Emin Toksoz Toksoz itibaren سرطرهان، لرستان، Iran itibaren سرطرهان، لرستان، Iran

Magic Hour was engrossing in the first few chapters, and then my interest waned. Although I struggled through most of the book because of time spent on romances developing within the story. The central story I found enjoyable. The ending made it mostly worth the effort but it was still very predictable and unbelievable. I enjoyed the glimpses into Alice's mind as the story unfolded.

Here's how I think it went: Someone says to now-very-famous author who-has-already-taken-up-lots-of-controversial-subjects (like birthing a sib so child needing organ transplant can have donor), "You should write a book about Aspergers." "OK," says Famous Author, who then proceeds to learn everything she can about The Syndrome and includes it all in the first half of the book, in the disguise (hardly) of the child's mother talking about Lessons I Have Learned about the Autism Spectrum from Having a Kid with Aspergers. Clumsy writing. She should be able to do better. That being said, there were some things I learned about the thinking of folks with Aspergers that I hadn't known before, or connected as being part of the Syndrome, and I thought I was pretty knowledgeable. keep-able quotes: On being a real mother as vs. what the media leads us to imagine mothers are, from pages 156-157 (photocopied these 2 pages) On the deep-seatedness of our aversion of difference and whether mainstreaming really helps with that: "I fought so hard to have Jacob mainstreamed at school--not just so that he could see the way other kids behaved but because other kids needed to see him, and to learn that different isn't synonymous with bad. But I cannot say, honestly, that his classmates ever learned that lesson. They gave Jacob enough rope to hang himself in social situations, and then set the blame squarely on his shoulders. (page 439)