“She’s just shy.” For the majority of Cynthia Kim’s life, her inability to relate to others, difficulties reading body language and ability to get lost in her projects was seen as just another case of a shy nerdy girl. Still, life felt off. After a late in life diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome (ASD), the pieces of Kim’s life were thrown up into the air before finally landing in a way that made sense. Cynthia Kim went on to create a blog called ‘Musings of an Aspie.‘ In her book, Nerdy, Shy and Socially Inappropriate, Kim explores her past, her present and the basics of living a life with ASD.
Nerdy, Shy and Socially Inappropriate is highly detailed and yet accessible to the average reader. Guidelines help break down the symptoms of ASD. Though one should always have a professional diagnosis, the book does help with guidelines of what ASD looks like from the outside and how one sees the world from inside an ASD brain. Cynthia Kim is not apologetic about her disorder, but does also show how behaviors can be misconstrued, especially when a person in incapable of understanding basic social cues and body language.
For those interested in how life works with ASD or late life diagnosis occurs, Nerdy, Shy and Socially Unacceptable is a quick and easy read. Do not be fooled; this is not a book on nerd culture, but the story of a woman struggling to figure out a world that her brain has not been hardwired to follow.
Nerdy, Shy and Socially Inappropriate is available September 21, 2014 from Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
