Siwakorn Sojiponkun Sojiponkun itibaren Velilla del Río Carrión, Palencia, İspanya itibaren Velilla del Río Carrión, Palencia, İspanya

oops, the secret's finally out to the rest of the team...

Loved this book. Having Asperger's myself, I could relate to everything Nathanial went through. The desire to be a genius, the taking metaphors and expressions seriously, obsession with various things, excelling in certain places but failing in others (he is super adept in math, I in English and Art), echoing other peoples' words, and mental shutdowns when someone [inadvertantly] threatens to move things around, or touch their things, or meddle with it in any way (I once almost had -what I think is- a true blue panic attack because my family moved all the things in my room and I couldn't find anything immediately). Even his distant relationship with his biological father. This author did a good job at describing Asperger's and creating Nathanial as a person with a different brain than "neurotypical" people do. The files with dates like little diaries were also fun to read. It was mechanic and verbatim, giving you another insight to the Asperger's mind: Everything is orderly, methodical, and organized to a T. And it gives you a sense how emotions are not immediately played into us Aspies's decisions and outlook on life. Robotic as Nathanial has pointed out, is not necessarily true, but it certainly seems like it. This seems like a very good Literature Circle read or whatever you teachers call it when you assign a group/class of kids to read a book altogether and reflect on it. Something with the theme of mental disorders, syndromes, or messed up brains. This would be perfect for the Asperger's aspect.

enthralling for the first 250 pages...you keep thinking that it will all come to a head and that the family will be in Berlin as the atrocities continue, so the anticipation of an eventual display of moral outrage and courageous defiance drives you through the book. but then the author skips four years, in a way that makes you wonder if a section of the book were completely left out...and you realize that you've been cheated. not larson's fault, since he cannot change history (dodd was not given the chance to be "commendable"), but even though it is interesting to read this story, it is not quite on par with the drama and suspense of Devil in the White City, or even Thunderstruck, which was not my favorite either. filled with great facts and letters, of course, and the descriptions of Hitler, Goring, and Goebbles by Americans give a new perspective on the war and those involved.

summer reading