The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time / Mark Haddon / 226 pages

This book is about a mathematically gifted autistic boy, Christopher,  living in England.  The author tells the story from Christopher's point of view. Christopher's mother has left him and his father to live in London with another man.  She can no longer cope with raising an autistic child.  Christopher's father tells him his mother is sick in the hospital and then that she has died.  One day Christopher is in his neighbor's backyard and discovers that the neighbor's dog has been murdered.  Christopher sets out to be a detective and track down clues to solve the dog's murder.  In the process he stumbles on evidence that his father has lied to him about his mother and that she is living in London.  Angry with his father Christopher takes off on his own to London to find his mother.

The Kiss Quotient / Helen Hoang / 324 pages

Want the steamy romance of Fifty Shades of Grey, but with an actual romantic male lead? Then you need to read The Kiss Quotient. I read this book this past week for the neurodiverse category in the Read Harder Challenge. I was very pleasantly surprised by the engaging plot and characters who completely likable. If you were turned off by Christian Grey's attitude, and want to read something steamy, but with a patient and kind male lead, this is the book I think a lot of us have been waiting for for a long, long time.

Stella is a 30-year old econometrician on the autism spectrum. She delights in crunching numbers and creating algorithms. In Silicon Valley, she has everything except for a boyfriend and children. When her mom pushes her to get out into the dating world, she decides to enlist the help of a male escort who might be able to teach her the finer points of sensuality. Michael is that male escort and is dealing with the aftermath of a father who left the family and a mother whose health has sent her to the hospital multiple times. I completely recommend!