This fall I read two books about falling in love. Both had some good meat on the bones of the romance, which made them enjoyable not only as romances but as stories of their time.
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Our protagonist Don is a Australian genetics professor with a side project: find his ideal wife. He crafts an elaborate survey to help him, and the results are comical. He also volunteers to help Rosie with her own project: uncovering the identity of her biological father. Two projects soon become one and the same. I enjoyed reading this book, which was very popular a few years back. I had tried to read it at the height of its popularity, but put it down due to language and sexual themes. I picked it back up again and enjoyed the story. It is a well paced book with laugh-out-loud moments and quiet memorable moments, too. The characters grow in some inspiring ways, and I won't soon forget our main cast. I'm interested to watch the movie, which hasn't been made yet, but is in talks.
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
I read this book about a horseback library program in Depression-era Kentucky for book club. Our main character, Alice, has married for love AND money, only to find that neither one is worth having to put up with her insufferable father-in-law. She escapes by volunteering to take books to country folk over the hills, and makes friends and finds true love along the way. This book was expertly plotted. I particularly liked how the prologue set the readers expectation for the book. In the flow of the larger narrative, coming back to the prologue rather than having that chapter set in the middle of the book is ingenious. The characters are memorable, well developed, and varied. The book wraps up in a satisfactory way, but one or two questions that the author leaves for readers to answer made for a lively book club discussion.
Just for fun, here's a photo of me and my true love.
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