Monday, January 26, 2015

The Rosie Effect, by Graeme Simsion

Meh.  I expected to like this book a lot more than I did.  When I read The Rosie Project I loved the character of Don Tillman and couldn't get enough of the book.  I loved the story of how the man who has Asberger's but doesn't know it falls in love and marries a woman who is the opposite of his expectations.

Naturally I was excited when I heard there was going to be a sequel.  Fantastic!

In this book, Don and Rosie have moved from Melbourne to New York City.  Once there, Rosie discovers she is pregnant.  The rest of the book follows their preparations for parenthood, along with the challenges that change presents to their still fairly new marriage.

I just felt like Rosie had a complete personality shift in this book.  In the first book, she seemed to really understand Don and the quirks that make him "not average".  But in this book there are many situations where it seems she is expecting him to change who he is.  I don't think the Rosie we met in the first book would do that.  As a result their marriage hits a crisis point.

Maybe it's just that I'm still not interested in reading about marriages in trouble.  Hard to say.  But I don't think that's it.  I just found her pretty unlikeable in this book.

Don still has some laugh out loud moments, and learns some great things about himself.  Some of the situations are more than a little far-fetched and then resolved too easily.  But it's a light read, it can be read quickly and might make you laugh at the end of a busy day.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Thunder Dog by Michael Hingson with Susy Flory

I feel like this blog post would be complete if I just said, "Read this book!"  But there is so much more I want to say.

What a great book!  This was a selection for my book club for our January meeting.  I wasn't finished it in time for that meeting, but I'm glad I finished it afterwards.  This book is the account of Michael Hingson and his guide dog as they escaped the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.  Michael became blind as a premature baby, after being exposed to too much oxygen in the hospital.

Not letting that stand in his way, Michael worked hard, went to college and embarked on a career in sales that landed him a job in the World Trade Center. After receiving his first guide dog at the age of 15, he didn't go anywhere without his dog by his side.  So Roselle was there with him on that day, as she was any day.

The story weaves together their experiences on September 11th, along with stories from Michael's childhood, giving you an understanding of what it was like for him to grow up blind.  Fascinating stuff.

There are so many good things about this book, but my what struck me the most was the attitude of Michael's parents.  Michael was born in 1950.  After his blindness was discovered, doctors recommended that he be placed in residential care, to ease the burden on his parents.  This wasn't something his parents would even consider.  They brought Michael home, and taught him that there wasn't anything he couldn't do and that allowed him to reach his full potential.  He wasn't treated any differently than other kids, he went to public school, he rode a bike (leading to one of my favourite scenes in the book) and even bought himself a Ford Mustang!  But his life could have been very different.  If his parents had taken that advice, he would have had a very different experience.  I love the bravery they showed, long before that was the common approach for parents to take.  It's a great lesson for all of us in how we treat people we perceive as "different".  

I can't recommend this book highly enough!  It's an easy read, you'll likely find it fascinating and work through it quite quickly.