Safety Skills for Asperger Women: How to Save a Perfectly Good Female Life

This book was worth what I paid for it but it wasn't a broad safety guide for women with an ASD slant.If you want to read a good safety guide that applies to women on the spectrum and addresses the major components of staying safe, I recommend "Find Your Strength: The Essential Self-Defense Handbook For Every College Woman." It doesn't matter if you're 15 or 50 or if you go to college. Jodi Harrison-Lee explains some straight forward and profound truths about keeping yourself safe starting with you connecting with you.Developing and listening to your inner voice, becoming aware of your surroundings, connecting with your power as a woman, etc. Also, as a blackbelt in Tae Kwon Do, she explains some basics of using what you already have to hit vulnerable spots on a would be assailant. But there's plenty of wisdom in her chapters to help you avoid becoming a victim.

I've had the pleasure of corresponding with Liane Holliday Willey. She does not speak in a poetic fashion, but deals with reality as I should be. Until recently, there were very few books out there that focused on the needs of a female with Asperger's. They are out there in greater numbers than scientific statistic imply and they need someone that understands what they are going through and what it means to be a woman for Asperger's. As a teacher with Asperger's that teaches students on the ASD Spectrum I wanted a book out there that deals with the dangers, pitfalls and obstacles my female students will face during their transition to adulthood and as an adult. Who is better to speak about these issues than a woman that lives with Asperger's and has succeeded wonderfully. She deals with the dangers all women face, but are even more pronounced for women on the spectrum. Liane gives them a map with which will help them not to fall into such situations. Beyond that what is more profound she paves a road with will create a path that will help them emerge as more confident and self-sufficient adults. Willey deals with everything from relationships, travel, the work environment, dealing with difficult situations to learn how to figure out the world around them. Through her own experiences and world view she created a tour de force that will be a very relevant book for every Aspie woman to have on her bookshelf or e-reader as she is about to depart on the road to adulthood. She is a true mentor to a group in the need of a messenger who has been there and done that. Very relevant and timely. Kudos to you.

My star rating for this book is as follows: Five stars for Tony Attwood's amazing introduction. Zero stars for the remainder of the book. Average = Two stars. I wish I had just printed out the book description from Attwood's Web site, which is basically the introduction to the book verbatim, and saved myself the twelve dollars.I'm a woman recently diagnosed with AS, and I have been trying to read as much as possible on the topic. I am particularly interested in books and articles that would be personally relevant to me as an individual, and I'm not having much luck in that area, as most of the literature focuses on children or men. Therefore, I was thrilled when I came across this title on Attwood's site and I rushed right over to Amazon to buy a copy. I regret not spending a few minutes flipping through the "look inside" selection of pages before I pressed the purchase button.Basically, the book is a collection of anecdotes from the author's life organized around a series of themes. Examples of these themes are "getting bullied" and "looking nice." I suppose some people might find these stories interesting, the way that people find reality television interesting. For me there really didn't seem to be much purpose to them. One of my chief complaints about the stories is that many of them were cryptic. As the author should know well, Aspies do not "get" cryptic. Just get to the point and say what you mean. The other components of each of the thematic chapters are a set of "lessons learned" and helpful suggestions that go along with the stories, so that other women might struggle less with these situations than the author did. I realize that people with AS may lack common sense from an NT perspective, but I found many of the helpful hints to be rather insulting to my intelligence. I don't need to be reminded to lock my hotel room door or use soap when I wash.Beyond these issues, though, what I liked least about this book is that the author frequently portrayed herself as a victim and in doing so showed readers that this is also how they should view themselves. I'll use as my example the episode in the airport. Willey relates a story in which she had been traveling for an extended period. During what should have been the last leg of her trip, the airline attempted to bump her to a later flight that would have required her to switch planes at an unfamiliar airport. I acknowledge that this would be stressful for many people, Asperger's or not. However, Willey apparently dissolved into a partially coherent, mumbling mess who was ultimately helped by some benevolent bystander who talked to airline reps into keeping her on the original flight. (I presume they bumped some other unlucky soul in her place.) The lesson here? Apparently it is to whine and wail about what the airline is doing to you until some white knight swoops in to your rescue and saves the day.This book falls short in its range of experiences being limited to those of the author. Had it been expanded to include perspectives from other women I think it would have been a better resource, so that the various coping techniques of these individuals could be brought to the table.

I didn't learn anything new so I had to return jt but everything I learned that was in this book came from hard experience so you know this book is the real deal. I'm a late self-diagnosed aspie, if you are early diagnosed, you should read this book so you don't have to suffer like me for so long. I also liked the spiritual aspect written in this book. I totally agree with it wholeheartedly although my younger self would not have liked it very much. Trust!

Women with AS are encouraged in many ways through reading books by Liane Holliday Willey! I am so glad she wrote this new book! I highly recommend it as a fun, interesting and informative read. Her helpful insights are very relatable, & the way she tells her stories feels like getting advice from a friend who's been there too! If you liked "Pretending to Be Normal" as much as I did, you'll love "Safety Skills for Asperger Women: How to Save a Perfectly Good Female Life"!!! :)

I found out about a decade ago that I was tested as a small child and found to be on the autistic spectrum. I am also a female which complicates matters. This book is simply written with plenty of autobiographical material that makes relating to the author easy. I haven't yet completed the book, but have already implemented a few of her ideas for surviving in the neurotypical world. Easy to read, easy to understand, easy to do what she suggests. One of my new favorite books.

My wife is recently diagnosed as an adult in her 40s. The clinician recommended this as one of a number of books to read. She did not find it at all helpful. Mostly it is autobiographical anecdotes from one person, with some bulleted lists purporting to offer advice. However the advice is so basic it’s not useful to someone who has managed to live undiagnosed til adulthood. Eg it talks about making a good first impression and has a whole paragraph about personal hygiene. But nothing about how to decide when greeting someone whether a handshake, hug (for how long?), kiss (one cheek or two) or something else is appropriate. It just says smile. Likewise in the section about when her business partners were horrible to her, there is no analysis of or insight into what she could have noticed or how others might identify earlier a similar situation. This is not reassuring or helpful. The basic message is that people who seem nice might swindle you. Which is really worrying without any advice on how to avoid this!

Whilst I found the book informative and of interest I found the tone of 'we are all like this' a little off putting in places. Whilst those with Aspergers (now part of ASD) have differing experiences of their traits and the interactions in their environments. That being said the book is worth a read if you are investigating for yourself as Liane puts things over very clearly and the book is well laid out. There are bullet points and who doesn't find them helpful for presentation and ease of understanding information.

Although this is promoted as practical, be aware that there is a significant amount of autobiography in here. However, it is a good book and I am finding it useful.

I do love it. It's a bit specific and very personal point of view, but for those learning about their own autism or having a partner or child (possibly grown up) with autism it's definitely worth reading.

This is a good resource the for both Aspies and Neurotypicals. It is part memoir and part toolkit of sound advice for everyone. The book arrived early and in excellent condition.