Task 16: Read an own voices book about disability

[tif]

Melissa wrote: "Would So Lucky work here? It's fiction about someone suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, which the author also has."

Yes, it would and it's a great book!

[Sheila]

I read Get a Life Chloe Brown for a fat-positive romance, and the main character and the author both differ from chronic pain (fibromyalgia) so this book might work for both this task and task 7.

[Gw]

I chose DISABILITY VISIBILITY.

[Sandra]

Last year I read Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space - by Amanda Leduc. It's a memoir about her experience growing up with a disability and she has some very interesting thoughts about fairy tales and her struggles to find herself within them.

[Adriana]

It hasn't been recommended so far, but one of the best books I've read in the last couple of years was The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays by Esmé Weijun Wang; it's a collection of essays about the author's experiences living with schizophrenia, navigating work and relationships, and making a place in the world for herself.

In the same area, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness by Elyn R. Saks is a fantastic memoir of Saks' life with Schizophrenia, and a critique of the ways in which educational and medical institutions approach and fail neurodivergent people. Really recommend both books.

[Bonnie G.]

Adriana wrote: "It hasn't been recommended so far, but one of the best books I've read in the last couple of years was The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays by Esmé Weijun Wang; it'..."

Thank you. Both of those books have been on my TBR for a while, the Saks book for many years. I read The Hilarious World of Depression for the prompt (it is excellent) but I suspect this will be one of the prompts for which I will read many books by the end of the year.

[Rachel]

I'm copying this comment over from the thread about children's books which centre a disabled character (as after listening to the audiobook I found that it doesn't fit there!) in case anyone is looking for a light read/listen, or is doing the challenge with young people.

Free on Audible Stories at the moment is Cyborg Cat and the Night Spider. It's written by Ade Adepitan, a British Paralympic athlete, and based on some of his own life experiences: it's an #ownvoices story which features a person of colour with a disability as the main character.

[oliver]

hello, your local autistic person who reads a lot about autism here. for ownvoices autistic rep, here are some i'd definitely recommend (very long and extensive so you can choose which one interests you most)

nonfic anthologies:

Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking (anthology by autistic folks centered on the more political aspects of autism/the philosophy of neurodiversity/autistic culture)

Typed Words, Loud Voices (anthology of writings from non-speaking autistics)

Spectrums: Autistic Transgender People in Their Own Words, All the Weight of Our Dreams: On Living Racialized Autism, and Spectrum Women: Walking to the Beat of Autism are good reads for intersectional autistic experiences (autistic + trans, autistic + BIPOC, and autistic + female)

i haven't read Stim: An Autistic Anthology, but heard it's really good

autiebio/memoir:

I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder: A Memoir

How Can I Talk If My Lips Don't Move: Inside My Autistic Mind

Nerdy, Shy, and Socially Inappropriate: A User Guide to an Asperger Life

Ido in Autismland: Climbing Out of Autism's Silent Prison

The ABCs of Autism Acceptance (not about the author's personal experiences, but important read on autism acceptance/liberation)

fiction:

Queens of Geek

In Two Worlds (about a nonspeaking autistic person by the same author as Ido in Autismland)

others have recommended these, butQueens of Geek, On the Edge of Gone and Failure to Communicate

The Kiss Quotient

Even If We Break

bonus: if you are also a Person Whomst is Really Into This Stuff and/or have a grasp on neurodiversity movement history and politics, i'd recommend Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement. Stories from the Frontline.

Hopefully I could be helpful! I'm not personally reading about autism for this challenge, since the point is kind of to learn about experiences other than your own. I'm also reading Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century.

[Kaiti]

Blind person who is currently in the process of eval for ADHD here. I read a lot of own voices disability stuff. Here are a few books I haven't seen recommended here. The Pretty One by Keah Brown is excellent, as is Sitting Pretty by Rebekah Taussig. Don't Call Me Inspirational and Such a Pretty Girl are also great memoirs, by Harilyn Rousso and Natia LaSpina respectively. LaSpina has an interesting book because she is a contemporary of Judy Heumann, who has the Being Heumann book I also recommend, but she also did disability rights activism work in her native Italy in addition to the US. There are also lots of good disability studies books if you don't mind academic writing. Claiming Disability by Simi Linton, Building Access by Aime Hamray, and others are good. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a good shorter read. When Breath Becomes Air is also good.

I'd encourage you to research books and people they're about before reading them. For instance, you may have noticed although I'm blind and she has own voices books, Helen Keller was not in my recommendations. She's controversial due to her views on eugenics and how it should be used to wipe out disability. People who are pushing for disability to be accepted and embrace see that as counterproductive to our cause. I won't go as far to tell people to not read it because that's not my place, but modern-day disability rights and disability justice activists are writing and have excellent books available.

[Lαυɾҽɳ]

Easily Haben: it was the community read-together this year at our public library

[Alexis]

Kaiti wrote: "Blind person who is currently in the process of eval for ADHD here. I read a lot of own voices disability stuff. Here are a few books I haven't seen recommended here. The Pretty One by Keah Brown i..."

I have Being Heumann as my pick for this. Looking forward to it!

[Sarah]

My recommendation is Feminist, Queer, Crip by Alison Kafer.

[A]

We Are Never Meeting in Real Life.

[Sherri]

I read The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elizabeth Tova Bailey. 4 stars. I learned so much about snails. This was my last prompt. I finished the challenge.

[Stina]

Would Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened count for this? It is largely about Brosh's (at times debilitating) depression and anxiety.

[L.h.]

I just finished (literally ten minutes ago finished) Six of Crows, and I wondered if it would count for this category, but dismissed it because while the main character's disability is written from the author's life experience, it's not about disability. It's about a heist. But then I saw that someone posted it on their list for this category. Thoughts?

[Brittany]

I read Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde. There are two main characters, one of which is autistic as is the author.

[Octavia]

I have been meaning to read The Story of My Life by Helen Keller for years, and I've finally finished it. It was alright - a bit sugary for me in the prose, but her language skills were incredible. Here I am tapping away on Duolingo each morning trying to decipher basic French, and Helen's off adding Greek and Latin to the three or four languages she already speaks...