Be Different cover art

Be Different

Adventures of a Free-Range Aspergian with Practical Advice for Aspergians, Misfits, Families & Teachers

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Be Different

By: John Elder Robison
Narrated by: John Elder Robison
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About this listen

The author of the New York Times best-selling Look Me in the Eye returns to help Aspergians, and even ordinary geeks, embrace being different and fix the things that hold them back in life.

With his usual honesty, dry wit, and unapologetic eccentricity, John Robison argues that Asperger's is about difference, not disability. In this book he offers stories from his own life and from the lives of other Aspergians to give the listener a window into the Aspergian mind.

Equally important, he offers practical advice - to Aspergians, their parents, and educators - on how Asperians can improve the weak communication and social skills that keep them from taking full advantage of, or even recognizing, their often remarkable gifts.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2011 John Elder Robison (P)2011 Random House Audio Childhood Education Children's Health Communication & Social Skills Education Higher & Continuing Education Mental Health Personal Development Primary Education Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Relationships Special Education & Disabilities Special need Health

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Critic reviews

"An essential guidebook for anyone who has difficulty fitting in. It will help all the creative, quirky, geeky, and wonderfully different kids to become successful in life. This book is fantastic." (Temple Grandin, author, Thinking in Pictures)
All stars
Most relevant  
very interesting. gives an understanding from a lay persons view into what is a complex range of behaviour.

insightful

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I found this book heartwarming and empathetic in its own way, many times I had to laugh thinking, how true maybe it would be a more straight forward world to live in with people if we were all a bit on the AS spectrum. As a psychotherapist working with AS I found it very insightful and helpful in my work as well as to recommend to some of my clients. Thank you John Elder!

Heartwarming and empathetic in its own way

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Simply great. Thank you very much John for sharing your insights. It's nice to see how passionate you are about the subject and about helping others.

Great

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I expected something different. I always had troubles fitting in and felt different from others so I though that maybe this book could speak for me as well but is does not. At least I understood that I don’t have Asperger. Besides, I’m not particularly fond of this kind of writing, completely missing any kind of humor and irony.

Not for me

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Liked the story, enjoyed the ASD style tangents with too much detail on a meta level.

I think if this is your first book on autism you'd struggle.

That being said, loved the core of the book. I'm listening to it to help my mother struggling with the my nephews Autism. Seeing how special Autistic people blossom is not described enough to counter the narrative.

Also tone wise, if you don't like dry sarcastic humour; you'll find this book a bit flat.

Apsie narrator is what you'd expect

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A personal and intense promotion of the need for acceptance of differentness in people, ranging from 'normal' (typical) through eccentric, geeky, nerdy, weird, to full-on different world autism. The author reads with intensity and conviction (in an American accent this Brit soon got used to). As the grandfather of an teenage girl going through a bad patch I found the practical approaches thought-provoking in a "how can we use this?" way as she is a very different character from the author.
Thank you Mr Robison, I hope many more people in all walks of life read or listen to your book.

Excellent promotion of acceptance of differentness

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As someone with a more modern diagnosis of ASC, and a significant level of disability only some of which being due to my undiagnosed ASC, I found this rhetoric offensively ableist and elitist. Perhaps this book is now just outdated and medical related titles should be removed from the catalogue when the science has moved on. However, I think, even if the classification of ASC had not changed since this book was published, the insistent significance placed on how important it is to a person’s identity to not be disabled would still be offensive and the author’s determination to segregate those whose diagnosis had been classified as “Asperger’s Syndrome” from the rest of the autistic spectrum would still feel elitist.
Unless you have a diagnosis of Asperger’s rather than autism/ASD/C and are happy to keep that term and have, like the author, had significant successes in your life already, I would advise you to skip this title.

Returned as found offensively elitist

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