Newman is a gifted personal essayist, her warmth and wit recalling Nora Ephron’s. The result is a bracingly honest chronicle of life alongside an autistic family member. For the many parents raising children with autism, the book offers both empathy and comic relief. But readers of all backgrounds will find it just as engaging…. To Siri With Love is above all a close and wise portrait, Newman’s love letter not to technology but to her son.” — Washington Post
“An uncommonly riotous and moving book… powerfully wrought… what you’ll get with this small memoir: whipsaws of brilliant zingers and heart punches that make it distinctive among the fast-growing library of autism lit.” — Ron Suskind, New York Times
“Writing with wit, humor, and effervescent honesty, Newman charts her history with twin sons who became distinctly different even prior to their first birthdays…. A powerful and heartfelt ‘slice of life’ tale.” — Kirkus
“Newman shares her sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and always insightful and upbeat recollections.... A positive yet honest look into one family’s journey with autism.” — Library Journal
“To Siri with Love is a beautifully honest and illuminating love letter to Gus, your typical atypical nonneurotypical human.” — Jon Stewart
“A moving and witty memoir with a big heart.” — Nigella Lawson
“Unique, moving, and entertaining.” — Bustle
“This warm series of stories offers a glimpse of what it’s like to parent a child who has a touch of magic in his soul.” — Good Housekeeping
“Judith Newman redefines maternal love ...The book is part Operating Instructions , part love letter to both her son and technology, and a totally engrossing read. Resistance is futile. Cancel your plans when you pick up this book because you’ll want to read it cover to cover.” — Annabelle Gurwitch, writer/actor
“By turns hilarious and compassionate, To Siri with Love is one of the most moving books about modern parenthood ever written.” — Laura Zigman, author of Animal Husbandry
“In To Siri With Love Newman shows us that anyone, absolutely anyone, could have a bright future right at the tips of their fingers.” — Bookstr
“A collection of touching, hilarious and illuminating stories about life with a 13-year-old boy with autism, written by his mother.” — BookReporter
“From the struggles to the triumphs, Newman truly lets readers into her family life in this intimate and moving memoir.” — BookTrib
“Newman’s observations, recollections and personal research are invaluable, and there’s no doubt that To Siri With Love will attract a grateful readership.” — 20 Something Reads
A moving and witty memoir with a big heart.
Newman is a gifted personal essayist, her warmth and wit recalling Nora Ephron’s. The result is a bracingly honest chronicle of life alongside an autistic family member. For the many parents raising children with autism, the book offers both empathy and comic relief. But readers of all backgrounds will find it just as engaging…. To Siri With Love is above all a close and wise portrait, Newman’s love letter not to technology but to her son.
By turns hilarious and compassionate, To Siri with Love is one of the most moving books about modern parenthood ever written.
Unique, moving, and entertaining.
In To Siri With Love Newman shows us that anyone, absolutely anyone, could have a bright future right at the tips of their fingers.
From the struggles to the triumphs, Newman truly lets readers into her family life in this intimate and moving memoir.
Newman is a gifted personal essayist, her warmth and wit recalling Nora Ephron’s. The result is a bracingly honest chronicle of life alongside an autistic family member. For the many parents raising children with autism, the book offers both empathy and comic relief. But readers of all backgrounds will find it just as engaging…. To Siri With Love is above all a close and wise portrait, Newman’s love letter not to technology but to her son.
…uncommonly riotous and moving…200 pages of powerfully wrought indelicacies about life with Gus, [Newman's] autistic teenage son, that will make readers squirm and laugh…Newman will also make them face questions everyone's ducking…before sweeping them, finally, into a soul-spilling high tide…What you'll get with this small memoir [is] whipsaws of brilliant zingers and heart punches that make it distinctive among the fast-growing library of autism lit…Newman is courageous in exposing herself, humorous…in rendering pain, and ingenious in enlisting every feature of her family life to show that autistic people, like the rest of the Newman ensemble, are different, not less. Autism memoirs are generally written from one of two perspectives, person with or parent of, and Newman's is among the best of the parenting breed. That's not only because she is a top-drawer prose stylist with good comic timing. As she removes the zone of privacy from herself and her family, she is edging into the world her son occupies. Those with autism often say whatever is on their mind…and have difficulty lying even when it's in their self-interest. In this way, Newman the writer becomes autistic, and ends up serving the interest of the reader.
The New York Times Book Review - Ron Suskind
This warm series of stories offers a glimpse of what it’s like to parent a child who has a touch of magic in his soul.
To Siri with Love is a beautifully honest and illuminating love letter to Gus, your typical atypical nonneurotypical human.
An uncommonly riotous and moving book… powerfully wrought… what you’ll get with this small memoir: whipsaws of brilliant zingers and heart punches that make it distinctive among the fast-growing library of autism lit.
Judith Newman redefines maternal love ...The book is part Operating Instructions , part love letter to both her son and technology, and a totally engrossing read. Resistance is futile. Cancel your plans when you pick up this book because you’ll want to read it cover to cover.
A collection of touching, hilarious and illuminating stories about life with a 13-year-old boy with autism, written by his mother.
Newman’s observations, recollections and personal research are invaluable, and there’s no doubt that To Siri With Love will attract a grateful readership.
An uncommonly riotous and moving book… powerfully wrought… what you’ll get with this small memoir: whipsaws of brilliant zingers and heart punches that make it distinctive among the fast-growing library of autism lit.
To Siri with Love is a ‘major chord’ memoir in a sometimes ‘minor chord’ world (in the words of our hero Gus). Beautiful, hilarious, and touching, Newman’s journey is universally relatable. While exploring the complexities of being human, it is also, in the end, the enduring story of family and all the mysteries, crises, and unexpected joys therein. This book is 123.57 percent (and that may reflect my own spectrum issues) wonderful!
I was riveted by To Siri with Love . Judith Newman doesn’t just describe and analyze her son’s brain, she paints it on the page, sings it, even dances to it in moments. Yes, this is a book about a boy. But more than that, it’s a book about the myriad—and sometimes magical—lenses there are through which to see the world. I finished it with different eyes than the ones I began with.
07/01/2017
Narrator Cris Dukehart brings alive the family interactions in Newman's collection of memoir-style essays about her autistic son, Gus. Much of what we learn about Gus comes from three-way conversations between Newman, Gus, and Henry, Gus’s neurotypical twin. Dukehart voices Gus with minimum inflection and range, while she portrays Henry with a teenager's cadence and tone. Dukehart's first-person voicing of Newman requires a nuanced range of narrative skills, including those of a journalist, as she explains the history and science of autism; an advocate, as she argues for better employment opportunities and increased education; and a mother. It’s that last role—portraying Newman's hopes, quirks, and opinions (though not all listeners will agree with her views)—in which Dukehart captures the “collateral anguish” experienced by Newman’s family as well as their progress and quiet victories. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
2017-06-13
