2015 Reading Challenge – Book #5 – Attachments

Book #5 – A book with a love triangle – Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Chicklit / Romance
Published: 2011
Country: USA

I have never read anything by Rainbow Rowell before, not even Fangirl, the book that everyone is gushing about. But I sure wasn’t going to pass up any opportunity to read a light-hearted chicklit romance to remove the aftertaste of the previous book I’d read.

Attachments is set in Nebraska, in 1999, the year where every one was preparing themselves for the impending Y2K bug that was threatening to shut down the world. Our bashful, introverted hero Lincoln works the night shift at a daily newspaper in the IT department. His job is to read flagged down intra-office emails to check for offenders who might be sharing emails against company policy and issue them warnings. He really doesn’t like his work and the only bright side of his night is reading daily email exchanges between Beth and Jennifer, two daytime editorial staff, who share many details of their personal lives through emails.

Now Lincoln is not a creep taking advantage of his position. He is a genuinely decent human being who feels that he is a) getting paid to do nothing and b) invading people’s privacy through reading their mails. He thinks that reading bits and pieces about the girls’ lives is not only immoral but also not justified but he cannot seem to stop himself because he find two friends in Beth and Jennifer, two really funny, witty and yet kind and gentle souls, who he hasn’t met at all. Lincoln is also conflicted because he finds himself falling deeply in love with Beth who has been steady with her musician boyfriend for many years. He cannot see himself having an honest relationship with a girl he has never met before since he knows so many personal details about her already.

I loved this book. It had so much heart and dealt with a lot of emotional attachments (hence the title) – a mother-child relationship, a relationship between best friends, relationships between lovers and various other things as well.

You cannot help but but fall and feel for all the characters – every character seems real and flawed in so many ways. Lincoln is still bruised from a breakup that happened nine years ago and lives with his mother. He has trouble meeting new people due to the odd hours he works and lacks ambition and goals in his life, or even finding things that he is really good at.

Jennifer and Beth both have their fair share of problems too, which are cleverly mentioned in their humorously worded email exchanges. Jennifer’s husband wants to start a family but she wants nothing to do with kids and Beth doesn’t see any prospects of marriage and children in the future because of her emotionally unavailable boyfriend.

Now, I am a self proclaimed expert in the genre of chicklit/romance and would definitely recommend this book to anyone – lover of chicklit or not. This book is a great winter read, perfect for curling up with a hot chocolate and some soft music. I loved the use of clever metaphors and references of some of my favorite movies and actors. The book had me keeping up at night, wondering, “Will they? Won’t they?” and I couldn’t rest until I had read till the end. I was almost wishing that this gets made into a movie someday.

Some parts I loved from this book:

1. <<Jennifer to Beth>> At last? October is half over. And what’s in  October anyway?

<<Beth to Jennifer>> Not “what’s in,” what is. October. My favorite month. Which, by the way has only half begun.

Some find it melancholy. “October,” Bono sings, “and the trees are stripped bare….” Not I. There’s a chill in the air that lifts my heart and makes my hair stand on end. Every moment feels meant for me. In October,  I’m the star of my own movie – I hear the soundtrack in my head (right now, it’s “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”) – and I have faith in my own rising action.

I was born in February, but I come alive in October.

<<Jennifer to Beth>> You’re a nut.

<<Beth to Jennifer>> A hazelnut. A filbert. October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins.

O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!

2. <<Beth to Jennifer>> I think he just gets like this sometimes. Like he needs to pull away. I think of it like winter. During winter, it isn’t that the sun is gone (or cheating on you with some other planet). You can still see it in the sky. It’s just farther away.

3. <<Jennifer to Beth>> Oh, I love period dramas, especially period dramas starring Colin Firth. I’m like Bridget Jones if she were actually fat.

<<Beth to Jennifer>> Oh….Colin Firth. He should only do period dramas. And period dramas should only star Colin Firth (One star upgrade for Colin Firth. Two stars for Colin Firth in a waistcoat.)

<<Jennifer to Beth>> Keep typing his name, even his name is handsome.

<<Beth to Jennifer>> I think we’ve discovered the only guy we’d ever fight over at an airport bar. 

4. “So, what if, instead of thinking about solving your whole life, you just think about adding additional good things. One at a time. Just let your pile of good things grow.”

 Book Rating: Definitely 5 stars out of 5.

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