Experimental Blog #43

Comments on the books "Faces of America - How 12 Extraordinary People Discovered Their Pasts" by Henry Louis Gates and "Neurodiversity - Discovering the Extraordinary Gifts of Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, and Other Brain Differences" by Thomas Armstrong

Both of these books can be said to be basically about our human heredity, our genes and chromosomes.
Henry Louis Gates's book, "Faces of America", is something like a detailed meeting and acquaintance with 12 people, 6 men and 6 women, who the author calls "extraordinary", although some people might suggest that "high, even celebrity, achievers or performers" would be more tactful and objective. All of their stories, ancestries, and genetic research are very interesting and informative. The author himself fits very easily into this select society.
The other book, "Neurodiversity" by Thomas Armstrong, is at least as educational, with its latest most up to date description of people who are rarely "high or celebrity achievers," although it does occasionally happen, because of their "different" minds and substandard abilities or dysfunctional behavior. The description of what is known of their neurological, or brain, characteristics, which are derived from their individual genomes, demonstrates how far and fast the neurosciences are advancing. And, most importantly, the author explains how their different from more "normal" brains also often have more than "normal" qualities and abilities in a variety of ways.