The Rosie Project

To my knowledge, no one has written a main character like Don Tilman before. A tall, handsome genetics professor who’s never had a second date, he approaches his need for a wife with typical precision and the use of a complex spreadsheet. Don navigates the unfamiliar world of feelings and unplanned activities with his customary efficiency, but what is this strange new emotion he’s feeling?

I simply adore this book and often read it twice a year. It’s an absolute delight, funny, poignant, and so incredibly life-affirming. You’ll be cheering Don and Rosie on and hoping that everything works out… show more.

This is the most delightful and unique novel I have read in a while. Pick this up if you need something funny and heart-warming.

Don Tillman, an Australian scientist, is a naïve yet cultured man who suffers from what appears to be Asperger’s. He tries so hard to understand and fit in the world, but is baffled as to why people are so irrational, unorganized and emotional.

His tendency is to over-analyze and categorize everything. Don is on a hilarious quest to find a wife through a methodical questionnaire that grows to 16 pages. Of course he falls in love… show more.

A funny, comic, and sarcastic book; one I haven’t read in years.

Meet Don Tillman, a nerdy professor of genetics with some good looks and a very strict way of life, from his schedule to his dialogues with fellow humans.

He decides one day to set up a profiling questionnaire to find the perfect woman. But when Rosie walks into his office, Don’s world of rational precision and mathematical equations starts tumbling down for good and bad reasons.

A romantic comedy like no other with a very non-linear progress that keeps you wandering what happens in between chuckles. It is… show more.

I’ve never encountered any characters like these, so authentic and yet so different from myself.

This is the most off-beat romantic comedy imaginable, featuring an oddly charming, socially challenged (Aspergers) brilliant scientist searching scientifically for the perfect woman to marry. And of course, Rosie is an unsuitable match in every way but one—love.

I opened this book for the third time last month, intending to read just a chapter or two to put me in a good humor before going to bed, but I couldn’t stop until I’d finished the entire thing once again.

I read this when it first came out, many years ago, and haven’t reread it recently, but I loved it enough at the time that it inspired a YA novel of my own.

In The Rosie Project, a smart man who appears to have some autistic characteristics sets out to find a life partner. He wants to do it with logic and rules but of course love defies these things. After reading it, I decided to write a book about a teenage girl wanting to find a partner for her autistic sister and, despite her good intentions, missing some clues… show more.

This novel has stayed with me because it is a unique story from the perspective of a character with Asperger's. I fell in love with the main character's personality and how he takes on every situation he finds himself in. Seeing and understanding that he is in love was no different. I couldn’t help but root for this character as he unravels what love is. There are three books in this series. They are all amazing if you are looking for something new and different.

Sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, always charming, this tale of a woman looking for her biological father is told through the eyes of serial dater with commitment issues, Professor Tillmann, who decides he is looking for a wife and discovers Rosie. And Rosie is simply one of the most engaging anti-heroines you will find in feel-good literature. This one made me smile so often I got face ache.

Like my character, Oliver, the main protagonist in this novel, Don Tillman is searching for love – or more specifically, a wife. But he goes about it in an entirely different way. Whereas Oliver doesn’t know where to start, Don’s approach is methodical and scientific – appropriate given he’s a socially inept scientist. He creates The Wife Project as if he’s setting out to hire an employee or devising a financial plan, which makes for very funny reading. From the get-go, the character of Don with all his eccentricities and fastidiousness is nothing but charming. I love the originality of… show more.

Written from the male point of view – which makes a change! Don’s attempts to find a wife are both funny and poignant. The hero is on the autistic spectrum and I think Simsion deals delicately and sensitively with the difficulties faced by the hero. That the author can make the reader smile and cry at the same time, is a triumph. The difficulties of finding love! But it can be found.