Book Review: The Rosie Project

I love to read. I would rather read a good book than watch a movie most of the time. There have been many nights I have told my husband I was going to bed early, only to read for hours before falling asleep. My fabulous book club often asks if I have read a book before assigning it, because there are so many I have read. It is actually pretty awesome because we hardly ever duplicate. The choice this month went to my darling sister, Amber. Now my sister is one of my absolute favorite people, but she usually reads crap. Not really crap, but sappy romantic novels that make me vomit just a tiny bit in my mouth. I am not romantic. At all. Just ask my husband. When she proposed that we read The Rosie Project,  I was not very excited. But I am a trooper and downloaded a copy pretty quickly so I could power through and read something gory and violent of my choosing. In reading the first few pages, I was hooked. This book made me giggle every time I picked it up. 

Our main character, Don Tillman, is a matter-of-fact and organized man. He schedules every minute of the day to be as efficient as possible. If the schedule is off, it bothers him to the point he must make an alteration somewhere else in his day. He is an accomplished geneticist and professor, with very few friends. Very few. Like two. He decides that he is at the stage in his life where he would like to find a mate. In coming to this conclusion, he decides he will solve this problem in a scientific manner, as he has not had luck in the traditional manner.

"Logically, I should be attractive to a wide range of women. In the animal kingdom, I would succeed in reproducing. However, there is something about me that women find unappealing."

He creates a The Wife Project. He designs a questionnaire, following the "best practice in questionnaire design, including multiple-choice questions, Likert scales, cross-validation, dummy questions, and surrogates." He uses this to discriminate between "suitable" and "unsuitable" mates. In the beginning of this project, in walks Rosie. She is totally unqualified and an absolutely unsuitable match for Don, which is where the fun begins. Don helps Rosie in her quest to find her father, using his knowledge of genetics and awkward social graces. While working on the project, Rosie and Don fall in love, although as Don states near the beginning of the novel: "Emotions can cause major problems." Hilarity ensues through each step of the relationship, especially as things begin to become intimate between the two.  

Overall, the book was extremely enjoyable. It had moments where I laughed out loud and moments when I wondered how any human being could possibly behave in that manner. It was a charming escape from reality, one I couldn't wait to have each night before bed. Read it. Laugh. And share it with a friend.