maandag 14 april 2014

Review "Attachments"

Some information

Title: Attachments
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Pages: 368
Published: February 2012
Publisher: Orion
My Scource: Standaard Boekhandel
My Score on Goodreads: 5 stars

Blurb

"Hi, I'm the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you . . "

Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.

Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is his job now- reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to be "internet security officer," he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.

When Lincoln comes across Beth's and Jennifer's messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can't help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories.

By the time Lincoln realizes he's falling for Beth, it's way too late to introduce himself.

What would he say . . . ?

Review

Wow, I loved this book! I didn't know Rainbow Rowell, but since I'm a new addict to Booktube, I discoverd her while watching booktubers raving about her books. For me the story started a little slow, but after a while I couldn't put it down anymore. You get to know the characters Jennifer, Beth and Lincoln pretty good through the e-mails of both women and the thoughts of Lincoln. You know I like good characters, especially when I can relate to them and this is a reason why I started liking this book an awful lot. 

In "Attachments" we meet Jennifer and Beth, two women working for the same newspaper in 1999. The Internet is fairly new at their office so they use it to the maximum and send each other a lot of e-mails concerning their private life. Because the bosses don't trust this new Internet hype, they hire Lincoln. An 28 y.o. man with a lot of majors who thought he would be chasing hackers and building firewalls as the new Internet Security Officer. Too bad for him he just gets to read e-mails between co-workers and has to check them for inappropriate content. I said "too bad", but maybe this stupid job (at night!) is the best thing that ever happened to Lincoln. He doesn't realise it at the beginning, but by reading other peoples e-mails he gets to know some of them pretty well. In this case he gets to know Jennifer and Beth because sometimes they tend to talk about "inappropriate stuff" with each other. Lincoln doesn't turn them in though... Just because he likes these women and starts to feel like they're his friends at work. In the end they ARE charing personal information with him... isn't it?

In this book we see Lincoln struggle with feelings of love, guilt and disorientation. Is this the job for him? Is this the life for him? Is this the "wife" for him? He just doesn't know it anymore and his mother isn't really helping. It's a book that keeps you hoping there will be a good ending to it, but it keeps putting you on the wrong track too. I loved it!


Review "Een schitterend gebrek"

Some information

Title: Een schitterend gebrek
Author: Arthur Japin
Pages: 239
Published: 2003
Publisher: Uitgeverij De Arbeiderspers
My Source: My neighbour (thank you!)
My Score on Goodreads: 5 stars (would give it 6 if I could)

Blurb (in Dutch)

Lucia en Casanova leren elkaar kennen op een feest nabij Venetiƫ, worden verliefd en beloven elkaar eeuwige trouw. Maar kort daarna verdwijnt Lucia plotseling uit Casanova's leven. Vele jaren later ontmoeten ze elkaar in een Amsterdamse schouwburg bij toeval opnieuw. Hij heeft er geen weet van dat zij het is omdat ze haar gezicht onder een sluier verbergt, en hij probeert haar te veroveren op de van hem bekende wijze.

Voor Lucia is de schokkende confrontatie aanleiding tot een reconstructie: haar jeugd in de Veneto, haar kortstondige maar heftige liefde voor Casanova, de verwoestende ziekte die haar trof, haar vlucht naar Amsterdam en haar werk als hoer. Langzaam wordt duidelijk dat haar verdwijning geen verraad was, maar een daad van liefde.

Review

I didn't plan on reading this book. I hadn't heard about it or about the author AT ALL. Shame on me! But then there was my lovely neighbour who asked me if I had ever read this book. When I told her "Nope", she lent it to me, after which I read it in one day. AND I TOTALLY LOVED IT! 

At first I was I little reserved. Would I be able to like a book about Casanova? I don't have a thing with this man and I hate the fact he is known as a womanizer. Juk! But then, I started reading... and reading. And I kept on reading without being able to put the book down. I liked the way the whole story is told from the perspective of Lucia, the first and only real love of Casanova. She tells everything in first person and switches between the present and the past. In this pendulum we get to know who the real Casanova was before he was disappointed in love and started to court every single woman he met. It made me like this man even though I started the book standing aloof. 

Lucia is a great character. She was only fourteen years old when she met Casanova(while he was a guest)at the mansion where she and her parents worked for a rich lady. She loved him right away and it seemed to be mutual. When Casanova leaves the house to make a career and promises her to come back, this means the world to Lucia. She hopes he can be whatever he wants to be and she certainly hopes she will stand near him for the rest of their lives. Too bad all these hopes were in vain. Lucia is hit by a terrible and dangerous disease while Casanova it away. Luckily she survives, but she is different afterwards. So different she fears to face her great love and runs away without letting him know why. 
Many years later Lucia meets an interesting man. She now lives in Amsterdam and has made her live work even though it wasn't easy at all. This interesting man reminds her of her only and first love, Casanova... Could it be him?

Oooh, I'd love to read some more books by Arthur Japin and I hope they will be as good as this one. I obviously recommend this book to anyone!


Review "Loving Mr. Darcy"

Some information

Title: Loving Mr. Darcy
Author: Sharon Lathan
Pages: 448 (aaargh)
Published: September 2009
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
My Scource: Boekenfestijn Gent
My Score on Goodreads: 2 stars

Blurb

Darcy and Lizzy venture away from Pemberley to journey through England, finding friends, relatives, fun, love, and an even deeper and more sacred bond along the way.

Having embarked on the greatest adventure of all, marriage and the start of a new life together, now the Darcys take the reader on a journey through a time of prosperity, enjoyment, and security. They experience all the adventures of travel, with friends
and relatives providing both companionship and complications, and with fun as their focus.

The sights and sounds, tastes and flavors of Regency England come alive. Through it all, Darcy and Lizzy continue to build a marriage filled with romance, sensuality, and the beauty of a deep, abiding love.

Review

I have to admit something. Every single time I pass by something related to Jane Austen, even in the smallest way, I have to go back, hug it a little and eventually buy it. Sometimes though this "love at first sight" turns out to be a little disappointing. That was the case with this book. I didn't dislike it, but I didn't like it too. Maybe it was the fact that there didn't happen a thing in this book that made me feel this way. I love to read love stories, but there has to happen something in them. This book just went on and on about the ever lasting love between Elizabeth and Darcy. Only a few chapters away from the end there happens something with these characters. For the rest of the time they say "I love you" a thousand times, buy a lot of things and think about all the things they still have to do. Tiresome!