House Rules: the powerful must-read story of a mother's unthinkable choice by the number one bestselling author of A Spark of Light

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Wayne Nussbaum went to clown college before getting his medical degree, although I haven’t seen the guy crack a smile in the fifteen years I’ve been on the job. Five novels have been made into movies and BETWEEN THE LINES (co-written with daughter Samantha van Leer) has been adapted as a musical. Emma Hunt has pretty much sacrificed a large portion of her day-2-day life, if not all of it, to ensure her 18 year-old Asperger's son Jacob can live some sort of a normal life. I remember once, when he was four, he was reading the sign for a doctor’s office when the postman walked by.

I eat my sandwich and picture my mother coming out of the kitchen, carrying a big roast turkey on a platter. I suppose these talents would make me a hit at a cocktail party if a) I drank, which I don’t or b) I had any friends to invite me to a party, cocktail or not.In one instance, Emma, the mother of eighteen year old with autism Jacob, states “Jacob wouldn’t hurt a fly, literally or figuratively” (10-11), only for this statement to be immediately contradicted by Jacob’s brother Theo, who observes that the culmination of one of Jacob’s meltdowns was “twenty-four stitches on my face” (12). There were points in Theo's chapters where he'd be thinking something that an outsider would think is horrible, and even berating himself for it, and I would just sit there commending him for the things he didn't say. Emma is a deeply flawed character, but I think also relatable and honest–she is probably typical of a mother who has been bombarded with autism cure misinformation since her son was diagnosed and has never been exposed to an opposing viewpoint.

The story involves Jacob Hunt, a young man with Asperger’s Syndrome and an obsession with forensic analysis, who is charged with and tried for the murder of his tutor, Jess Ogilvy. Just from reading the positive reviews of this book I see the word "illness" being used over and over to describe Asperger's and that is because the book has left readers unfamiliar with AS with that impression. He's a composite---the better to help people recognize the various behaviors and behave compassionately toward the person displaying them. You feel like helping them but it's just like life, you have to accept the people the way they are .What did you make of ‘Case 11: My Brother’s Keeper’ and the ‘I’ that appears on the book’s final page? And if you pause to speak to someone else for a brief moment, you might turn back to find that Jacob’s left the room.