Book Review: “An Outsider’s Guide to Humans: What Science Taught Me About What We Do and Who We Are” by Camilla Pang, PhD

Oct 26

Håfa adai! April is Arab American Heritage Month and Autism Awareness Month in the United States. For the second two weeks of April 2025, I will post reviews of books that are written by authors with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and depict important experiences and stories of those living with ASD. My second selection for Autism Awareness Month 2025 is An Outsider’s Guide to Humans: What Science Taught Me About What We Do and Who We Are by Camilla Pang, PhD.

A brief history of Autism Awareness Month is forthcoming and will be added to this post at a later date.

This book review consists of two parts: a brief summary of content followed by my personal takeaways. I may go into detail about some parts of the book, but I will leave out the greater nuance. I want to share my opinions of the book and encourage you to purchase a copy of your own.

Click on the tags at the bottom of this post to see all reviews with the same tags in the Social Sciences & History bookshelf.

Summary of An Outsider’s Guide to Humans

Camilla Pang lives with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). She recognized at a young age that she could not interpret human behavior and understand social dynamics as easily as others around her. Determined to crack the code of a neurotypical society, Camilla Pang turned to science to create her own how-to guide for her neurodivergent life. An Outsider’s Guide to Humans: What Science Taught Me About What We Do and Who We Are gives a first-person glimpse into Camilla Pang’s lifelong dedication to using scientific principals to make sense of everyone’s place in an immensely neurodiverse world.

My Thoughts on An Outsider’s Guide to Humans: 4.5 stars

Camilla Pang is a computational biologist, writer, and autism activist based in the United Kingdom. In An Outsider’s Guide to Humans, she invites the reader—neurotypical and neurodiverse—to have a front row view of her personalized lifelong approach to understanding life. Also published as Explaining Humans: What Science Can Teach Us About Life, Love, and Relationships, this book is a celebration of neurodiversity and an absolutely stupendous geek-fest of science facts.

Camilla Pang shares incredible lessons in topics of biological and physical science while conveying to the reader how she coped with and made sense of the neurotypical world around her. Physics, chemistry, biology, statistics, and more are succinctly presented in a manner that excitedly encourages learning more about math and science. Like with my experiences of reading Hidden Figures and Thinking in Pictures, these intriguing built-in lessons can make the sometimes intense theme of the book more approachable to those who may be uncomfortable with certain real-life topics and histories.

I give An Outsider’s Guide to Humans 4.5 out of 5 stars. An Outsider’s Guide to Humans is the personalized how-to guide to understanding a neurotypical world from the perspective of Camilla Pang, PhD, a scientist diagnosed with ASD, ADHD, and GAD. This book was a bittersweet joy to experience: from the delightfully approachable science lessons to the painfully relatable experiences of living with a mind that many others will label as different. I recommend An Outsider’s Guide to Humans to all who want to learn about how one fascinating person turned their plural neurodiverse background into a fascinating and beautiful lens through which to assess their world.

Dångkulo' na' saina ma'åse'! Thank you so much for reading my review of An Outsider’s Guide to Humans by Camilla Pang, PhD.

Rating Cheat Sheet

4.75 - 5.00 stars: Everyone should read this book! (If you’re into that sort of thing.)
4.00 - 4.50 stars: I appreciated many aspects of this book. I recommend it!
3.00 - 3.75 stars: I liked some aspects of this book. I won’t revisit it, but someone else might really like it.
2.00 - 2.75 stars: There were some things I appreciated about this book, but I do not recommend it.
0.25 - 1.75 stars: I do not recommend this book. I did not enjoy or appreciate the experience of it.

Post Date: 28 April 2025