• Title: Crazy Love
• Subtitle: A Traumedy of Autism
• Author:Sharie Walter
• Length: 94 pages

15-Word Review: An "autismum" tells it like it is in darkly funny essays about her young daughter.

150-Word Review: Some books on autism are like a class taught by a learned professional. Some are like an inspirational speech from someone who's survived a traumatic event. Some are like a rally led by a fiery speaker calling for change.


This one is more like the waiting room of your child's speech therapist's office, where you sit and tell can-you-top-this stories with the other moms before trying to catch a nap. In chapters with titles like "What doesn't kill you will make you wish it did" and "Family fun day (a lethal oxymoron," author Sharie Walter writes about her experiences with her young daughter in a tone more reminiscent of "Welcome to Beirut" than "Welcome to Holland," but her stories will feel funny and validating to those who've been there, done that, have the ruined T-shirt. The essays are brief, perfect for when you need a dose of laughter or commiseration.

Is This Book for You?

• It's definitely for you if: you've ever responded to a post on an e-mail support list by sending an eye-rolling off-list missive to a few snarky friends, or sat eye-rolling in the back of an in-person group when someone worried over problems you wish you had.
• It may be for you if: you regularly wonder if anybody else could possibly have to put up with all the things you do.

• It may not be for you if: you prefer to spend your reading time on books with a practical application and strategies you can use right away.
• It's definitely not for you if: you resent negative depictions of autism and children with autism, or prefer more sensitive or sentimental memoirs.

Table of Contents

• the daze of my life as an autismum
• what doesn't kill you will make you wish it did
• return of the roomba
• handy replies for those "special needs" moments
• the devil made me do it
• pastry as god and other forms of salvation
• the diet from hell
• there outta be accidental-shriek insurance
• beelzebub says "hi"
• why is god testing me when I just need to buy underwear?
• hygiene hijinks
• stewardess, bring me a double martini and a parachute please
• two flew out of the cuckoo's nest
• autis-tips, friendly advice, and other scathingly brilliant ideas
• summer of love, spectrum-style
• finding the fun in dysfunction - my way
• it's been lovely but I have to scream now
• playing poker with the universe
• big bang theory
• franz kafka and the thrift store sallies
• hope: the major weapon against the suicide impulse
• family fun day (a lethal oxymoron)

Quick Quote: "We're in week eight of Major Regression. This means I'm frazzled and Vivi is cuckoo AND amused that I'm frazzled. Standing in line at the bank, I watch proudly as she does a pole dance on the rope stands. I could use the singles folks are stuffing in her Huggies thong, but some feeble effort at social decorum must be maintained in public, I suppose. So I whip out my handy squirt pistol loaded with holy water from Lourdes and pull the trigger."