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The Rosie Project
Author:
Simsion, Graeme C.
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Class:
Fiction
Age: Adult
Language: English
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LC: PR9619.3
Print Run: 300000
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ISBN-13: 9781476729084
LCCN: 2013000364
Imprint: Simon & Schuster
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Pub Date: 10/01/2013
Availability: Out of Stock Indefinitely
List: $24.00
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Hardcover
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Physical Description:
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295 pages ; 23 cm
H 8.37",
W 5.5",
D 1",
0.87 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's Insight Catalog: Adult
Brodart's TOP Adult Titles
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Bibliographies:
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Fiction Core Collection, 17th ed.
Fiction Core Collection, 18th ed.
Fiction Core Collection, 19th ed.
Fiction Core Collection, 20th ed.
Los Angeles Times Bestsellers List
Texas Lariate Reading List
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Awards:
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Booklist Starred Reviews
Kirkus Best Books
Kirkus Starred Reviews
Publishers Weekly Starred Reviews
School Library Journal Best Adult Books for High School Students
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Starred Reviews:
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Booklist
Kirkus Reviews
Publishers Weekly
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TIPS Subjects:
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Romance
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BISAC Subjects: |
FICTION / Romance / General
FICTION / Humorous / General
FICTION / Romance / Romantic Comedy
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LC Subjects:
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College teachers, Australia, Fiction
Genetics, Research, Fiction
Love stories
Marriage, Fiction
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SEARS Subjects: |
Colleges and universities, Faculty, Australia, Fiction
Genetics, Research, Fiction
Love stories
Marriage, Fiction
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Reading Programs: |
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| Annotations |
| Brodart's TOP Adult Titles | 07/01/2013 |
| A socially awkward genetics professor finds the one woman who seems all wrong for him when he embarks on The Wife Project, only to realize that algorithms and logic mean nothing when it comes to true love. Baffled when a friend says he'd make the perfect husband, Don Tillman puts the theory to the test, using his logic to find the perfect companion. Instead, he meets Rosie Jarman, a woman seeking her biological father. Debut Novel, 304pp., 300K, Auth res: Australia, Tour |
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| Starred Reviews: |
| Booklist | 09/01/2013 |
| Genetics professor Don Tillman's ordered, predictable life is thrown into chaos when love enters the equation in this immensely enjoyable novel. Never good with social cues, Don explains his difficulty empathizing with others, which he forthrightly says is a defining symptom of the autism spectrum, as a result of his brain simply being wired differently. Diagnosis is not the issue here, as the reader is rooting for Don as he searches for ways to fit in. With his fortieth birthday approaching, he designs a questionnaire to find a compatible female life partner using his overriding devotion to logic. But he finds his quest competing with the request of a woman to discover the identity of her biological father. The protagonist is passingly similar to that of Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003), but Simsion's first novel is not as dark, focusing instead on the humor and significance of what makes us human. Don is used to causing amusement or consternation in others, but as his self-awareness and understanding grow, so do his efforts to behave more appropriately. Determined and unintentionally sweet, Don embarks on an optimistic and redemptive journey. Funny, touching, and hard to put down, The Rosie Project is certain to entertain even as readers delve into deep themes. For a book about a logic-based quest for love, it has a lot of heart. Thoreson, Bridget. 304p. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2013. |
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| Kirkus Reviews | 06/01/2013 |
| Polished debut fiction, from Australian author Simsion, about a brilliant but emotionally challenged geneticist who develops a questionnaire to screen potential mates but finds love instead. The book won the 2012 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. "I became aware of applause. It seemed natural. I had been living in the world of romantic comedy and this was the final scene. But it was real." So Don Tillman, our perfectly imperfect narrator and protagonist, tells us. While he makes this observation near the end of the book, it comes as no surprise--this story plays the rom-com card from the first sentence. Don is challenged, almost robotic. He cannot understand social cues, barely feels emotion and can't stand to be touched. Don's best friends are Gene and Claudia, psychologists. Gene brought Don as a postdoc to the prestigious university where he is now an associate professor. Gene is a cad, a philanderer who chooses women based on nationality--he aims to sleep with a woman from every country. Claudia is tolerant until she's not. Gene sends Rosie, a graduate student in his department, to Don as a joke, a ringer for the Wife Project. Finding her woefully unsuitable, Don agrees to help the beautiful but fragile Rosie to learn the identity of her biological father. Pursuing this Father Project, Rosie and Don collide like particles in an atom smasher: hilarity, dismay and carbonated hormones ensue. The story lurches from one set piece of deadpan nudge-nudge, wink-wink humor to another: We laugh at, and with, Don as he tries to navigate our hopelessly emotional, nonliteral world, learning as he goes. Simsion can plot a story, set a scene, write a sentence, finesse a detail. A pity more popular fiction isn't this well-written. If you liked Australian author Toni Jordan's Addition (2009), with its math-obsessed, quirky heroine, this book is for you. A sparkling, laugh-out-loud novel. 304pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2013. |
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| Publishers Weekly | 07/01/2013 |
| Read-out-loud laughter begins by page two in Simsion's debut novel about a 39-year-old genetics professor with Asperger's--but utterly unaware of it--looking to solve his Wife Problem. Don Tillman cannot find love; episodes like the Apricot Ice Cream Disaster prevent so much as a second date with a woman. His devised solution is the Wife Project: dating only those who "match" his idiosyncratic standards as determined by an exacting questionnaire. His plans take a backseat when he meets Rosie, a bartender who wants him to help her determine her birth father's identity. His rigidity and myopic worldview prevents him from seeing her as a possible love interest, but he nonetheless agrees to help, even though it involves subterfuge and might jeopardize his position at the university. What follows are his utterly clueless, but more often thoroughly charming exploits in exploring his capacity for romance. Helping Tillman are his only two friends, an older, shamelessly philandering professor, and the professor's long-suffering wife, who may soon draw the line in the sand. With Asperger's growing visibility in pop culture in recent years, as on CBS's The Big Bang Theory, this novel is perfectly timed. Agent: David Forrer, Inkwell Management. (Oct.). 304p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2013. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| BookPage | 10/01/2013 |
| Genetics professor Don Tillman is a man of science. His days are meticulously scheduled, his weekly meals pre-planned for maximum nutritional value and his choices made in logical consideration of best possible outcomes. So when he decides it's time to find a suitable life partner, he does what any rational scientist would do--he creates an extensive dating questionnaire and embarks on "The Wife Project." The results, of course, are not quite what Don expects, and that's the fun of reading Australian author Graeme Simsion's charming debut novel. When Don meets Rosie Jarman, a gorgeous, free-spirited bartender searching for her biological father, he doesn't need a questionnaire to tell him that they are not a match--she smokes, drinks and has a serious issue with punctuality. But Rosie is intriguing, and despite his better judgment, Don puts "The Wife Project" aside to embark on a quest to find Rosie's father. As Rosie and Don dig through her mother's past, Don starts to have a little non-scheduled fun--eating meals outside his weekly menu plans, staying out late and talking over drinks, and even bending university rules to use the genetics lab after hours. Before Rosie, no woman had ever seemed to understand Don or appreciate his unique point of view. But with Rosie, things are just different, and whether it's fate or science, Don finds himself falling for the most unlikely of women. With The Rosie Project, Simsion has created a wacky, wonderful love story that is just plain fun to read. The ways in which Don and Rosie challenge and complement each other is downright inspiring--not to mention hilarious. Simsion writes with humor and heart, and his story is both original and endearing. The Rosie Project teaches us that it's never too late to discover who we are, and empowers us to find the people who will love us--quirks and all. Abby Plesser. 304pg. BOOKPAGE, c2013. |
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| Library Journal | 09/01/2013 |
| Don Tillman is a scientist. He thinks logically and approaches the world in a similar manner. Hence, when he needs to find a wife, he creates a long and involved questionnaire to winnow out unsuitable choices. (His requirements: nonsmoker, body mass index under 26, punctual, mathematically literate, a meat eater, and so on.) The 16-page, double-sided, scientifically valid document, he believes, offers his best chance of finding the perfect partner. That is, until he meets the fiery and intelligent Rosie Jarman. Rosie, who doesn't meet any of his requirements, is trying to track down her biological father, and she needs Don's expertise in genetics to do it. The two pursue their quests in tandem, but gradually, as their relationship deepens, their missions converge. VERDICT Readers will root for Don and Rosie throughout Simsion's delightful romantic comedy. Fans of the TV show The Big Bang Theory will see shades of Sheldon and Penny in these characters. [See Prepub Alert, 4/29/13; this title was also touted at the fifth annual BEA Librarians Shout and Share panel.--Ed.]. Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., OH. 304p. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2013. |
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| Library Journal Prepub Alert | 04/29/2013 |
| It's not every debut author whose work gets sold in more than 30 territories, but Simpsion manages it with this funny, touching story about genetics professor Don Tillman, a socially challenged guy who sets out to find a wife. Don has drawn up a precise, deeply detailed list of requirements for the Wife Project, which gets thrown aside when he meets perpetually unpunctual, smoke-like-a-chimney barmaid Rosie. Not his type, but she's hunting for her biological father and seeks out Don for professional advice. A relationship is born that radically alters his perceptions-and his goals. Huge in-house excitement, so watch this especially. 304p. LJ Prepub Alert Online Review. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2013. |
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9781476729084,dl.it[0].title
| Review Citations |
| New York Times Book Review | 10/20/2013 |
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