The Rosie Project, by Graeme Simsion.

Oh so cute.  A perfect beach read.  Light, enjoyable, compelling, smart and fun.

This book is about a Professor of Genetics in Australia who is extremely introverted, scheduled, has a literal view of conversation and bases every decision in his life on logic with not any regard to emotion.  He decides that it is high time he get married and puts together a questionnaire for potential partners to fill out in order to find his perfect woman.

And then accidentally befriends a young woman who would never make it past the 1st question on his “Wife Project” survey.  He temporarily abandons his project to help her with hers, finding her biological Father.  And along the way, both Rosie and Don realize that finding love can happen even with the most unlikely of candidates.

This is a great analogy of online dating today;  The “profile” of who you are.  Your opinion of yourself or more often than not, who you’d like to be.  And then a list of “criteria” to weed out the ones you’d deem not a fit as a life partner.  How do you know that the 40 year old Republican who smokes cigarettes and goes hunting wouldn’t make all of your dreams come true?  Just because you’re looking for a 33-36 yr old left-wing hipster?  How do you know that’s the perfect match for you?!

This book definitely gives you a lot to chew on…finding love where you’d never think to look, giving more thought to the meaning of your words and getting out of your comfort zone every once in a while!