Please recommend the best book for Adult Asperger's

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I'm making my Christmas list and I'd like to ask for a book or two on Asperger's.

There are two main types of books I'd like to find:

1. A general "Adult Asperger's Bible" kind of book that just has most of the general info for someone getting up to speed, written well and without any strong bias.

2. A social skills book for high functioning adults. I saw a social skills book called "The Hidden Curriculum", but it appears to have been written at a lower level than I'm at. I'm 36 years old, have held a corporate engineering job for more than a decade, and consider myself pretty high functioning. So I know the basics, and I'm looking for sort of an "advanced level" guide to social skills. It seems like my issues with the social skills are less "what to do" and more "when to do it" and "how to do it".

It would be cool if one book had both kinds of info, but I expect these will be different books.

Hi,

I'm also an adult diagnosed earlier this year at age 43. I've been having a hard time finding books on adults and my collection has books on the kids as well as few on adults. I agree with your statement about social skills for adults--you really hit the nail on the head and I wish there was a book out there for helping those of us refine our skills.

In terms of adult asperger's bibles, here are the one's I have and have looked at (with my opinions on each that mostly reflect the fact that some of this have a bit too much NT bias in them for my taste):

* "Thinking in Pictures" by Temple Grandin is good -- she's an adult and writes quite well about her experiences both as a kid and as an adult. Interwoven in her story is practical stuff, so her book borders on being a good guide for adults. It's out in paper.

* As for an Adult Asperger's Bible--hopefully someone here will have a good citation, but the "bible" I have is "The OASIS Guide to Asperger Syndrome: Completely Revised and Updated: Advice, Support, Insight, and Inspiration" -- it's about kids, but covers a lot that is still relevant for us

* Tony Atwood's "Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals" another book on kids is not a bad combination for practical information

* I got Juanita Lovett's "Solutions for Adults with Asperger's Syndrome: Maximizing the Benefits, Minimizing the Drawbacks to Achieve Success" and while it has some good stuff and seemed promising as an Adult Bible, I found parts of it offensive -- I thought this obviously NT author went overboard in place describing AS in terms of social deficits -- made me feel like the cold freak of the week

If you're in a marriage or relationship, this one is not too bad:

"The Other Half of Asperger Syndrome: A guide to an Intimate Relationship with a Partner who has Asperger Syndrome" Maxine C. Aston (it's got a slight bias in terms of pushing sympathy on the NT partner --for whom it is written -- married to an Aspie and all the Aspies are husbands, so Aspie wives and partners will have to filter the "guy stuff"

Hope this helps and I'm looking forward to seeing what other folks post--we really need a good book list for adults with AS.

-- keats

I would advise all Oliver Sacks books. Only "An Anthropologist on Mars" is specifically on AS, but they all help to underestand the mind and all are good reading.
I have found myself much in "Nobody Nowhere", by Donna Willliams even if I don't believe in her heory of allergic causes of AS.
A general interpretation of autism, very clearly written, is Uta Frith's "Autism".

I dislike the title of the series, but there's "Understanding Autism for Dummies". While it's geared more towards parents of children w/AS, thought it was a better-than-average read for a dx'd adult. Contains variety of paths to follow, it's a grab-bag but at least there's no single agenda, it just discusses possibilities.

Oliver Sacks doesn't really get into much about autism aside from occasionally (and often offensively) describing autistic people.

Do you think The Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships by Sean Barron and Temple Grandin is what you're looking for?

Tony Attwoods "The Complete Guide to Asperger Syndrome" is the best book on the subject I've ever read.

Thanks everyone... it sounds like Tony Attwood's "The Complete Guide to Asperger Syndrome" is very well liked so I put that on my Christmas list!