Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | I’m Special | 2015 | Ryan O’Connell | Buy |
| 2 | Inspiration Porn | 2026 | Ryan O’Connell | Buy |
Ryan O’Connell’s non-fiction books are rooted in personal experience and written with a sharp, confessional humor. I’m Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves (2015) is his memoir about growing up gay with cerebral palsy, covering his college years, his struggle with a painkiller addiction after a car accident, and his slow process of accepting both his disability and his sexuality.
The memoir was well received and became the basis for the Netflix series Special, which O’Connell adapted, wrote, and starred in. The show brought wider attention to both the book and to O’Connell’s perspective as a disabled, queer writer working in mainstream media.
His second non-fiction book, Inspiration Porn, is scheduled for publication in 2026. The title references the term used to describe the way media often frames disabled people as automatically inspiring, a subject O’Connell has written about critically throughout his career.