. It really puts into perspective just how much Vietnam has been through in a relatively short time. 

However, I felt like this book was somehow both too much and not enough. This family goes through so much over the course of this story, that I found myself asking how much more can they endure. I recognize that this level of trauma is probably very real for many families throughout Vietnam, but be warned that it is brutal. 

On the flip side, because there are so many characters who are affected in so many ways by these historical events, sometimes the resolutions come too quickly or happen off page. There’s only so much you can fit in a 340 page book, and it sometimes felt that the recovery was rushed to allow more space for the trauma. 

I think there’s great value in reading this book, and I’m glad I did. I initially started it in January but I was not in the headspace to read it, so I set it aside until April, which was the right choice. So if you pick it up, make sure you’re in a mood to handle it because it is a lot. 

CW: war, rape, murder, ostracism, family separation, MIA, stillbirth, abortion, loss of limb, cancer, physical violence, starvation