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BOOK REVIEWS 

Burn the Haystack

 

I have no interest in finding a new relationship, but friends at SUUSI* recommended this book as a humorous read--and it certainly is. It's called Burn the Haystack--Decode Dating, Torch the Duds, and Make Room for Men Who Matter, by Jennie Young, PhD.

 

She suggests using critical discourse analysis (that is, analyzing text, subtext, context for what is really being said). Then block the duds who respond to dating apps with inappropriate, offensive, stupid, and other such replies. She gives plenty of actual appalling examples and what they really mean.

 

The idea is that if you want to find the needle in a haystack, burn the haystack. A good read whether you do online dating or not, but especially if you use those apps. A lot of men adhere to patriarchy and still think they are privileged, sought after, and can make the rules to suit only themselves. We can't cage or shoot them, but we can weed them out.

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*SUUSI: Southeast Unitarian Universalist Summer Institute, a week-long summer camp held at Radford University, Radford, VA. Workshops, theme talks and other programs, concerts, music, dancing, outdoor activities (hiking, canoeing, etc.) and a whole lot of fun.

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Also...

A Special Interest Murder

by Mette Ivie Harrison.

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The protagonist, Ada Latia, is an amateur detective and narrator of this mystery novel. She is autistic as is the author. A young girl at a boarding school for autistic children is found dead. Ada sees a photo of the dead girl and suspects murder. She writes to the FBI of her suspicion and an FBI agent asks her to join him in investigating it because her autism will give her unique insights into the behaviors they encounter.

 

Ada endures and relates the stresses that autism imposes in an otherwise neurotypical world, describing her feelings and discomfort as she persists and eventually brings down the culprit.

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