RAE’S READS

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This year (2025) finds me with 53 years of teaching “under my belt.” I have taught all levels from pre-K “(library lady” or “book lady”–volunteer) to juniors, seniors, and graduate students enrolled in my Advanced Writing class at the university where I have just completed 34 years. My first paying teaching job was junior high, and I spent 13 years with ages 12-13, the “difficult years.” I had some of the “funnest” experiences with this age group. When I was no longer the “young, fun teacher,” I taught in an elementary school setting before sixth graders went on to junior high, teaching language arts blocs, an assignment that was a “dream-fit” for me. After completing graduate school in my 40s, I went on to community college, then university teaching. This past fall I accepted a part-time teaching job at Apogee Gulf Coast Schools in its first year at the Alvin campus. After my Better Half died n 2022, I achieved a lifelong dream: opening a bookstore of my own, Rae’s Reads. A year later, I sold the house we had lived in for 47 years and moved into the bookstore. My goal is to circulate and repurpose books. Just as teaching is “in my blood,” so is a passion for reading, writing, libraries, and everything bookish. This blog will be open to anyone who loves books, promotes literacy and wants to “come out and play.”

THE ROSIE RESULT by Graeme Simsion: A Review

This book is the conclusion to the Don Tillman trilogy, but it also makes a great stand-alone novel. Written in 2019, it’s “twist-ending” is the perfect sign off to the series. I was so pleased with the ending, I gave a “yay” out loud and would have clapped my hands together in delight had I not been reaching for reading log and pen to record a review of this fine piece of writing and entertainment.

Don and Rosie’s ten-year-old son, Hudson, the main character in this one, causes his school teacher and counselor some concern, both thinking he should be evaluated for autism. Ironically enough Don does NOT want his son labeled, and he and Rosie fight the school authorities, as Don continuously looks for the stereotypic characteristics of autistic people. Knowing Don, if you have read any of the other two books, The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect, you will not be surprised he keeps a “list” and tries to check off the boxes there.

Described as “charming, eloquent, and insightful…” by Booklist, the novel is also “…a fitting end to this trilogy that doesn’t pull punches”(Kirkus Review) about autism or any other subject it includes.  The secondary characters, many of whom the reader may have seen in previous books (but knowing them before this part of the trilogy is unnecessary), are admirably drawn, and whom we are attached to before we realize we are “hooked.”

So many themes and subplots fill this hilarious, yet profound ending to the series that it would take too long to describe them, but the “life-lessons” about friendship, betrayal, being “different” in any way, and compassion for others (something “experts” often claim auties are incapable of feeling or expressing) undergirds a great plot and a narrative which “explains” the autistic mind to us amateurs.

READ The Rosie Result. You will be glad you invested your invaluable reading time in this novel.

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3 responses to “THE ROSIE RESULT by Graeme Simsion: A Review”

  1. Deb Nance at Readerbuzz Avatar
    Deb Nance at Readerbuzz

    I’m glad to see you like this. Interesting. I am often disappointed in sequels. It sounds like this one has some good surprises.

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    1. Rae Reads Avatar
      Rae Reads

      As much as I loved the first, The Rosie Project and was dissappointed in The Rosie Effect #2, I liked the ending book The Rosie Result the most of all!

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  2. sjhigbee Avatar
    sjhigbee

    Ah… I’ve often wondered about the first book in this series – I’ll see if I can get it from the library:)). Thank you for the recommendation, Rae:)

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