Not Your Neurotypical Guy: Loving a Spouse with Autism - Tapa blanda

Having a partner with ASD can feel like a roller-coaster ride for the neurotypical spouse -- riding high one moment on the spouse's charming quirkiness, only soon to spiral downward, exhausted and discouraged, sometimes by the very same traits, which have suddenly taken new forms of expression.

In this charming and well-written book, the author combines research on autism spectrum disorders and her vast knowledge of literature, pop music, and philosophy with accounts of daily life on a large dairy farm with three sons and a husband with an ASD. In sharing the ups, the downs, the growth, and the regression in their particular journey, the author hopes that others on a similar path may find humor, recognition, and ways to view the unique life of loving an Aspergian from a new angle. The book will also appeal to those curious about ASD and how it affects someone's life and love. Any reader in a long-term relationship will resonate to the challenges and joys of living in such close relationship with another.

Maureen McCarthy Bartlett is a dairy farmer and high school teacher and has been married to a man with ASD for the past twenty-one years. She lives with her husband, three sons, one dog, one chinchilla, four geese, twenty four cats, and 300 cows on a farm in Central New York. Maureen grew up in Lockport, New York, and is a graduate of Amherst College and SUNY Cortland. A teacher for almost twenty years, she teaches a class/shadowing program for high school seniors interested in agriculture or environmental science careers and also teaches college writing for classes of seniors heading toward health, law, education, and business careers. She loves working with teenagers - the quirkier the better.