Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith

This is definitely the best so far of J.K Rowling's pseudonymously written Cormoran Strike crime novels. Strike's partner Robin is sent a severed leg in the post with a message that relates to Strike's past. Strike can immediately think of four men who hate him enough to have targeted his partner and his business. The story unfold as they try and track down each of these men.

Robin's impending marriage to the good looking but shallow Matthew and her past secrets, feature prominently. One of the four suspects is Strike's former step-father, so more is revealed about his past and his childhood.

By basing the case around Strike himself, the book avoids wasting time building up background stories for a whole array of possible suspects. Each suspect reveals something about Strike's past. Business plummets as a result of the publicity from the severed leg. This allows the story to focus on the single case. The police investigators are all characters from the earlier books; this again saves time sketching out new characters.

Rowling seems to enjoy writing about the seedier side of life, the drug dealers, the sex trade and the paedophiles. These are all in the book but they're nicely balanced with details about wedding planning and expensive restaurants. Strike's life sits uncomfortably between the seedy world of the people from his past and the monied world of his girlfriends, his father and his clients.

The complexity of language and sentence structure, compared to the Harry Potter series, show Rowling's skill as a writer. There are plans for a BBC miniseries based on the books. I look forward to seeing who is chosen to play Strike.

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

This is the second book in the Cormoran Strike series, which currently includes three books, penned pseudonymously by J.K Rowling.

Strike is again working with his beautiful, but spoken for, sidekick and secretary Robin. They are investigating the disappearance of an erratic writer, who has recently completed a book seemingly designed to offend everyone in his life including his wife, his mistress, his agent and his publisher.

The case is more interesting than the one in the first book, but suffers from a similar weakness; there are so many thinly sketched suspects, the reader is left guessing but not necessarily caring, which of them committed the murder. This is particularly true of the male suspects. In contrast, the background stories of Strike and Robin are expertly developed. So again, I can't wait to read the next book.

George by Alex Gino

This is an engaging story, suitable for Stage 2 or 3, about ten year old George, a boy who identifies as being a girl. The narrator uses feminine pronouns to refer to George while the other characters refer to him as male.

George has a secret stash of teen girl magazines, dreams of wearing skirts and make-up, and longs to play Charlotte in the school production of Charlotte's Web. When his desire to play Charlotte is dismissed by his teacher, George and his best friend Kelly hatch a plan.

What I liked about the story is that it's not all high drama. A number of characters tell George that if he were gay it would be no big deal but this is just a bit more. Neither his mother nor his teacher are particularly onboard, but his friend Kelly welcomes a new girlfriend with open arms. It's a simple heart warming story that aims to increase empathy for transgender children.

There are parallels between the story and Charlotte's Web e.g. themes of tolerance and friendship. However, the story has a clear enough message that no deep analysis or comparison is required.

One day children's books with transgender characters won't be about transgender; children's books will just have diverse characters. Until then, we need more books like this one.

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

This is the first book in a crime series by Harry Potter author J.K Rowling (written under a pseudonym). Cormoran Strike is the illegitimate son of a rock star. He was injured in Afghanistan and is struggling to make ends meet as a private investigator. John Bristow asks Strike to investigate the supposed suicide of John's famous adopted sister, supermodel Lula Landry. Other characters include Robin, Strike's temporary secretary who begins to play Watson to his Sherlock; and Charlotte, Strike's beautiful but tempestuous girlfriend.

I'm not used to this genre, but I quickly realised I was going to have to read 400 pages to find out whodunnit. This didn't seem very appealing when I started, but I soon became interested in Cormoran and Robin, and after about 300 pages I wanted to know who did it!

Rowling seems to be master of the long complex sentence and clear descriptions that tell rather than show. I read a review that said you need to read the book with a dictionary by your side but I didn't find that to be the case.

Overall it's a great read. The crime being investigated was interesting but not enthralling; however, I'm keen to read the next one to find out what happens to Strike and Robin.

The Grownup by Gillian Flynn

This book is only 67 pages long. It is a short story, originally published in an anthology Rogues edited by George R.R. Martin. The story won the Edgar Award for Best Short Story in 2015.

The story is written in short sentences with unsophisticated vocabulary. It is fast paced and can easily be read in an hour. I was planning to encourage my 13 year old son to read it. At the first sentence "I didn't stop giving hand jobs because I wasn't good at it", I decided it would be inappropriate!

I don't think the protagonist, a young women posing as a mystic, is ever named. A client, Susan Miles, is concerned that her new home is haunted and asks the mystic to come and take a look. Even at the end it's not entirely clear who is the rogue and who is the grownup, but there are enough plot twists to keep you guessing.

This is a good book to leave on a coffee table to encourage someone to take a break and enjoy a great read. I'm going to buy the Rogues anthology; I hope the other 20 stories are just as good.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

I bought this after seeing the movies Paper Towns and The Fault in our Stars. The protagonist is child prodigy Colin. He has limited social skills, and has dated 18 girls all called Katherine. Colin is getting too old to be a child prodigy; he either needs to become a genius or fade into obscurity. Colin and his friend Hassan go on a road trip to help Colin get over being dumped by the latest Katherine. They end up in the small town of Gutshot; here they meet Lindsey and her mother Hollis.

Colin's character reminded my of a younger version of Don Tillman from The Rosie Project. Colin attempts to become a genius by inventing an algorithm to predict how long a relationship will last. The book includes some interesting footnotes and an explanation of the Maths behind the formula. I wouldn't recommend the book to children under thirteen as there are some mild sexual references.

The Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty

The books tells the story of triplets Cat, Lyn and Gemma Kettle and their parents Maxine and Frank. The prologue describes a dinner to celebrate their 34th birthday. One of the triplets  is pregnant and they have a huge row. The story then goes back 3 years and we slowly find out what led to the bust up and which of the three sisters is pregnant.

This is definitely one of Moriarty's better books. It's fast paced with lots of interesting characters, particularly the men each of the sisters is involved with. There are moments you want to cheer and moments you want to cover your eyes. There are short anecdotes between many of the chapters written by people who have seen the three attractive, vivacious sisters out together. The author uses these to show the effect the girls have on other people.The story provides insights into being 'a multiple', being married to a triplet and being the parents of triplets. The girls have very different personalities when they're apart, but when they're together there's a Kettle Triplets persona that they share.

Butterfly by Sonya Hartnett

This is a short book (214 pages) written in 2009. It is set in 1980 and tells the story of 13 year old Plum, a plump teenager who lives with her parents and two older brothers (Justin 24 and Cydar 22). She is taken under the wing of a neighbour, 36 year old stay at home mum, Maureen.

Plum is ordinary, not particularly pretty, smart or virtuous. She is struggling to hold onto friendships. She is surrounded by teenage girls who don't find anything about her to value, other than her two good looking older brothers. The book reveals the immaturity of both Plum and Maureen as they grapple with their unsatisfying lives.

The Hypnotist's Love Story by Lianne Moriarty

This is one of Moriarty's early novels (first published 2011). Her latest ones have noticeably more complicated plots with interweaving storylines. It's a story about serial monogamy, about moving on, about getting stuck in the past, and about the importance of timing. Ellen is a hypnotherapist who has gone through three, three to four year relationships. She is now single and meets Patrick through an internet dating site. Patrick's wife Colleen died about six years earlier and he has an 8 year old son. He has had one serious relationship since Colleen died. This was with Saskia, it ended three years ago, but she has been stalking him ever since.

Unknown to Ellen or Patrick, Saskia becomes one of Ellen's clients. The book provides interesting insights into the world of hypnotherapy. It also explores the mind of a stalker and the impact stalking can have on its victims. Moriarty brings her characters to life with the small details in their actions and thought processes. As Patrick and Ellen get to know each other they shift from that first 'treading on eggshells'  stage to their first argument.

The story has it's climax and a fairly long wrap-up. It doesn't have the plot twits of some of Moriarty's other books, but it's a classic story of finding oneself and emotional growth.

The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild

This was a delicious book and I learnt a few new words along the way. It tells the story of Annie, a thirty something wannabe chef living in London, who buys a painting from a junk store. The painting turns out to be a lost masterpiece called The Improbability of Love. There are four or five chapters written in the first person by the painting itself (which turns out to be a bit of a snob) that I particularly enjoyed.

The book explores the process of authenticating art; the world of the super rich art buyer; the selling, stealing and hiding of art during the first and second world wars; and the process of art restoration. The book will appeal to foodies as much as art lovers; Annie prepares magnificent banquets that she spends weeks researching and preparing.

There are many interesting characters in the book. Annie works for Rebecca Winkleman, who is a cold, smart, beautiful, 50 year old art dealer, still very much under the control of her father.  Annie's mother Evie is an alcoholic. Barty St George is an outrageous, Elton John style character, who advises the super rich on how to spend their money and gain entry to the best society. Vlad Antipovsky is an exiled Russian oligarch who Barty takes under his wing. No one in the book is happily married; hence the relationships reflect the title of the painting and the book.

The author tries to explain why great works of art sell for so much money. They are good investments; by owning a painting you become part of it's history, one of many owners that might have included kings, queens and popes; they are in limited supply. Using just a few brush strokes great artists are able to capture the human condition; artworks convey meaning and emotion to the viewer. At the same time, paintings are fragile and can easily be damaged.

There are a couple of great plot twists. I really thought I knew where the story was going, but the last hundred pages were not what I expected. I was quite cross with the author with fifty pages to go, but I eventually discovered that her expertise runs to storytelling and not just art!

The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty

This is my fourth Liane Moriarty book and I've just bought another two. It wasn't my favourite but it's still a good story.

Sisters Connie and Rose live on a small island in Sydney Harbour. As teens they discovered an abandoned baby. The story takes place 70 years later when they are old ladies. They raised the baby, who is now 70 herself and has children and grandchildren. The mystery surrounding the abandoned baby has turned the island into a tourist destination.

I love to read books about people like me, living in Sydney with school age children. This is perhaps why I didn't enjoy this story quite as much as the others I've read by Moriarty. What Alice Forgot, The Husband's Secret and Big, Little Lies all had characters I could relate to more easily. That said, one of the characters suffers from post natal depression (thankfully not something I've experienced) and I though Moriarty's depiction of her was realistic and insightful.

This House of Grief by Helen Garner

I bought this book and Golden Boys (previous review) after seeing them shortlisted for the Australian Independent Book Sellers awards (The Indies).

This was a new genre for me. It's the story of the court proceedings in a true crime. On Father's Day 2005 Robert Farquharson drove his car, with his 3 young sons in, off the road and into a dam. Farquharson survived  while his sons died. He had recently separated from his wife and she had started seeing someone else. He claimed that he had a coughing fit, blacked out, and found himself in the car under water.

Helen Garner is an author and journalist. She attended Farquharson's Melbourne trial and got to know some of his ex-wife's family. She provides an excellent portrayal of the trial including the hounding of the police witnesses by the defence lawyer and attempts to confuse and misdirect the jury. The book left me in awe of lawyers, both prosecution and defence. They have to make sense of technical details about tyre marks and the camber of the road that leave both the jury and Garner herself struggling to stay awake, let alone make sense of them.

The book helps the reader understand the husband and wife. Could a man hate his wife so much that he would drown the children he loved just to spite her? Does the wife really know her husband or has she convinced herself that it was all an accident because the idea that it wasn't is just too much to bare?

At the end of the book Garner is convinced that the jury has the right verdict. I still wasn't sure that it couldn't have been a coughing fit, and that the older child tried to steer and ended up in the dam. If Farquharson did do it on purpose, I have no idea how he would know that he could get out of the car, so suicide followed by a change of mind was still an option for me.

Golden Boys by Sonya Hartnett

This is a beautifully written book published in 2014; some of the descriptive language reads almost like poetry.

It's a story about street friends and embarrassing fathers. The Jensen family move to a working class suburb. Their father is a good looking dentist who buys his two sons every toy available. The Kylie family have 6 children and live in a small 3 bedroom home. Then there's the big bully boy Garrick, and the streetwise, neglected, Avery.

It's not clear when the story is set, but it's a time when children disappeared all day on their bikes and a BMX or a skateboard was every boy's dream. There's no mention of a mobile phone a Nintendo or a computer. It could be as early as the 70s or as late as the 90s.

The book captures a time when children weren't over scheduled, when they fought their own battles and made their own rules. It's an unromantic, warts and all, image.

Half the Sky: How to Change the World by Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl Wudunn

This book was not an easy read. It's engaging and well written, but the stories it tells are just very difficult to hear. The book tells of the struggles young women face around the world, including forced marriage, prostitution, trafficking, rape, dying in childbirth, being denied an education, female genital mutilation, the list goes on.

The book gives examples of women who have taken a stand. It describes projects that are making a difference and encourages readers to take action. It explores attitudes to women and asks the question, Is Islam mysogynistic? More information can be found at http://www.halftheskymovement.org

The book is full of great quotes. I found myself underlining something on almost every page. Here are a few:

"Iran is a bundle of contradictions. Women can't testify in court, and yet women can be the judge presiding over the court."

"When a girls' junior high school caught fire in Saudi Arabia in 2002, the religious police allegedly forced teenage girls back into the burning building rather than allow them to escape without head coverings."

"Women are not dying because of untreatable diseases. They are dying because societies have yet to make the decision that their lives are worth saving."

"In Niger, a woman stands a 1 in 7 chance of dying in childbirth."

"The fistula patient is the modern day leper."

"It has become more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier in an armed conflict."

"We in the West can best help by playing supporting roles to local people."

The People Smuggler by Robin de Crespigny

This is the true story of Ali Al Jenabi, the eldest son of a middle class Iraqi family, raised while Saddam Hussein was in power. Ali's father was in the army but openly critical of Saddam. When he was sent  to Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Ali and his brother Ahmad had to support their large family by selling cigarettes at the market after school. Ali was always in danger of being sent to prison himself, either for failing to join the army or for his suspected opposition to Saddam.

After a long stint in Abu Ghraib, Ali worked in the resistance movement. This put his family in danger and they were all forced to flee to Iran. They then tried to find somewhere more permanent.

Ali eventually made it to Indonesia. He tried to get to Australia by boat, but he was cheated out of his money by a people smuggler. He decided that the only way to get his whole family to Australia was to organise his own boats and use the profit to pay for their passage. He was eventually captured by the Australian Federal Police and tried in Australia as a people smuggler.

This is not a happy story. It depicts the appalling reality many Iraqis and other refugees have faced. It shows the effect fear and poverty can have on people. Sometimes people risk their life for strangers and other times children turn their own parents over to the police.

The accounts of life in Abu Ghraib prison made me wonder how anyone survived. When they weren't  being tortured and beaten, the prisoners were forced to sleep on their sides, thirty to a cell, packed so close together no one could turn or get up. If they vomited or needed to defecate they had to do it where they were. Prisoners lived like this for years on end.

Some people call Ali Al Jenabi a saviour, the Oskar Schindler of Asia, others call him a criminal. Having read the book, I'll go with hero. Ali is currently living in Sydney but could be sent back to Iraq at any time. I hope the Australian government grants him permanent residency and soon.

A Wicked Snow by Gregg Olsen

When firefighters arrive at a blaze at a Christmas tree farm in Oregon they find the burnt bodies of two twin boys and a headless women. They also find the bodies of 17 older men, long since buried,  around the grounds.

It is unclear whether the headless body is that of farm owner Claire Logan, who is suspected of killing the men. He boyfriend Marcus Wheaton is sent to prison for 20 years for starting the fire. The story is told through the eyes of Helen, Claire's daughter, who was 13 at the time of the fire. Twenty years on, she is a CSI (Crime Scene Investigator), married with a daughter. Marcus Wheaton is dying and about to finish his 20 year prison sentence. Helen and the original FBI agent who investigated the case, Jack Bauer, visit Wheaton in prison to try and find out if Claire is alive and where she might be.

Author Gregg Olsen usually writes true crime stories. This is his first novel. The crime details are excellent. Olsen also shows how people touched by notorious crimes have to keep living with them. Helen has started a new life, her daughter and her work colleagues don't know she's the daughter of Claire Logan, yet journalists are always trying to track her down.

It's a great story, well told. It doesn't have lots of plot twists, you just slowly find out what happened and why; I was a little disappointed with the ending. That said, Olsen has written two more 'chiller thriller' books and I'm looking forward to reading them.

The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

Jess is a single mum in her mid 20s, struggling to make ends meet. Her goth stepson Nicky keeps getting beaten up and her daughter Tanzie is a maths prodigy. Ed is a workaholic computer geek who naively got involved in insider trading and now faces a possible prison sentence. Jess is Ed's cleaner. In an impulsive moment, Ed offers to drive Jess, Nicky, Tanzie and their huge dog, from Southampton to Aberdeen so that Tanzie can enter a maths competition.

The story reveals the frustrations of being poor. There seems to be no escaping the local state school and the bullies who attack anyone who is different. Yet Jess is trying to be positive and teach her children that they can overcome whatever trials they may face. The book is not so gritty that it's depressing. Overall it's entertaining and heartwarming; it would make a great holiday read.

When I Found you by Catherine Ryan Hyde

The book tells the story of Nathan, a married, childless, middle age bookkeeper who finds a baby in the woods when he is out hunting. He would like to raise the child but the baby's grandmother steps in. Fifteen years later, when she finds the boy (Nat) too difficult to handle, she asks Nathan if he's changed his mind. Nathan takes Nat in and commits to raising him come what may.

I enjoyed the book but Nat wants to be a boxer and the boxing storyline reminded me of many a dull boxing movie. I was also bothered by the book's suggestion that middle age couples who dedicate themselves to helping troubled teens may just be trying to find some excitement, or create meaning, in their otherwise boring lives. When asked why he goes to extraordinary lengths for Nat, Nathan says something along the lines of "what else have I done that's extraordinary?"

I doubt the story would inspire anyone to take in a stranger's child; that doesn't seem to be the aim.  It has a more general message about helping people not because you have to, but because you can.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

This is the third book I've read by Liane Moriarty (the other two were The Husband's Secret and Big Little Lies). They're all witty and entertaining stories. I enjoy that they feature places and situations I'm familiar with e.g. Sydney mums doing the school run etc.

Alice is about to turn 40, has three children, and is getting divorced. She bumps her head at the gym and wakes up thinking she's 29 and pregnant with her first child. She has no recollection of her children or what went wrong in her marriage.

The book looks at the stress of having children and what that can do a marriage. It also looks at the stress of not having them (Alice's sister has had multiple miscarriages). As the story unfolds we find out how a happy carefree young wife and her doting husband turned into a workaholic executive and a high-maintenance, helicopter mother, who hate each other!

There are lots of other great characters in the book including Alice's 'grandmother' Frannie who writes a blog, Alice's mother who has remarried and taken up salsa dancing and Alice's children who include a rebel, a princess and a geek.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

The girl on the Train is a whodunnit on a par with Gone Girl, but set in the UK. It's a riveting tale about the impact of adultery. The two main characters are Megan, an attractive, screwed up, young wife and Rachel, an equally screwed up, dumped, ex-wife. Both women use self-destructive coping methods to deal with emotional pain; Megan plays around and Rachel drinks.

Rachel sees Megan in the garden each morning from the window of a London commuter train and wonders what her life is like. When Megan disappears Rachel becomes involved in her story.

Other characters include Scott, Megan's husband; Tom and Anna, Rachel's ex-husband and his new wife; Cathy, Rachel's flatmate and Dr Kamal Abdic, Rachel's therapist.

This is definitely the best book I've read in a while!

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger

The book is set in the early 50s. Fictional narrator Holden Caulfield is the handsome 17 year old son of a wealthy New York lawyer. He tells the story of when he was 16 and got kicked out of yet another fancy boarding school. He was expelled 3 days before the end of term and spent those days hanging out on his own in New York. Descriptions of the characters he meets in New York are interspersed with tales from boarding school. His time in New York involves a lot of smoking and drinking; he seems unable to stop moving from one depressing bar to the next.

Holden's younger brother died a few years earlier and he is obviously lost and depressed. He is looking for someone who might provide emotional support but they all come up short. On the verge of adulthood, he flits between a need for intellectual conversation and the desire to horse around. He finds almost everyone he meets to be a phoney and every event depresses him.

The only joy in Holden's life is his sister Phoebe who he adores, and a girl named Jane who he keeps meaning to phone. By the end of the book I felt concern for Holden. He comes across as smart, genuine and generous but at the same time immature, judgemental and not much fun to be around. The moral of the story seemed to me to be that when children go off the rails it's often the adults that have failed the child and not the other way around.

Bared to You by Sylvia Day

I picked up a stack of books at a charity book sale, thinking house guests might read them. I thought I'd better read this one before offering it to my mum! It was billed as Fifty Shades of Grey only better written. It tells the story of Eva, a young girl starting a new job in New York and super rich Gideon Cross. They both have baggage and can't keep their hands off each other. It's an on-again, off-again tale, as Eva is drawn to Gideon and then he upsets her and she runs off.

I haven't read anything from this genre since I was a teenager reading Jackie Collins and Jilly Cooper. The only thing that's changed is the frequency of the sex scenes, which occur about every 10 pages and last for 3. I guess things have moved on from Lady Chatterley's Lover, where it was more like one scene per book! I have the other two books in the series but I think I'll give them a miss. A story where arguments end with an apology and a cup of tea would be more my thing!

The Girl with all the Gifts by M.R Carey

I picked this book up in the local bookstore (we still have those here). The cover calls it a thriller; it doesn't call it a zombie story written by someone who usually writes for Marvel. If it had I wouldn't have read it. That said, it was good (377 reviewers on Amazon agree with me).

The story is set twenty years in the future. A disease has turned most of the world's population into zombie like Hungries who feed on other people. Melanie is one of 20 children scientists have found, who have the disease but are still able to reason. The children are kept in a prison, strapped into wheelchairs to stop them eating anyone, and experimented on in the hope of finding a cure.

Helen Justineau is a psychologist whose job it is to teach the children and to report back on their mental state. She becomes attached to Melanie and the other children. Caroline Caldwell is the scientist in charge of the project. When the camp that houses the prison is overrun by Junkers (people who haven't got the disease but choose to live outside society) Helen, Caroline, Melanie and two guards escape and need to find their way to civilisation under the constant threat of Hungries, Junkers and other children like Melanie.

The book explores the relationship between teacher and child, scientist and subject. Melanie is highly intelligent and slowly comes to realise that she is somehow not human but at the same time not a zombie. As they move across Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire the 5 escapees encounter the detritus of consumerist Britain. They reflect on how people used to turn their homes into nests of ornaments, toys, books and other stuff no one needs. The survivors ponder how people had nothing more to worry about than remembering where they'd parked their cars.

Films and books about the future used to be a lot more cheery. We had The Jetsons, now we have The Hunger Games and this sort of thing. No one is sure whether we'll all hack each other to death, be wiped out by disease or killed in some catastrophic climate event. I can see why people who stick to this genre (a lot of video games have similar storylines) might become depressed. The end of life as we know it appears to be just around the corner, but of course in some parts of the world, it's already happened.

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

This is the second book in the Maze Runner trilogy (there is also a prequel). The series seems to me to be a poor man's Hunger Games, or at least a series with a much simpler plot that younger children can follow. Like The Hunger Games, children are left to fend for themselves, but they are not pitted against each other.

Thomas and the rest of the Gladers have escaped the maze only to find they're in yet another test arranged by WICKED. This time they have to cross scorched lands that are inhabited by Cranks (people who have been driven mad by a disease called the Flare).  Every time the Gladers think they're safe a few more of them die gruesomely.  Just like Book 1, Thomas isn't sure who he can trust and is is slowly regaining memories of life before the glade. Thomas also has to sort out his feelings for Teresa (from Book 1) and new character Brenda.

For Discussion.

The book raises the issue of whether the end justifies the means. Is it reasonable to kill a few so that the lives of many can be saved? The Flare could also be linked to Ebola or Leprosy. How should we treat people who have a highly contagious illness? What have we done in the past?

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

This is a first novel, written by an Australian IT geek (his previous books were about data modelling). A sequel The Rosie Effect came out at the end of 2014.

Imagine Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory but without the friends. Prof. Don Tillman is a geneticist who schedules his life minute by minute and cooks the same standardised meals each week. He knows he's different and he has very few friends but he's never been given a specific diagnosis of Aspergers or OCD.

Don hasn't had much luck with dating so he embarks on a project to find a partner, this involves women answering a 16 page questionnaire. He meets Rosie, who is beautiful but not compatible. Rosie is trying to find out who her real father is and needs the help of a geneticist. Together they embark on a hunt for her father.

It's a great story that, if made into a movie, could easily become a classic romantic comedy. Most of the jokes centre around Don not fitting in. There are scenes in expensive restaurants and Don has a special VIP card that means QANTAS never sits him next to another passenger if they can help it.

On a more serious note the author shows how Don and his friend Gene (who is a womaniser) are both jokes among the academic community and both need to change. They are both stuck in roles that they developed to survive in school and it's time for them both to grow up and change.