Play Audiobook Sample
The Journal of Best Practices: A Memoir of Marriage, Asperger Syndrome, and One Man's Quest to Be a Better Husband Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(5.00) - 1 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
At some point in nearly every marriage, a wife finds herself asking, What is wrong with my husband?! In David Finch's case, this turns out to be an apt question. Five years after he married Kristen, the love of his life, they learn that he has Asperger syndrome. The diagnosis explains David's ever-growing list of quirks and compulsions, his lifelong propensity to quack and otherwise melt down in social exchanges, and his clinical-strength inflexibility. But it doesn't make him any easier to live with. Determined to change, David sets out to understand Asperger syndrome and learn to be a better husband—no easy task for a guy whose inability to express himself rivals his two-year-old daughter's, who thinks his responsibility for laundry extends no further than throwing things in (or at) the hamper, and whose autism-spectrum condition makes seeing his wife's point of view a near impossibility. Nevertheless, David devotes himself to improving his marriage with an endearing yet hilarious zeal that involves excessive note-taking, performance reviews, and most of all, the Journal of Best Practices: a collection of hundreds of maxims and hard-won epiphanies that result from self-reflection both comic and painful. They include "Don't change the radio station when she's singing along," "Apologies do not count when you shout them," and "Be her friend, first and always." Guided by the Journal of Best Practices, David transforms himself over the course of two years from the world's most trying husband to the husband who tries the hardest, the husband he'd always meant to be. Filled with humor and surprising wisdom, The Journal of Best Practices is a candid story of ruthless self-improvement, a unique window into living with an autism-spectrum condition, and proof that a true heart can conquer all.
Download and start listening now!
"Great book."
— Rusty Shackleford (5 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
-
“David Finch has Asperger Syndrome—a disorder that, in some ways, means ‘acting like a guy.’ His often-hilarious efforts to understand and cope with his condition will resonate with every guy whose wife has ever asked him, ‘What the hell were you THINKING?’”
— Dave Barry, author of I’ll Mature When I’m Dead: Dave Barry’s Amazing Tales of Adulthood -
“Hilarious. Gives some of the finest explications of Asperger’s out there…A primer of sorts for all of us on how to be better partners.”
— People -
“Funny, moving, and insightful.”
— Kirkus Reviews -
With an alternately comical and starkly painful voice, Finch uses these and other moments of epiphany to explore the inroads of emotional intimacy. Funny, moving and insightful.
— Kirkus
The Journal of Best Practices Listener Reviews
Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
About David Finch
David Finch grew up on a farm in northern Illinois and attended the University of Miami, where he studied music engineering technology. He and his wife, Kristen, married in 2003, and in 2008 Finch was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome. His first essay, “Somewhere Inside, A Path to Empathy,” appeared in the New York Times and became the basis for his book The Journal of Best Practices. He lives in northern Illinois with his wife and two children.