Don and Rosie are at it again...My review of The Rosie Effect by G. Simison

Greetings earthlings...and fellow lovers of Don and Rosie. Welcome to the review is The Rosie Effect. Okay...now I can stop playing around. The Rosie Effect brings us back to the odd and rather hilarious relationship of fellow (now married) scientist Don and Rosie. In this book Don and Rosie are just as lovable as always. Well almost. We meet up with them this time in New York, Don is a visiting professor at Columbia and Rosie is working her way towards finishing her thesis and entering medical school.
While all that seems so innocent, so simple. It's anything but. Don is thrust into "a disaster" the moment Rosie reveals that she's pregnant. In fact he has a full on melt down. The entire novel revolves around Don trying to prove to her that he is good enough to be a father. Something that (through a few missteps) both he and Rosie doubt he can be.
What was so frustrating about this book was that Don seems to be judged for his social ackwardness. In fact he is told, by one of the supporting characters, to never have children. If you have read the first book you will know that Don I believed to have Asperger syndrome; a form of autism - in which it makes it hard for one to communicate and socialize. In my opinion, it's this that makes Don so charming and realistic as a character. Well the overall novel ended on high note, most of it made me hate a beloved character. Rosie.
Once I had time to really think on it, and reflect on the story it dawned on me that Rosie is highly emotional due to her pregnancy, her stress from
school. Her actions are some what of a response from societal pressures; to take a break and have her baby and let men make the decision for her. And she is also dealing with feelings of isolation and loneliness, maybe even depression and abandonment. All the while she is dealing with Don and his tone deaf attitude towards her pregrancy.
In all this I can relate to Rosie; and see that Simsion created in her a character of deep emotional who is very much like so many young women trying to balance their need to mother, wife and ambitious at work and school at the same time. I deeply enjoyed this book and I can not wait to see what else Simsion cooks up for Don, Rosie and baby. I have The Rosie Effect 4/5 stars on Goodreads.

Here are some of the quotes I loved:

"Highly intelligent people are often bullied. As a result of being different. That difference being high intelligence."

"I am well aware of my incompetence in predicting human reactions. But I would have been prepared to bet on the first word that Rosie would say when she received the information. I was correct by a factor of six. ‘Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck."

My Fall 2015 to Read List

                      

             My Fall 2015 Reading  List

1) World After by Susan Ee

2) Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

3) First Impressions by Charlie Lovett

4) Eve by Wm. Paul Young

5) The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion

6) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

7) Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper

8) Siddhartha by Herman Heese

9) Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

10) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

11) Inferno by Dan Brown

12) Lover Unbound by J.R. Ward

13) 1984 by George Orwell

14) Kalona's Fall by P.C. and Kristin Cast

The Bookbabe Reviews: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

So finally, I have finished The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion and can I just say that I fell madly in love with the main character Professor Don Tillman right from the start. There were so many reaons why I feel like I was fated to love this book; chief among them is the main characters geek status. Don is what you would stereotypcially expect a genetics professor to be. He is clinical, a bit cold and odd. Don is also tired of being alone and enlisted his close friends in the "Wife Project". The project is doomed from the start and we get to follow Don a few dating adventures that leave him mortified and leaves us in tears laughing at their absurdity. As a means to shake things up Don's bestfriend Gene sets him up with Rosie; a smoker, that works in a gay bar and dressed "weird". Don sees her as unsuitable and is determined not to even consider her as wife material. Their first "date" starts off hilariously when Don gets in a fight with security and the maitre d' of the resturant over his lack of a proper dinner jacket. After this the relationship with Rosie just happens. Don enlists himself to help her find her biological father; this goes against his better judgement and he is also breaking a few universtity rules to help her out. The "Father Project" could end up causing Don a lot in the end but the rewards could also be so much greater.  One of my favorite moments of the book happens close to the end; Don after a conversation with Gene and After returning home from New York comes to the conclusion that he is in love with Rosie. The revelation allows him to see that change and maybe letting go of some of his rigid ways might be the only way to really win the heart of the one he loves. I  honestly enjoyed the book and can not wait to see what happens in Book 2: The Rosie Effect.

Rate: 4 Stars

Favorite Quotes:

"Time has been redefined. Previous time zones no longer apply. Alcohol is hearby declared mandatory in the Rosie Time Zone"

"Sixteen," I told him. "Second - highest score ever." 

Gene looked at it. "Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Do I have to point out that you haven't had a baby recently?"

February Book Blitz

Hey guys and gals here are some of the book I have come across this month and that have been added to my to read list,

The Miniaturust by Jessie Burton (Hardcover 19.34$ on amazon.com)

Synopsis: 

Set in seventeenth century Amsterdam-a city ruled by glittering wealth and oppressive religion-a masterful debut steeped in atmosphere and shimmering with mystery, in the tradition of Emma Donoghue, Sarah Waters, and Sarah Dunant.

"There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed…"

On a brisk autumn day in 1686, eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman arrives in Amsterdam to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant trader Johannes Brandt. But her new home, while splendorous, is not welcoming. Johannes is kind yet distant, always locked in his study or at his warehouse office-leaving Nella alone with his sister, the sharp-tongued and forbidding Marin.

But Nella's world changes when Johannes presents her with an extraordinary wedding gift: a cabinet-sized replica of their home. To furnish her gift, Nella engages the services of a miniaturist-an elusive and enigmatic artist whose tiny creations mirror their real-life counterparts in eerie and unexpected ways . . .

Johannes' gift helps Nella to pierce the closed world of the Brandt household. But as she uncovers its unusual secrets, she begins to understand-and fear-the escalating dangers that await them all. In this repressively pious society where gold is worshipped second only to God, to be different is a threat to the moral fabric of society, and not even a man as rich as Johannes is safe. Only one person seems to see the fate that awaits them. Is the miniaturist the key to their salvation . . . or the architect of their destruction?

Enchanting, beautiful, and exquisitely suspenseful, The Miniaturist is a magnificent story of love and obsession, betrayal and retribution, appearance and truth. 

The Invisible Woman by Claire Tomalin (Paperback is 11.88$ on amazon.com)

Synopsis:

When Charles Dickens and Nelly Ternan met in 1857, she was 18: a professional actress performing in his production of The Frozen Deep. He was 45: a literary legend, a national treasure, married with ten children. This meeting sparked a love affair that lasted over a decade, destroying Dickens's marriage and ending with Nelly's near-disappearance from the public record. In this remarkable work of biography, Claire Tomalin rescues Nelly from obscurity, not only returning the neglected actress to her rightful place in history, but also giving us a compelling and truthful account of the great Victorian novelist. Through Dickens's diaries, correspondence, address books, and photographs, Tomalin is able to reconstruct the relationship between Charles and Nelly, bringing it to vivid life. The result is a riveting literary detective story—and a portrait of a singular woman.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (Hardcover is 16.17$ on amazon.com)

Synopsis:

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

 

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (Paperback is 12.96$ on amazon)

Synopsis:

The art of love is never a science: Meet Don Tillman, a brilliant yet socially inept professor of genetics, who’s decided it’s time he found a wife. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which Don approaches all things, he designs the Wife Project to find his perfect partner: a sixteen-page, scientifically valid survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, the late arrivers. 

Rosie Jarman possesses all these qualities. Don easily disqualifies her as a candidate for The Wife Project (even if she is “quite intelligent for a barmaid”). But Don is intrigued by Rosie’s own quest to identify her biological father. When an unlikely relationship develops as they collaborate on The Father Project, Don is forced to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie―and the realization that, despite your best scientific efforts, you don’t find love, it finds you.