Reading one of Temple Grandin's books, Thinking in Pictures, Expanded Edition: My Life with Autism, when my son PJ was first diagnosed with autism changed my life. She wrote it as an adult, and gave detailed descriptions of her childhood as an autistic person -- what worked and what didn't.
I also found out from watching her talk at TED while at the airport, that there's a brand new movie of Temple Grandin's life coming out on HBO (starring Claire Danes), and I really can't wait to see it!
Here's her talk this year at the TED conference. She speaks truth about how we need all kinds of minds for the world to work properly. I couldn't agree more. This is amazing: