Two Good Books

Last week I read Monique and the Mango Rains by Kris Holloway. It's about her time in Mali with the Peace Corps in the early 90s. Monique is the midwife and health care worker who hosted Kris. Their friendship is unique, and Monique's dedication to the health of the women and children in her village is inspiring. It's shocking how little knowledge and how few resources whole societies must survive on.

This week I read Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robison (brother of Augusten Burroughs who wrote Running With Scissors). It's his story of his life with Asperger's Syndrome. He wasn't diagnosed until he was 40 so he spent most of his life as an outcast, accused of being everything from lazy to a sociopath. To top it off his dad was an alcoholic and his mom suffered from severe mental illness. I enjoyed seeing how in his adulthood he learned to work with who he was and understand himself and his uniquness. There were a lot of times where understood (to some degree) his limitations; difficulty relating to people and knowing how to respond to them, for example. His story confirmed for me that understanding our own oddities and quirks is half the battle.