Cover Image: Normal Sucks

Normal Sucks

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I read The Short Bus years ago and loved it. I was thrilled to know Mr. Mooney had a new book. I was so happy Net Galley gave me an ARC, but then I didn't read it on time because I suck. What was I thinking? This book is touching, horrific, lovely, frustrating and just about perfect. The only thing that keeps me from going full five stars (please have half stars good reads come on), is that I actually think the historical aspects of this book could have been a bit longer. I found that part fascinating and I wish there was more of that and less revisiting the other book. Because I read The Short Bus already, I felt that there was a bit of this that was a bit of a rerun. Still, this book is so good and needs to be required reading for all humans.

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I really enjoyed a great many things about this book. Characters were fleshed out and the plot was well spaced. Some of the secondary storylines could've used a bit more page space but all in all an enjoyable read!

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I feel like I should dock at least a star because, as other reviews have pointed out, the subtitle of this book is misleading, but I just can't bring myself to do it.

I was expecting a fluffy, light self help book with just enough disting of pop science as to make it bearable. That is not this book.

This book digs deep, pulls no punches, and takes no sh*t. It also approaches its subject matter with a delicate yet irreverent sense of humor and joy that made it a true pleasure to read.

Highly recommended.

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Honest and in-depth advice for reaching your full potential. This advice is presented in easy to follow language that can be broken up and applied in pieces at a time.

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Starting from the question almost every parent has to answer at some point, "Why aren't I normal?", Mooney uses his own experiences to build a framework around "normal" and how it is determined. Studied for hundreds of years, humans have tried to find the norm of canceling from our physical selves to our sex lives. But during that study, many scientists have discovered that their is no one person who can completely match the definition.
This definitely reads like a speech that has been adapted into a book. I didn't realize that this was going to be so closely wrapped around Mooney's own experiences and that was a bit jarring for me. I tend toward the nonfiction books written by people who can take a good step back from what they're studying (obviously, autobiographies not included.) There were a half dozen or so studies included in this book but I wish more had been included. If this had been marketed more as a biographical book I may have been on board sooner and enjoyed it more.

Three stars
This book came out August 13th
ARC kindly provided by Henry Holt & Company and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

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Both inspiring and infuriating, Normal Sucks is part a history of the pursuit of normal and a memoir about all the ways Jonathan Mooney was failed by the education system and a society that is addicted to the unreachable goal of normal. As the mother of a son who has been labeled not normal, the author's story is both terrifying and ultimately triumphant. It isn't a guide on "How to Live, Learn, and Thrive Outside the Lines" but more one example of how a person who is labeled as disabled can overcome "dys-teachia" to become a person who is happy with himself. Written as a letter to his sons, Normal Sucks tells the authors story with humor, insight, and compassion.

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The subtitle of this book is a bit misleading, as it's not really about how to live, learn and thrive outside of what society deems normal. Instead, this is mostly a memoir by a man who grew up with several so-called learning disabilities (ADHD, dyslexia, etc.) and who grew up in a decidedly "outside the box" family. While parts of it are certainly entertaining and even funny, parts are also sad and infuriating. It is also a diatribe against a society that has embraced eugenics and is destroying millions of lives by trying to force everybody to learn, live and behave in this arbitrary box of "normal."

The book was written to the authors children and anybody who's grown up as an outsider in this idea of normal is likely to connect with it. Teachers could certainly benefit from reading what it was like for Mooney to experience school, and the sections about our history of eugenics (here in the US and in places like Nazi Germany) are horrifying. Quite a lot of it also reads like an impassioned speech and motivational talk. There is an extensive citation list at the end of the book.

I have never considered myself normal, including in childhood, but I didn't really connect with the author. Perhaps I'm not abnormal in the same ways he and his subjects are. The focus is mostly on neurodiversity, but especially ADHD and dyslexia. I certainly agreed with his overall messages, though.

My rating system:
1 = hated it
2 = it was okay
3 = liked it
4 = really liked it
5 = love it, plan to purchase, and/or would buy it again if it was lost

I read a temporary digital ARC of the book for the purpose of review.

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Just could not connect with this book. It is predicated on the belief that everyone is special when that is just simply not true. Most of us are unrelentingly average, although many fall for the kind of feel-good, everyone-gets-a-trophy crap expounded in this book. At the end of the day, there’s nothing wrong with normal.

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In Normal Sucks, Mooney explores the origin and meaning of "normal" and discusses the process by which we internalize normality, to the detriment of our mental (and sometimes physical) well-being. He also writes that he did not achieve success "despite" his learning differences, rather, he believes he was successful because of them and warns against treating learning differences as something that is automatically negative.

The most poignant moment in the essay (this book is set up like an essay written to his children, much like Ta-Nehisi Coates' "Between the World and Me") is when he says he did not *have* a disability, rather he *experiences* disability in environments that were unwilling and/or unable to adapt to his differences. In a way, Mooney is telling readers to be themselves and to advocate for themselves in order to get the accommodations they need. In his opinion, there is nothing wrong with the people; there is an issue with the society that takes such a narrow view of humanity. I'd suggest everyone read this book, then read Late Bloomers (by Rich Kaarlgard), which discusses early achievement (a different kind of normalcy that has become popular in the last few decades) and gives reasons and examples about why and how being a Late Bloomer may actually be a good thing.

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There is no normal. And if there is, it sucks. This was an interesting read.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

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Honest and detailed, Monney shares his story, intertwined with his research on the history of "normal," in a way that only someone with personal experience can. He reveals a way of looking at learning disabilities as differences rather than deficiencies in a way that is relatable for all those who feel they are not "normal."

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An insightful read a look at life at how we are unique how there is no normal.Written from his own life experiences as a guide to his sons.Hilarious warm wonderful highly recommend.#netgalley #henryholt& co.

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An informative, emotional memoir that is a research based manifesto for truly embracing diversity and not comparing to a "normal" standard. I was inspired, amused, appalled, and changed by this book!

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This is an excellent look into the mind of soemone who ha to overcome the opinions of people who discounted him.

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*** Thank you, NetGalley for an advance eARC for my Honest review****

Description
Confessional and often hilarious, in Normal Sucks a neuro-diverse writer, advocate, and father meditates on his life, offering the radical message that we should stop trying to fix people and start empowering them to succeed

Jonathan Mooney blends anecdote, expertise, and memoir to present a new mode of thinking about how we live and learn—individually, uniquely, and with advantages and upshots to every type of brain and body. As a neuro-diverse kid diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD who didn't learn to read until he was twelve, the realization that he wasn’t the problem—the system and the concept of normal were—saved Mooney’s life and fundamentally changed his outlook. Here he explores the toll that being not normal takes on kids and adults when they’re trapped in environments that label them, shame them, and tell them, even in subtle ways, that they are the problem. But, he argues, if we can reorient the ways in which we think about diversity, abilities, and disabilities, we can start a revolution.

A highly sought after public speaker, Mooney has been inspiring audiences with his story and his message for nearly two decades. Now he’s ready to share what he’s learned from parents, educators, researchers, and kids in a book that is as much a survival guide as it is a call to action. Whip-smart, insightful, and utterly inspiring—and movingly framed as a letter to his own young sons, as they work to find their ways in the world—this book will up-end what we call normal and empower us all.

What a very insightful book. Mr. Mooney certainly has weighed in on what is"Normal". It is a moving true story of his life at even an early age. Sadly, children, as well as adults, are pegged normal or either slow today, Labels and learning to change them and others that use them. Empowering to say the last. I would think it would be well welcomed in high schools as well as universities. Thank you for sharing why Normal sucks.

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This is an interesting and thought-provoking book that at times is flat-out disturbing. The author posits that we are “surrounded by institutions, systems and cultural practices that demand and enforce, ‘normalcy’.” In other words, we are in an age of constant judgment, seeking to align us with or outcast us from the normative. But how useful is this? Why are we so obsessed with labels which subsequently shame those who fall outside the lines of normal? Should reframing the way we think about diversity and abilities be the higher priority? The answer, of course, is yes. The author shares his very raw experiences of being placed on the “wrong” side of the normal lines as a child as he struggled with dyslexia and ADHD. The evolution of “normal” and “abnormal” are examined and it is concluded that “normal” is simply an ambiguous and fluid term, influenced greatly by societal desires. It is not a true concrete form of measurement. It is, according to the author, a “statistical fiction.” The idea of normal sucks is that the concept of normal falsely robs many of their true value. This book is both engaging and insightful.

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