April 29, 2025 – April is Autism Acceptance Month, which celebrates and honors the experiences and identities of autistic individuals. It emphasizes understanding, inclusion, and support, moving beyond awareness towards meaningful acceptance.
In honor of the month, check out these books, from fiction to memoirs and beyond, that are written by autistic authors and feature stories of people in the autism community.
Browse the list below, and put titles on hold in our catalog by clicking on their covers.
Fiction
"The Secret Service of Tea and Treason" by India Holton (2023)
Known as Agent A, Alice is the top operative within the Agency of Undercover Note Takers, a secret government intelligence group that is fortunately better at espionage than at naming itself. From managing deceptive witches to bored aristocratic ladies, nothing is beyond Alice's capabilities. She has a steely composure and a plan always up her sleeve (alongside a dagger and an embroidered handkerchief). So when rumors of an assassination plot begin to circulate, she's immediately assigned to the case. But she's not working alone.
Daniel Bixby, otherwise known as Agent B and Alice's greatest rival, is given the most challenging undercover assignment of his life – pretending to be Alice's husband. Together they will assume the identity of a married couple, infiltrate a pirate house party, and foil their unpatriotic plans. Determined to remain consummate professionals, Alice and Daniel must ignore the growing attraction between them, especially since acting on it might prove more dangerous than their target.
"The Framed Women of Ardemore House" by Brandy Schillace (2024)
A neurodivergent, hyperlexic book editor, Jo Jones, taking possession of a possibly haunted family estate in North Yorkshire, finds herself at the center of a murder investigation when the groundskeeper is found dead and a family portrait goes missing. To clear her name, she must unearth the town's secrets – and her own.
"Life Hacks for a Little Alien" by Alice Franklin (2025)
Before she thinks of herself as Little Alien, our protagonist is a lonely girl who doesn't understand the world the way other children seem to. So when a late-night TV special introduces her to the mysterious Voynich Manuscript –an ancient tome written in an indecipherable language – Little Alien experiences something she hasn't before: hope. Could there be others like her, who also feel like they're from another planet? Convinced the Voynich Manuscript holds the answers she needs, Little Alien and her best (and only) friend Bobby decide they must find this strange book. Where that decision leads them will change everything.
"Late Bloomer" by Mazey Eddings (2024)
Winning the lottery has ruined Opal Devlin's life. After quitting her dead-end job where she'd earned minimum wage and even less respect, she's bombarded by people knocking at her door for a handout the second they found out her bank account was overflowing with cash. And Opal can't seem to stop saying yes. With her tender heart thoroughly abused, Opal decides to protect herself by any means necessary, which to her translates to putting almost all her new money to buying a failing flower farm in Asheville, North Carolina to let the flowers live out their plant destiny while she uses the cabin on the property to start her painting business.
But her plans for isolation and self-preservation go hopelessly awry when an angry (albeit gorgeous) Pepper Boden is waiting for her at her new farm. Pepper states she's the rightful owner of Thistle and Bloom Farms, and isn't moving out. The unlikely pair strike up an agreement of co-habitation and butt heads at every turn. Can these opposites both live out their dreams and plant roots? Or will their combustible arguing (and growing attraction) burn the whole place down?
"All the Little Bird-Hearts" by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow (2023)
Sunday Forrester lives with her sixteen-year-old daughter, Dolly, in the house she grew up in. She does things more carefully than most people. On quiet days, she must eat only white foods. Her etiquette handbook guides her through confusing social situations, and to escape, she turns to her treasury of Sicilian folklore. The one thing very much out of her control is clever headstrong Dolly, now on the cusp of leaving home.
Nonfiction
"The Autists: Women on the Spectrum" by Clara Törnvall (2023)
An incisive and deeply candid account that explores autistic women in culture, myth, and society through the prism of the author's own diagnosis. Until the 1980s, autism was regarded as a condition found mostly in boys. Even in our time, autistic girls and women have largely remained invisible. When portrayed in popular culture, women on the spectrum often appear simply as copies of their male counterparts – talented and socially awkward. Yet autistic women exist, and always have. They are varied in their interests and in their experiences.
Autism may be relatively new as a term and a diagnosis, but not as a way of being and functioning in the world. It has always been part of the human condition. So who are these women, and what does it mean to see the world through their eyes? In "The Autists," Clara Törnvall reclaims the language to describe autism and explores the autistic experience in arts and culture throughout history. From popular culture, films, and photography to literature, opera, and ballet, she dares to ask what it might mean to re-read these works through an autistic lens – what we might discover if we allow perspectives beyond the neurotypical to take center stage.
"Strong Female Character" by Fern Brady (2023)
After reading about autism in her teens, Fern Brady knew instinctively that she had it – autism explained her sensory issues, her meltdowns, her inability to pick up on social cues – and she told her doctor as much. But it took until she was thirty-four for her to get diagnosed.
"Strong Female Character" is about the years in between, and the unique combination of sexism and ableism that so often prevents autistic women from getting diagnosed until adulthood. In a memoir as hilarious as it is heartbreaking, Fern leaves no stone unturned while detailing her futile attempts at employment, her increasingly destructive coping mechanisms, and the meltdowns that left her mind (and apartment) in ruins. Her chaotic, nonlinear journey – from stripping to getting arrested to finding a lifeline in comedy to her breakout appearance on the Taskmaster TV show as her full, unmasked self – is both a remarkable coming-of-age tale and a dark but poignant tribute to life at the intersection of womanhood and neurodiversity.
"Fearlessly Different: An Autistic Actor's Journey to Broadway's Biggest Stage" by Michey Rowe (2022)
"Fearlessly Different" is Mickey Rowe’s story of growing up autistic and pushing beyond the restrictions of a special education classroom to shine on the stage. As an autistic and legally blind person, living in a society designed by and for non-disabled people, it was always made clear to Mickey the many things he was apparently incapable of doing. But Mickey did them all anyway – and he succeeded because of, not in spite of, his autism. He became the first autistic actor to play the lead role in the play "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," landed the title role in the play "Amadeus," co-created the theatre/philanthropy company Arts on the Waterfront, and founded the National Disability Theatre. Mickey faced untold obstacles along the way, but his story ends in triumph.
"Different, Not Less: A Neurodivergent's Guide to Embracing Your True Self and Finding Your Happily Ever After" by Chloé Hayden (2024)
Growing up, Chloe Hayden felt like she'd crash-landed on an alien planet where nothing made sense. Eye contact? Small talk? And why are you people so touch-oriented? She moved between 10 schools in 8 years, struggling to become a person she believed society would accept, and was eventually diagnosed with autism and ADHD. When a life-changing group of allies showed her that different did not mean less, she learned to celebrate her true voice and find her happily ever after. This is a moving, at times funny story of how it feels to be neurodivergent as well as a practical guide, with advice for living with meltdowns and shutdowns, tips for finding supportive communities and much more. Whether you're neurodivergent or supporting those who are, "Different, Not Less" will inspire you to create a more inclusive world where everyone feels like they belong.
"A Little Less Broken: How an Autism Diagnosis Finally Made Me Whole" by Marian Schembari (2024)
Marian Schembari was thirty-four years old when she learned she was autistic. By then, she'd spent decades hiding her tics and shutting down in public, wondering why she couldn't just act like everyone else. Therapists told her she had Tourette's syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, sensory processing disorder, social anxiety, and recurrent depression. They prescribed breathing techniques and gratitude journaling. Nothing helped. It wasn't until years later that she finally learned the truth: she wasn't weird or deficient or moody or sensitive or broken. She was autistic.
Today, more people than ever are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Testing improvements have made it easier to identify neurodivergence, especially among women and girls who spent decades dismissed by everyone from parents to doctors, and misled by gender-biased research. A diagnosis can end the cycle of shame and invisibility, but only if it can be found. In this deeply personal and researched memoir, Schembari's journey takes her from the mountains of New Zealand to the tech offices of San Francisco, from her first love to her first child, all with unflinching honesty and good humor.