The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Thoroughly engaging, funny, touching, and enlightening. The view from inside Christopher's mind is fascinating, and I often laughed out loud in agreement with one of his judgments (often they're reactions that I have myself but cover or morph with emotional intelligence or at least diplomacy).

I think what makes this novel rise above similar stories is the consistent linkage of external behaviors that would be deemed problematic, anti-social, and inexplicable with understandable, logical, and sympathetic internal reactions and reasoning. This book about a kid who struggles to imagine the internal lives of others actually enables readers to have a much richer and kinder idea of what's happening in other people's heads.