Finding Kansas av Aaron Likens

The chapter where he describes finally getting diagnosed at 20 hit me harder than I expected — I had to put the book down for a minute. Likens writes about the sensory overwhelm of everyday life in a way that made me understand my own brother a little better. I've already lent it to two people.

I picked this up expecting a clinical take on Asperger's and instead got something much more personal — Likens wrote these entries starting right after his diagnosis at 20, and you can feel how raw that moment was. The chapters are short, which made it easy to read a few before bed and sit with them

You don't have to be on the spectrum to feel every word he writes—the raw honesty about getting that diagnosis at 20 pulls you right in. Finishing it felt like I understood a friend a whole lot better than before.