The Rosie Project: A Novel

Sweet story about Don Tillman, a socially inept genetics professor, and his search for a life partner. Enter Rosie, who meets zero of his "qualifications." Hilarity ensues. This was a quick, easy read--nothing too deep here. Although there are interesting links at the end of the book.

This was an enjoyable book about a family with a son with father and son with autism. Enjoyable book.

I read it because Bill Gates recommended it so I figured it wasn't a "chick-flick" book. And yeah, it's actually very funny. There were a ton of incidents that were quite humorous because the narrator/lead is so autistic that he explains all his own weird errors without understanding what went wrong. I actually read it while thinking it was a real story and even tried to look up the people. As a man I just didn't figure that so many people would rave about some random fiction. Fiction is fun, but surely such silly novels are not worth a recommendation by a man? Especially not romance novels? Well, they have to be damn funny.

Well, as the situations became more and more weird and he got into more fights it smelled fishy. I thought about the main concept too. He took DNA samples from men who didn't know it to try to find the real father of the woman he was seeing. And he used the university lab for it. That's obviously so god damn against regulations that it just would never happen. It would get you fired on the spot and thrown out of academia. Then you would get arrested and fined too most likely depending on the country. So this made me feel the story couldn't be real. Me initially thinking it was made this book so much better. I had the same experience with Fargo. I really thought it was real and therefore loved the movie while watching it. The trick worked.

I liked how innocent the humor was. It's obviously PC culture stuff and you can't really use oldtimer humor. But it worked, the lead was the butt of the joke all the way which made all jokes morally warranted. It was so funny to hear him explain the events without getting why he messed up. This did reveal it wasn't a real story though as if you understand yourself this clearly in writing you obviously won't be this awkward in real life.

I also liked how many real elements were in the book. An older professor who sleeps around with students even while married. The lead being interested in a much young student. This is how real life works. It's presented a funny real life dynamic. It made sense a young hot chick was interesting in the lead as he was a professor. So a man of high status. Some things of course didn't quite make sense like him saying he has no friends, meaning he is too autistic, and then in the book he has 2 amazing friends. That's probably more than the average person. Most people have friendships, but not this close friends.

I would recommend the audiobook. The narrator has a great reading voice and makes sure to really put emotions behind it all. It's also under 8 hours long. Frankly I mostly read non-fiction and often I can listen to maybe 1-2 hours day before it gets a bit much. Here I just wanted to keep listening to it daily as the humor was great and the storyline was interesting. The dating stuff was fun as it was based around humor - which made me tolerate it as a man. And the genetic testing stuff is science I like which made me really like the main story. It's a romance novel for men which is pretty cool. I think the very short length makes it perfect for guys like me just looking for a very short fun story to get a break from long history books and science.

Really liked this tale of a geneticist looking for a wife in a scientific way and getting sidetracked helping the 'unsuitable partner', Rosie in her quest to determine her bio-dad! Parts of this were just so funny and Don was a lovable Asperger's guy who didn't always 'get it'.

April 2026 book - Sam’s pick