I made an error and dodged this book when it was first being promoted. I'd assumed that any humorous book in which the hero is a neuroatypical man would source its laughter at his expense. I should have had more faith. 

What Graeme Simsion has managed to achieve is a perfectly formed RomCom which works because the hero is neuroatypical. He, like any other romantic hero, has obstacles to overcome, some of which he creates for himself and some of which are created by the people around him, and we hold our breath to see if he can win through. We cheer for him for being himself. We want him to succeed without having to change anything essential about himself. 

Don Tillman, our hero a tenured associate professor of genetics at an Australian university. He understands that his brain is wired differently from most other people's and that, while this gives him many strengths that other people don't have, strong powers of concentration, an excellent memory, the ability to maintain a rational distance when solving problems and an aptitude for being disciplined and organised, his lack of social skills are likely to make it harder for him to find a life partner.

He decides to solve the problem by starting "The Wife Project", a questionnaire-based search for his perfect match. When he meets Rosie, a self-evidently poor match for his search criteria, he gets involved in "The Father Project", helping her to identify her biological father.

"The Father Project" leads Don into many activities he would not normally have considered, some of them illegal and all of them in Rosie's company.

The plot is beautifully structured as a RomCom quest. It has a number of surprising twists and while I wanted Don to succeed, I was kept guessing about if or how this would be possible.

The writing is light but deft. Seeing the world through Don Tillman's eyes is a revelation. While there are some very funny scenes, the main tone of the book is compassionate and hopeful.

I stayed up late because I had to know how things worked out. It was worth the loss of sleep.

I'm glad to see that there are more Don Tillman books. I need to spend more time in Don Tillman's company.

I recommend the audiobook version, brilliantly narrated by Dan O'Grady. Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear a sample.

I'm counting "The Rosie Project" as my Melbourne Cup Day Book Task

So I loved The Rosie Project Simsion's tale of a geneticist who is probably on the Autism spectrum, but has never been diagnosed, setting out to find a romantic partner in the most scientific way he can. It was charming, funny, and hit all the right emotional notes. If you haven't read it, go do so now. The sequel, The Rosie Effect, about the early days of Don and Rosie's marriage had a lot of the same traits but fell short on the story and heart. Which gave me a lot of pause when I saw a third volume was coming out a few months ago. But curiosity got the better of me, and I picked up a copy from the Library.

Phew! Simsion's remembered what made Project so successful. It's not quite as good, but it's close enough for me.

Don and Rosie move back to Australia after a decade-plus in NYC. He's returned to his university, Rosie's got a major research position. They didn't consult their son about the move, that's causing all the problems associated with someone on the verge of adolescence being moved thousands of miles away from everything he's ever known. To complicate things, Hudson's a lot more like his dad than even Don realized. Incredibly intelligent, opinionated, precise, overly literal, socially awkward and stubborn. Throw a kid like that into a new school, new country, with no friends or teachers who know him—especially when he's unhappy—and you have a recipe for disaster.

Which is precisely what Don and Rosie have on their hands. Hudson's school is on the verge of expelling him but is willing to make allowances for someone diagnosed with Autism—while taking them out of the mainstream classes and educational path. Neither of his parents are all that interested in that course and begin working with Hudson on ways to fit in.

To add to that, Don's fallen victim to the outrage culture of contemporary universities by answering a question about skin tone straight-forward and matter-of-factly with no thought of political/social connotations of his words. It was, of course, caught on video and has put his entire career in jeopardy. Rosie is dealing with a boss who seems to favor another member of the team she's nominally leading and blatant misogyny from the boss and that team-member.

Don decides to take a leave of absence from his job (handing a victory to those wanting his head, but protecting his job so he can return after the dust settles) and sets out to help Hudson in a strategic fashion like he had done for himself on various fronts. With help from family and friends, he sets out to help Hudson gain some friends, become able to participate in group sports, dress like a normal kid, and essentially fit in.

There are lots of ups and downs along the way—Hudson does grow, but not in all the ways Don wants or expects. Don does, too—even making a friend who's into homeopathy and against vaccines (even if he's committed to showing her the error of her ways).

I do wish Rosie had been a bigger presence in this book, that's my biggest complaint, really. Not just because her name is in the title, but she's Hudson's mom and Don's wife. She should've had more to do in the story rather than being relegated (for reasons the story allows for) to a supporting character.

The basic theme of the book is about embracing who you are and finding a balance between fitting in with society and compromising who you are—if you're on the Spectrum or not. In addition to having a lot of humor and heart, the overall tone is hopeful, oddly optimistic. It's a great, heartwarming read that will remind readers why they loved the character of Don Tillman and will provoke a lot of thought while providing a great amount of entertainment.

Here's a link to my second review in this series: The Rosie Effect. I flat out disliked the second book and was flabbergasted that Simsion changed things up to having Rosie and Don move to New York and having Don and Rosie act of character. Thank goodness that is all fixed in the third book with us following Don and Rosie eleven years after the birth of their son Hudson. Simsion also kept force fitting in the character of Gene (who I disliked) and we find out what all happened there. I think that this book definitely shines a lot more and we finally have Don coming to realize that he doesn't have to be labeled something he doesn't want and if he does, he can own things in his own way. We get to see he and Rosie actually working as partners. Things that didn't work for me was the parents of Blanche. That whole story-line was wonderfully handled, but the ending it just seemed that people are all going to just wait for something worse to happen. Also, I think that we didn't really get a satisfying ending with the woman who caused Don to get in trouble at university. I guess I don't like the idea of someone trying to use racism to get some hits on their blog and who we get to see acting like a racist jerk later in the story. 

"The Rose Result" follows Don and Rosie as they move back to Australia with their 10 year old son Hudson. Moving from New York back to Australia has caused some difficulties for the whole family. Rosie has a change to be on a great clinical trial but her being a wife and mother is holding her back due to the sexism of the head researcher. Don goofs badly when talking about racism in his class and his lecture goes viral. From there he is at loose ends on what to do. Hudson is having problems in school and seems to have no friends and his teacher and principal think he may be autistic. 

We once again get the story told via Don's POV. We have plain speaking Don back and for once he's not trying to be sneaky or do things that he would never have tried in the first book. He and Rosie are more partners in this one with them both trying to deal with work and parenting. I also thought that there is a little hint there about why the two of them have fallen off a bit with their love-making, but it's not followed up with which I thought was rare considering the character of Don. 

We also find out about some of Don's longstanding friendships with Claudia, Gene, George, and Dave. We still have Don wanting to "fix" his friends, but for once he doesn't try to meddle without discussing it. And I have to say that we get a better insight into his relationship with his father. And I loved Rosie's relationship with her dad in this one too and honestly how many people loved the Tillman family.

The biggest thing I thought was that this book challenges stereotypes of those who are autistic. We know that Don has refused to be labeled and has danced away from that in his life. However, now that things are going badly for Hudson at school, Don is focused on the Hudson Project and Don quits his job and works on ways to make sure that his son doesn't suffer as he did as a child and adult. I thought this was so good and I loved how Simsion handled it. 

The secondary characters are very good in this one. I really liked Hudson a lot and thought that he was a really good and thoughtful kid. His budding friendship with two kids in his school were great (Blanche and Dev) though I really really disliked Blanche's parents.

And we get Simsion doing a great job juxtaposing another family to the Tillman's. Blanche's parents don't believe in science, refuse to have her vaccinated, and all signs points to her father abusing her mother. I really wish that some things had gotten a bigger push by Simsion. The vaccination thing really ticks me off. I have had to personally decline to go over to people's homes who don't vaccinate their children because my stomach condition can flare up worse if I get sick with the flu and studies have shown that with full vaccination (I am) it gets better. Obviously people who can't get vaccinated due to their own medical conditions is a different thing. Okay, off my soapbox now.

The writing was great. I think that the last book lost something with Rosie and Don being in New York and this book brings back all that heart that was missing. The flow was very good though I got confused about how terms/schools work in Australia. 

The book ends I thought on a good note for Hudson though I wish things had been better resolved on a lot of fronts (Gene, Blanche's parents, what Hudson did/didn't do, and Don's new job). 

In Laura Tillman's debut book, she covers the 2003 murder of three young children in South Texas. Murdered by their parents, the short lives of Julissa, John Stephan, and Mary Jane, have left long shadows over the community of Brownsville, TX.

In an heartwrenching look at the ramifications of murder on a small community, Ms. Tillman exposes more about humanity than expected. She communicated with John Allan Rubio for a number of years after his conviction of murder in the case of his stepdaughter, son, and daughter, and this book is a result of her continued reporting. Ms. Tillman spent countless hours walking the streets of Brownsville, talking to Mr. Rubio's neighbors, family, friends, and community leaders in her efforts to tease out why this tragedy unfolded.

Rubio grew up poor and hispanic in a Texas border town, those were the first two strikes against him. His potential learning disabilities and mental illness were additional strikes, and his "falling through the cracks" seemed to seal his life and destiny up. This book explores how circumstances beyond ones control can really can control ones life. The injustice of being poor, uneducated, fragile, Mexican...Of being different. All these things are polarizing in the American judicial system.

I can't really begin to pick apart this book. I vaguely remembered hearing about this murder case, and immediately deciding that Rubio must be a monster. How could a father brutally murder his three children? How could he possibly be allowed to life after ending the lives of such young children? The babies were 3 years, 14 months, and 2 months. They were found in squalor, drug using parents, brutalized. These were the words in the headlines in March 2003. Rubio never denied killing the children, why shouldn't he be put to death? 

Why indeed? What brings a person to that point, where they seem to crack, and commit an atrocity? Maybe the answers really aren't cut and dried, maybe they are firmly rooted in that person's past. Maybe the seeds of destiny, fate, predestination, are planted into us by our very surroundings? These are some of the questions posed to the reader by Ms Tillman. And questions to which there are no answers, easy or not. In fact, just trying to answer these questions for yourself tugs at our beliefs of what makes up a person.

I cried reading this book, on a few different occasions. I'm still asking myself questions about what might have happened under different circumstances. If Rubio had made it into the Army, if he'd not come from a poor family, if he'd been able to access care for his probable mental illness...Would the children have ever been in this kind of situation? Would the children be here today? Where would Rubio be in his life? But these are only questions. Ones that there can never be an answer to, because of circumstances falling together into a pattern that affects millions of people every single year. Poverty, skin color, lack of access to education to health care, drug use...Things that so many of us take for granted.

I'm recommending reading this to pretty much everyone. It should be required reading for sociology courses, for psychology classes, for people going into law, into political science...For people who care about other people, people who have begun to realize how polarized our thinking is, how "other" people aren't deserving of anything. I deeply wish that this book wasn't needed, that we as humans were advanced enough to believe that people are *all* deserving of an equal shot at life. But we're not, we won't ever get to that place.

This book hurts. It hits from so many different places in so many different ways. But all of them are needed.

In the interest of disclosure, I was provided with an ARC of this book from the publisher.

I'm hitting another block when trying to talk about the last few books I've read, because here's another batch of very overdue takes on some good books (and one not).

 ---

The Rosie Project

by Graeme Simsion

This was charming, witty, and had plenty of heart -- even without the romance, which just took it all to another level. It was just plain fun to read.

Don Tillman is just a great character -- he's likely someone with Asperger's, if not fully Autistic. Which is mentioned once or twice, and then not brought up again. He's then treated as a stubborn, curious, character with behavior patterns no one can seem to understand, but most people in his life figure out hot to cope with. Sometimes they laugh at him, sometimes they get frustrated or angry. What he's not treated as is someone with anything. He's not treated by his symptoms, he's just treated as this guy. Simsion's treatment of Don reminds me of Abed Nadir, from Community (which is high praise from me).

The only complaint I had was that the last chapter wasn't really needed, and maybe would've been best left to the imagination. But, setting that aside, it felt rushed, while the rest of the book was so well done, it just stuck out like a sore thumb.

Still, whatever -- one of my favorite books of 2013, and still one of the best RomComs I can remember.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette

by Maria Semple 

Do you get seasick? People who don't get seasick have no idea what it's like. It's not just nausea. It's nausea plus losing the will to live.

I should get that embroidered on something.

This starts light and breezy, a little strange, a little typical "these crazy (white) suburbanites with too much money"; but you know it's going to get dark eventually -- probably nasty dark, but first it's going to lull you into a false sense of fun. I don't think it gets as dark as it felt like it could've, it didn't need to, and I'm glad it didn't -- but there was a whole lot going on that the whacky beginning didn't indicate.

You don't have care about the story because these characters are strength enough to carry your attention for quite awhile with nothing happening -- and Semple's style is just as strong. But there is a sorry here, a story of a daughter discovering just who her mother was -- as is -- a story about a talented woman who ended up loving a life she'd never have expected or picked for herself or her family. So you do care about the story -- especially the way it's told, in bits and pieces, jumping back and forth through time, from multiple perspectives -- particularly when you get two or three perspectives painting a picture of an event -- as Bee digs into her investigation.

Fun story, quirky characters, well-told story, with plenty of heart -- and too many quotable lines. I jotted down a few that I can't resist sharing, even in this abbreviated post.

You probably think, U.S./Canada, they're interchangeable because they're both filled with English-speaking, morbidly obese white people. Well, Manjula, you couldn't be more mistaken.

Americans are pushy obnoxious, neurotic, crass -- anything and everything -- the full catastrophe as our friend Zorba might say. Canadians are one of that. . . To Canadians, everyone is equal. Joni Mitchell is interchangeable with a secretary at open-mic night. Frank Gehry is no greater than a hack pumping out McMansions on AutoCAD, John Candy is no funnier than Uncle Lou when he gets a couple of beers in him. No wonder the only Canadians anyone's ever heard of are the ones who have gotten the hell out. Anyone with talent who stayed would be flattened under an avalanche of equality.

Really, who wants to admit to her daughter that she was once considered the most promising architect in the country, but now devotes her celebrated genius to maligning the driver in front of her for having Idaho plates?"

The Rosie Effect

by Graeme Simsion

"To the world's most perfect woman." It was lucky my father was not present. Perfect is an absolute that cannot be modified, like unique or pregnant. My love for Rosie was so powerful that it had caused my brain to make a grammatical error.

Don and Rosie are living in New York, getting used to married life, and expecting a kid. None of which goes well -- so, of course, Don tries to tackle things the same way he did in the last book. Instant sequel, just add water.

This sequel was written with the same wit and skill as The Rosie Project, but the story wasn't there -- and more importantly, neither was the heart.

Mostly, I think, because Rosie wasn't around for a lot -- and when she was there, she wasn't a character, she was an obstacle.

Other than really liking the occasional line (maybe more than occasional), I just didn't like how Rosie or Don were written, the plot was shoddy and contrived, and I was just glad to be done with it so I could move on.

Funny Girl

by Nick Hornby

How on earth could he love her? But he did, Or, at least, she made him feel sick, sad, and distracted. Perhaps there was another way of describing that unique and useless combination of feelings, but "love" would have to do for now.

Everything I know about this era of British culture and TV comes from The Hour and An Adventure in Space and Time, so I just have to trust that Hornby did his homework on this. I thought the behind-the-scenes stuff was great, it felt real -- it felt like the kinds of conversations that writers and actors should be having anyway.

The love story turned out a lot different than I was sure it would - thankfully. Actually, most of the book did. This wasn't the rags-to-riches-to-wreck story that it seemed like it was going to be, but a story of some people with dreams and talent doing what they could to get going in a cutthroat business. Dreams were chased, many were caught, others changed/grew -- as did the dreamers.

In the midst of the discussions about the nature of their show and the stories they told -- both during the making of the show Barbara (and Jim) and in later chapters where it was being looked back at, I kept wondering if tucked away in all that was an apologia for light fiction like Hornby writes? If so, I appreciated it. (it also reminded me of some similar comments John Cleese has made lately, after coming to terms with being someone who makes people laugh, and not saving the world or something grander)

Thoughtful, heartfelt, charming -- this is Hornby at his most confident and mature. I can see why some aren't liking it, but it really clicked for me.