Throwback Thursday: To Siri with Love by Judith Newman


Throwback Thursday is where I review the oldest book I've read recently. To Siri with Love is a book that my mom recommended to me. If you don't already know, I have three autistic children and I'm always looking for others who share the wonderful struggles of the neurodivergent community.

Title: To Siri with Love

By: Judith Newman

Genre: Non-Fiction

Pages: 240

Release Date: August 24th, 2017

Publisher: Quercus

Rating: ★★★★☆

 

Summary from Goodreads:

Writer Judith Newman never had any illusions that her family was 'normal'. She and her husband keep separate apartments-his filled with twin grand pianos as befits a former opera singer; hers filled with the clutter and chaos of twin adolescent boys conceived late in life. And one of those boys is Gus, her sweet, complicated, autistic 13-year-old.

With refreshing honesty, To Siri With Love chronicles one year in the life of Gus and the family around him -- a family with the same crazy ups and downs as any other. And at the heart of the book lies Gus's passionate friendship with Siri, Apple's 'intelligent personal assistant'. Unlike her human counterparts, Siri always has the right answers to Gus's incessant stream of questions about the intricacies of national rail schedules, or box turtle varieties, and she never runs out of patience. She always makes sure Gus enunciates and even teaches him manners by way of her warm yet polite tone and her programmed insistence on civility.

Equal parts funny and touching, this is a book that will make your heart brim, and then break it. Warm, wise and always honest, Judith Newman shows us a new world where artificial intelligence is beginning to meet emotional intelligence -- a world that will shape our children in ways both wonderful and unexpected.

 

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Review:

I have read many books about autism and books by parents of autistic children. The one thing I really find enduring, is when a parent/author looks at the child with autism as a person, not to be fixed, but to be loved for who they are.

I have three autistic sons. The people in my life who cannot accept them for who they are mean little to my sons, because they know these people don't believe in their gifts and only see them as broken. Its the incredible people who spend the time to learn how to interact with my boys that really see who they are and what they bring to the table. This book identifies with the wonderful side of autism and accepts it and nurtures it.

The love that comes from this book for the neurodivergent community and the way Newman took the time to nurture her son in a way that most parents would have found wrong by society's standards, proves there are parents out there that don't give a shit about normal standards and will do what it takes to make sure their child has the best chance at a wonderful life.

This world was not built for those who are different, but those who are different are the ones who change the world.

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