Love Anthony
7 journalers for this copy...
From the jacket cover: In a piercing story about motherhood, autism, and love, New York Times bestselling author Lisa Genova offers us two unforgettable women on the verge of change and the irrepressible young boy whose unique wisdom helps them both find the courage to move on.
This was a wonderful book that provided insight of not only the heartbreak of having a child with autism but also the love and joy. Parts of the story were told in the voice of Anthony provided a better understanding of what means to be autistic.
This was a wonderful book that provided insight of not only the heartbreak of having a child with autism but also the love and joy. Parts of the story were told in the voice of Anthony provided a better understanding of what means to be autistic.
Taking this book to the book crossing High Tea and wrapped book gift exchange. I hope whoever gets this book will enjoy.
I enjoyed the gathering at the tea today and looking forward to the book.
Of the two intersecting stories I preferred Olivia's story with her son Anthony, and found Beth's story distracting, eventually skimming Beth's chapters to get back to Olivia's sooner.
Taken to the Calgary BC meetup today.
OK - I cam home with WAY too many books. But, my books are organized now by when I got them.
Another amazing book from Lisa Genova. She shows a real insight into the issues people face due to her medical background. Interesting how the two stories connected but the Olivia story certainly was more riveting.
Taking to a special meetup at Cravings tonight.
This was recommended to me as a book by a neuroscientist. So I've brought it home from the Calgary Bookcrossing Meeting.
This book is broken into two plots, Olivia's and Beth's (+ a subplot in the form of excerpts from Beth's novel-in-progress).
I really liked Olivia's story, and I liked reading the novel excerpts, but I found Beth deeply irritating.
Genova seems to have a comprehensive and compassionate understanding of autism which includes not only the neuroscience of autism, but the social factors surrounding it. I was expecting to not like Olivia at all (several of the treatments she uses early in the story have been criticised as inhumane, for a start), but I actually felt deeply for her as someone who really wanted to do the right thing, and was really having to fight to discover what that was.
And the snippets from "Anthony's" point of view were incredibly compelling. I would have happily read a novel entirely alternating from those two points of view, which would also have given Anthony a bit more of a position in the story as a character instead of an idea.
Beth was just annoying. I struggled to empathize with her, she seemed to spend a lot of time refusing to take responsibility for her own choices. I also found the idea that she could write compellingly from the perspective of an autistic child, having read 2 novels, neither of which were actually written by autistic people totally unbelievable and eye-wateringly pat. If the author was going for magic realism the tone of the writing is wrong and the plot for it doesn't start early enough, so its just sort of saccharine.
I really liked Olivia's story, and I liked reading the novel excerpts, but I found Beth deeply irritating.
Genova seems to have a comprehensive and compassionate understanding of autism which includes not only the neuroscience of autism, but the social factors surrounding it. I was expecting to not like Olivia at all (several of the treatments she uses early in the story have been criticised as inhumane, for a start), but I actually felt deeply for her as someone who really wanted to do the right thing, and was really having to fight to discover what that was.
And the snippets from "Anthony's" point of view were incredibly compelling. I would have happily read a novel entirely alternating from those two points of view, which would also have given Anthony a bit more of a position in the story as a character instead of an idea.
Beth was just annoying. I struggled to empathize with her, she seemed to spend a lot of time refusing to take responsibility for her own choices. I also found the idea that she could write compellingly from the perspective of an autistic child, having read 2 novels, neither of which were actually written by autistic people totally unbelievable and eye-wateringly pat. If the author was going for magic realism the tone of the writing is wrong and the plot for it doesn't start early enough, so its just sort of saccharine.
I really liked 2/3 of this book and the remaining 1/3 kind of dragged the rest of it down. I found Olivia and Anthony (via Beth's book) sympathetic characters. Beth, on the other hand, I just found really grating. She didn't seem to accomplish anything, and all her goals really seemed to be goals for other people.
It was also really not set up for magical realism, so the "amazing coincidence" that Beth magically knew all about a child she'd never met was just unbelievable and kind of threw me completely out of the story.
Honestly I would have preferred to read just a story that alternated between Olivia and Anthony's perspectives.
It was also really not set up for magical realism, so the "amazing coincidence" that Beth magically knew all about a child she'd never met was just unbelievable and kind of threw me completely out of the story.
Honestly I would have preferred to read just a story that alternated between Olivia and Anthony's perspectives.
I'm returning this to the Calgary Bookcrossing Meeting.
missed journalling this one too, whoops!
Taken to the June meeting!
To the finder:
Calgary has an active group of BookCrossers that meet to swap books and discuss book crossing every second Saturday of the month at 11am at Cravings Market on Fairmount Drive SE. We always love to meet new crossers, so please join us any time you like!
To the finder:
Calgary has an active group of BookCrossers that meet to swap books and discuss book crossing every second Saturday of the month at 11am at Cravings Market on Fairmount Drive SE. We always love to meet new crossers, so please join us any time you like!
Enjoyed her other books...
I finally picked this up to read. Geneva’s books are always good but have tough subject matter...Alzheimer’s and brain injury. This one wasn’t so tough for me as it is on autism and I don’t have close experience with anybody.
I really enjoyed the book. Somehow I misread the racket and thought it was about the two women, Beth and Olivia supporting each other so I kept waiting for them to meet. But they don’t really meet till the end and the support isn’t as one would assume.
Very interesting reading Anthony’s story. Guess it was divine intervention!
I really enjoyed the book. Somehow I misread the racket and thought it was about the two women, Beth and Olivia supporting each other so I kept waiting for them to meet. But they don’t really meet till the end and the support isn’t as one would assume.
Very interesting reading Anthony’s story. Guess it was divine intervention!
I am taking this book to our monthly bookcrossers meet up at Cravings - the second Saturday of every month- to pass on to the next reader.
To be read - picked up at Feb. Book Crossing meeting