Review: The Rosie Result by Graeme Simsion

Big-hearted, hilarious and exuberantly life-affirming, The Rosie Result is a story of overcoming life's obstacles with a little love and a lot of overthinking.

Meet Don Tillman, the genetics professor with a scientific approach to everything. But he's facing a set of human dilemmas tougher than the trickiest of equations.

Right now he is in professional hot water after a lecture goes viral for all the wrong reasons; his wife of 4,380 days, Rosie, is about to lose the research job she loves; and - the most serious problem of all - their eleven-year-old son, Hudson, is struggling at school. He's a smart kid, but socially awkward and not fitting in.

Fortunately, Don's had a lifetime's experience of not fitting in. And he's going to share the solutions with Hudson.

He'll need the help of old friends and new, lock horns with the education system, and face some big questions about himself. As well as opening the world's best cocktail bar.

Review: If you’ve been following my reading for a while you’ll know I’m a big fan of Graeme Simsion and so I was VERY excited to find out there was going to be a third book in the Rosie project series. It was so great to revisit these characters and their lives and I loved catching up web Don and Rosie and find out what they were doing now.

The setting for this book comes back to Australia and it was wonderful to see Don back where he’s from and with his family again. I did miss the New York setting from The Rosie Effect but as I say this new setting leant itself to Don feeling more ‘at home’.

Hudson was a great addition to the cast in this novel. Obviously we learned a little about him in the last book but seeing him as a fully formed tween was really fun and I liked finding out how he was getting on at school and with his family and friends. I think after two books focusing fully on Don, a little bit of Hudson was a welcome addition.

This book also deals more explicitly with the autistic spectrum and more specifically when and/or why getting a diagnosis is required. As you know I am a teacher and so I could definitely see both sides of this argument but what was really great was actually seeing it on the page and hearing Don’s point of view as well as seeing the situations that called for a possible diagnosis. Autism and Aspergers are dealt with so well in these novels, it was great to see a different side of the autistic spectrum being brought up in this third book featuring Don Tillman.

If you enjoyed the first 2 books in the Rosie project series, I would definitely recommend giving this one a read. It would work to some extent as a stand-alone novel but I really would recommend reading the other 2 books first to get some background on Don and the Rosie Project. Once again, I listened to this book on audio and it was really well done.

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Review: The Best of Adam Sharp by Graeme Simsion

Would you risk everything for a second chance at first love?

At forty-nine-going-on-fifty, Adam Sharp likes his life. He works part-time in IT consulting, is a leading member of his local pub-quiz and has a stable relationship with his partner, Claire. But there's something he can't shake: a longing for the life he might have had with smart, strong-willed actress Angelina Brown.

Then, out of nowhere, Angelina walks back into his life. All the intensity of their affair twenty years ago resurfaces and Adam must make a decision.

Should he let her go again? Or does he dare to live dangerously? 

  

Review: I got stuck into this book straight away, it is definitely a very compelling read because you know the situation tat Adam is going to get himself into but you don't know how he got there or how he is going to resolve it in the end. The structure of this book is firstly that it is in two parts and the author said himself that those two parts are both very different. The first part is definitely very much Adam reminiscing about his time in Australia, about his music and his past love. And the second part is very much present day and what the consequences of Adam's actions, whatever they might be, are. The first part has flashbacks as well so sometimes we are with Adam in Australia and sometimes we are with him in his present day life pondering the meaning of life. I am a big fan of flashbacks and these work well in the physical copy of the book because you can track where you are, but don't work so well in the audiobook because you can't always tell you have shifted time periods. 

Adam himself is a great vehicle for this novel. He isn't always easy to like but he is very easy to relate to because he is just a normal guy, someone who has a very middle class, suburban life, thinking about what he could have made of his life and the adventures he had in his youth. Unless you are still very young, you will definitely be able to relate to this. Adam doesn't always say and do the things you expect him to, making this quite a challenging read sometimes, but because Adam is the way he is, he moves the book forward and makes it much more of a realistic story. 

There are other supporting characters in the book took, none of whom i particularly liked either but all add a sense of something else to the story, the characters who encourage risk, the characters who play devils advocate, the characters who offer safety and those that offer escapism. I thought the mix of characters was really well-written, even though I didn't like them! 

As I mentioned above, I listened to this book on audiobook and really didn't get on with the narrator. He was quite softly spoken and had little or not intonation. I found that the physical copy of the book I ended up reading was much more dramatic because I could hear more pitch change and excitement in my own head and I also didn't have to turn the volume right up to be able to hear the words! So my advice would be to get the ebook or the physical book of this one. 

If you are expecting a novel the same as the Rosie Project then you are definitely in for a shock but this is an incredibly well written novel. The music is great and I loved the fact that there is a play list to accompany this book, it really brings it alive. I laughed, i related, I cringed and I got angry. This book brought out all the feels and that's why I found it to be an enjoyable read!

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