I bought this to give to my 16-year-old autistic son, as it sounded like a good read to give him perspectives on the travails and triumphs of autistic adults. I think it succeeds in that for the most part, though it will need some prefacing.

The book chose to feature people in their 50s and 60s, which makes sense, as they had a lot of life experience to discuss. However, their journeys are radically different than what a young person would experience now. These people in my parents' generation and somewhat younger (I should note this book came out about 10 years ago) were in an era where an early autism diagnosis meant institutionalization, if that was even the diagnosis at all--as the book Neurotribes explains in grim detail, schizophrenia and other major disorders were often the label instead. Many of the people in this book only were often regarded as 'different' as children but were only diagnosed as adults--which makes their experience no less valid, but it's important to note how things have changed with time. (And they need to change a lot more yet.)

I really appreciated the candor about which people wrote about their lives. There's a broad variety of experiences here, with people from America, Scotland, Australia, gay and straight and bi, some with kids, some content on farms with animals for company, and some with college degrees that may have taken 13 years or a return to school in middle age. The biggest common element is their resiliency. These people gradually realized they weren't like everyone else, and they've worked to find their place in the world, whether as an artist, a vet, or historical site tour guide.

In my first edition paperback, I was surprised by some blatant typos that distracted me at times. Actually, one about "Dessert Storm" made me laugh aloud. As I said above, this book is about ten years old, and some of the terminology has changed since then; a lot of the people talk about being diagnosed with Asperger's, and that name (and its Nazi roots) are definitely being phased out. (DSM 5 folded it into autism in 2013.) Maybe these issues have been updated in later editions. ( )

This is a collection of success stories from a variety of very different people on the autism spectrum, selected and with introductions by Temple Grandin. The people are very different, their stories are very different, and their definitions of success are very different.

For some, success is holding down a job, however modest, and being able to support themselves. For others, there's considerable professional success, in technology, art, teaching, and business in various forms.

Some have found that marriage and romantic romantic relationships are not a thing they are successful at, no matter how well they do in other areas of life. Some have built successful marriages, though often only after being diagnosed as autistic, enabling them and their partners to understand their behavior better.

These are diverse, fascinating individuals, who have learned to understand and work with, rather than against, their autism. Having been recently been diagnosed as autistic myself, after a lifetime of trying to be "normal," with feelings of frustration and failure at how out of place I feel in many "normal" settings, while "hiding" in setting where geeks and nerds set the standard for "normal" and I feel far more at home, this definitely resonated for me.

These are the stories of people who "don't fit in," yet have found ways to live that work for them and let them be themselves.

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook. ( )

Even though many of the people who tell their stories in this book success in the world of work, most have broken lives. I had hoped for more encouragement. ( )

As an Aspie (I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome nearly 10 years ago in my mid-50's) and a big fan of Temple Grandin, I was excited to run across this book. It presents self-portraits of over a dozen adults on various places along the autism spectrum. While the extent of their impairment varies considerably, all are functioning and employed.
I was disappointed with the book, but that may better reflect my high hopes for it than any shortcomings in the book. The participants were working from a template; consequently, their chapters are highly selective portraits of their past and current lives rather than rounded memoirs.
But people who have questions about life on the spectrum will find a lot of hope in these stories. Each of the persons had to find their own places in life, often through painful trial and error. Almost all of them, however, eventually established satisfying careers and a network of support persons to nurture and mentor them. (The exception is a woman who has always worked as a retail sales clerk and never enjoyed her jobs.)
They also represent a variety of life situations. Some are married. Some are divorced. Some have kids. And some (like me) are loners and happy in their self-selected solitude. That doesn't mean they're entirely socially isolated, just that they (I) enjoy living alone.
I found the most valuable parts of the book to be Dr. Grandin's closing advice on career advice to be very informative. It's not relevant to me now that I'm retired, but I can see how I pretty much lucked into my own rewarding career in libraries.
She also voices some concerns about the proposed changes to the DSM-V (scheduled for publication in 2013) in diagnoses and diagnostic criteria for persons on the spectrum. ( )