The “hilarious, poignant, weird, shocking, and inspiring” (Parents) memoir of an unconventional dad’s relationship with his equally offbeat son, from the New York Times bestselling author of Look Me in the Eye“[A] touching, sympathetic, and often insightful book . . . part parenting guide, part courtroom drama, part catalog of the travails and surprising joys of life with the high-functioning form of autism called Asperger’s syndr...

The New York Times bestselling author of Look Me in the Eye shares endearing stories about his childhood, adolescence, and young adult years, offering a fascinating glimpse into an autistic mind and actionable advice for others struggling to fit in.“An essential guidebook that will help all the creative, quirky, geeky, and wonderfully different kids to become successful in life.”—Temple GrandinIn his bestselling memoir,

From the time he was three or four years old, John Elder Robison realised that he was different from other people. He was unable to make eye contact or connect with other children, and by the time he was a teenager his odd habits - an inclination to blurt out non-sequiturs, obsessively dismantle radios or dig five-foot holes (and stick his younger brother in them) - had earned him the label 'social deviant'. It didn't help that his mother conversed with light fixtures and his father spent ...

Picking Up the Flute sets to music a former professor's musings on retirement, marriage, literature, and the natural world. From his home in historic Bristol, Vermont to Ireland's Connemara coast, travel through John Elder's exquisite topography and relish his explorations of nature, poetry, and geology.John Elder's memoir through music is permeated by his unique combination of prose and learning how to play the Irish flute. Elder revisits his time teaching at Middlebury Co...

Imagine hearing the words of a song but not feeling the passion that lies within. Imagine living for years with someone in need and not being able to sense their sadness. Imagine your world turned upside down…Like so many others, John Elder Robison was born with Asperger’s. Over the years, he misread others’ emotions or missed them altogether. Yet he’d also married, raised a son and become a successful businessman, designing sound systems for rock bands, creating robot games for Mi...

Nautilus Award Gold Medal Winner, Ecology & EnvironmentIn Matter and Desire, internationally renowned biologist and philosopher Andreas Weber rewrites ecology as a tender practice of forging relationships, of yearning for connections, and of expressing these desires through our bodies. Being alive is an erotic process—constantly transforming the self through contact with others, desiring ever more life.In clever and surprising ways, Weber recognize...

"Set aside your Bella Tuscanys and Year in Provences for a different kind of travel book. Pilgrimage to Vallombrosa puts a walking stick in your hand and Marsh’s Man and Nature in your knapsack, exploring how Italians have managed their natural and cultural heritage in ways that sustain both. John Elder’s poetic meditations on land and life demonstrate that only by searching beyond our familiar boundaries can we discover better ways of living back at hom...

The slyly funny, sweetly moving memoir of an unconventional dad’s relationship with his equally offbeat son—complete with fast cars, tall tales, homemade explosives, and a whole lot of fun and troubleMisfit, truant, delinquent. John Robison was never a model child, and he wasn’t a model dad either. Diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at the age of forty, he approached fatherhood as a series of logic puzzles and practical jokes. When his son, Cubby, asked, “Where did...

"Body is our first environment," writes Andrea Olsen. "It is the medium through which we know the earth." In a remarkable integration of environmental science, biology, meditation, and creative expression, Olsen, a dancer who teaches in the environmental studies program at Middlebury College, offers a guide to a holistic understanding of person and place. Part workbook, part exploration, Body and Earth considers the question of how we can best, most responsibly inhabit both our b...

The groundbreaking book that puts the focus on teens and young adults with social challengesThis book offers parents a step-by-step guide to making and keeping friends for teens and young adults with social challenges—such as those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, bipolar, or other conditions. With the book’s concrete rules and steps of social etiquette, parents will be able to assist in improving conversational skills, expanding social opportunities,...

Picking Up the Flute sets to music a former professor' s musings on retirement, marriage, literature, and the natural world. From his home in historic Bristol, Vermont to Ireland' s Connemara coast, travel through John Elder' s exquisite topography and relish his explorations of nature, poetry, and geology. John Elder' s memoir through music is permeated by his unique combination of prose and learning how to play the Irish flute. Elder revisits his time teaching at Middlebury Coll...

Pliny's Natural History is an astonishingly ambitious work that ranges from astronomy to art and from geography to zoology. Mingling acute observation with often wild speculation, it offers a fascinating view of the world as it was understood in the first century AD, whether describing the danger of diving for sponges, the first water-clock, or the use of asses' milk to remove wrinkles. Pliny himself died while investigating the volcanic eruption that destroyed Pompeii in AD 79, and the na...