Summer Reads

In the summertime, one of my favorite things is a good book. This summer was not a particularly productive summer on the reading front, however I read a few good novels. The best are autobiographies. Over winter break last year I read the autobiography of Anthony Kiedis, the lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and it is still the best book I have ever read. I cannot help but compare every book I read to Kiedis's Scar Tissue. Also, I am now obsessed with multiple songs by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, they are great. Many times I pick up a book and get halfway through it and then put it down. Its a bad habit that I wish would go away. So, this summer I picked up three books that never got finished: The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards, Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, and The House at Riverton by Kate Morton. My favorite out of that group is Shantaram... it is an autobiography. It is all about the author's life after he escapes from prison. He moves to India, Bombay specifically, (which is now Mumbai) and has many adventures. The book is so interesting because of Roberts's take on the world after he is out of prison. Most people would be disgusted by the slums and filth of Bombay, but he loved it because "everyone looked so happy." Shantaram depicts Bombay as a city pulsing with so much life and fun, with some crime, but that is what makes it super exciting. However Shantaram is about 700 pages long and somewhat intimidating, but I plan on picking it back up, it is waiting on my nightstand to be read.

The books I read all the way through were The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, Look Me in The Eye by John Elder Robison, and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Although I loved all three of them, my favorite was Look Me in The Eye...it was another autobiography! The author John Elder Robison lives with a mild form of autism called Asperger's syndrome. Look Me in The Eye is entirely about his life. He includes much about his autism and how it affected him in the real world. What makes the book so interesting is his anecdotes about growing up with wacky parents in a small town outside of Boston. The book also shows what a person with autism has to deal with. What those without autism might think of as quirky, a person with autism would think of as totally normal. I loved how he only remembered people's names if he nicknamed them himself. Consequently, he called his first wife "Little Bear" for all of their time together, I do not even remember her real name, or if he even revealed it in the book. Also, his parents became "Slug" and "Stupid" after he discovers his affinity for nicknaming.

In addition, Look Me in The Eye explores the wonder that is the autistic mind. With very little schooling, Robison had some serious engineering talents. After many little jobs such as fixing cameras in the A.V. department at his high school he went on to become the man that made revolutionary guitars for KISS. Revolutionary as in when Gene Simmons would bust out into a face-melting solo his guitar would burst into flames and, needless to say, the crowd went wild for Robison's guitar designs.

The title for Look Me in the Eye was inspired by Robison's father, A.K.A. "Slug." His father would say "look me in the eye, boy" but the truth was that Robison had difficulty making eye contact with anyone because of his Asperger's. Look Me in the Eye is an eye-opening yet hilarious story about a boy's life with Asperder's that is thoroughly entertaining and overall an awesome read for the summer or any other time of the year. In my mind, it is up towards the top of my list along with Scar Tissue and will not be soon forgotten.