- By Rainbow Rowell
Attachments is about an IT security guy, who reads emails written on the corporate network, that are filtered by a security word filter, when the emails are not adhering to company protocol. His job is to send a standard warning to the employee about a breach in security protocol. One such occasion, he happens to read an email exchange between Beth and Jennifer, who vicariously ignore the standard warning of using profanity or unprofessional words in the emails, and freely discuss their personal life, without a care for company protocol or the language they use. While their exchanges frequently get flagged, he seems to be caught up in their lives and enjoy their odd sense of humor, that he could not find it in his heart to send a warning note to either of them. Beth and Jennifer are aware of the fact that someone snoops their emails, but Jennifer with her "right to free expression" speech, willfully ignores company protocol. Eventually, Lincoln realizes that he fell in love with Beth and it might be too late to introduce himself to her. Will he confess his feelings for her? What consequences does his actions have on his love? That is the plot of the story.
Characters, simple and complicated are introduced and developed in the email exchanges. While the style of the author is easy to follow and story line uncomplicated, laced with humor and emotions, it left me slightly difficult to stay with a character and connect with it. Emails, having written many and read many, made me realize how impersonal they can get. Perhaps I read it with that in my subconscious mind that I could not quite honestly connect with the characters or the plot.
Having said that, Rainbow Rowell certainly has a funny bone and a wit to charm her readers. The author manages to progress the story of these three lives suitably and entertainingly. This is my first novel of hers. I intend to try another one, before deciding if her style suits my interests. If you are interested in a romantic story and do not mind slightly disconnected pieces that eventually fit together, you can give it a try!!
Friday, January 23, 2015
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Outlander (Sassenach)
- By Diana Gabaldon
Outlander - punched me in the gut, shattered my heart, splintered my spleen, yet it managed to push me to the finish line, overwhelmed with emotions ranging from love to hate. But, at the end of it all, I loved it. I loved the story, I loved the characters, I loved the author's narration. It is a historical romantic page turner, even for non-romantics and that is saying something.
Frank Randall, Jamie Fraser, Claire Randall (Claire Beauchamp), Jonathan Randall, to name a few- are all such intricate characters, who left me staggered, helpless, distraught and passionately in love with most of them. If you read the book, you will know why I could love only few, while I desperately want to strangle a few. And I am quite sure, I am not the only one, wrung with those feelings, having arrived a little late to the Outlander party!
Diana Gabaldon captured my interest and kept me hooked through an entertaining saga of history and politics, war and violence, passion and masochism, bravery and morality, interlaced with a trickle of time travel. She tells a compelling story with sympathetic protagonists, mainly characterizing a strong female lead who is fortunate to find love in the present time as well as in the past, when she finds herself thrown back by two hundred years and has the presence of mind to handle herself in a war driven Scottish highlands of 1700s.
The story begins with the portrayal of a loving marital relationship between Frank and Claire Randall, exploring Inverness on their second honeymoon post second world war, in 1945. Claire, a retired war time nurse who takes up Botany explores Inverness for specimens of plants and flowers, while Frank, an Oxford history professor explores his genealogy when he finds a scrap of paper indicating that his ancestor had something or other in this region back in the eighteenth or seventeenth century.
Introduced to the miniature stone henge set in the form of a circle of stones, by a local botanist, Claire is fascinated with the beautiful yet eerie testimonial. As a novice botanist set on exploring the local specimens, she finds herself at the stone henge on Beltane (an ancient Celtic festival). On touching the stone, she hears a vivid screaming that has her stumbling back and falling down, literally through time, into a war driven Scottish highlands of 1743, two hundred years from her now! Ofcourse, she had no idea the instant she opened her eyes that she was in another time, where she wasn't even born! And in that fraction of a second, on that fateful Beltane day, her life changed, from being in a loving relationship with her husband to being thrown back in time and in the day's course of events, finds herself, assaulted, threatened, kidnapped and jostled. From being in the comforts of the nineteenth century, to being thrown back to seventeenth amidst the Jacobite uprising and clan wars, with nothing but her wits and mind, Claire has an uphill task of finding her way back to her time and her husband.
Diana Gabaldon authoritatively portrays the historical time of Jacobite Rising, weaving an intrinsic web with laborious detail, sparingly brushed with humor and liberally laced with passion and pain, bursting with violence and staying appallingly true to the living conditions of 1743.
Scotland has always been a place of romance for me. Rich in its history and folklore, Scottish heroes have always harbored a romantic notion in my heart. When I read the book, with absolutely no back drop, I did not see the time travel element coming! It starts off rather slowly, but once Claire finds herself in 1743 Scotland, the story progresses rather rapidly. The author managed to capture my attention with the story that made me turn the pages faster than I thought possible, because of the sheer insanity of the story line, of a modern time female, living in a male dominated society, finding herself in situations that are rather mind numbing to me, personally. (WHAT?!?.)
For a wartime nurse, gunshots and mortal wounds are an everyday thing. But, it certainly is something to witness the crime and punishment of the then era. And it certainly is another, to cut and stitch people up without pain killers or disinfectants! I swear, I had goosebumps when I read few passages. But, running underneath it all, is the love she finds in Jamie, an outlawed convict. Torn between infidelity and passion, between reason and reality, she sure had a tough time in the seventeenth century!! Poor Claire!!
Jamie has fast become one of my favorite fictional characters of all the time, with his humility, his presence of mind and untamed passion! Oh Jamie, how my heart aches for you!!! Why, O Why could you just not be a knight in shining armor, with a valiant heart and blue eyes? Why did you have to be a convict running from law? Gah!! His character is one of my favorite in the novel, from being a laird of Lallybroch who had to run away from home and family treading on danger with every step he takes, to finding his soul mate in Claire (his Sassenach (Outlander) as he fondly calls her), he sure is a character portrayed to touch everyone's heart, especially a female's!
Though time travel was what kicks the novel to a jump start, it does not reoccur in this novel, the first in the series of eight novels. Each novel is lengthy, rich in detail and authentic in depiction of the period time. It certainly is not for the faint hearted! But for every zealous reader, who loves a story set in periodic times, for the romantics and non-romantics alike, this is an unadulterated pleasure to read. And for those who have no patience to read the novel, the series is being telecasted as a show on Starz and so far, the TV series stays true to the novel.
I thoroughly enjoyed this historical tale and I hope you do too!!
Outlander - punched me in the gut, shattered my heart, splintered my spleen, yet it managed to push me to the finish line, overwhelmed with emotions ranging from love to hate. But, at the end of it all, I loved it. I loved the story, I loved the characters, I loved the author's narration. It is a historical romantic page turner, even for non-romantics and that is saying something.
Frank Randall, Jamie Fraser, Claire Randall (Claire Beauchamp), Jonathan Randall, to name a few- are all such intricate characters, who left me staggered, helpless, distraught and passionately in love with most of them. If you read the book, you will know why I could love only few, while I desperately want to strangle a few. And I am quite sure, I am not the only one, wrung with those feelings, having arrived a little late to the Outlander party!
Diana Gabaldon captured my interest and kept me hooked through an entertaining saga of history and politics, war and violence, passion and masochism, bravery and morality, interlaced with a trickle of time travel. She tells a compelling story with sympathetic protagonists, mainly characterizing a strong female lead who is fortunate to find love in the present time as well as in the past, when she finds herself thrown back by two hundred years and has the presence of mind to handle herself in a war driven Scottish highlands of 1700s.
The story begins with the portrayal of a loving marital relationship between Frank and Claire Randall, exploring Inverness on their second honeymoon post second world war, in 1945. Claire, a retired war time nurse who takes up Botany explores Inverness for specimens of plants and flowers, while Frank, an Oxford history professor explores his genealogy when he finds a scrap of paper indicating that his ancestor had something or other in this region back in the eighteenth or seventeenth century.
Introduced to the miniature stone henge set in the form of a circle of stones, by a local botanist, Claire is fascinated with the beautiful yet eerie testimonial. As a novice botanist set on exploring the local specimens, she finds herself at the stone henge on Beltane (an ancient Celtic festival). On touching the stone, she hears a vivid screaming that has her stumbling back and falling down, literally through time, into a war driven Scottish highlands of 1743, two hundred years from her now! Ofcourse, she had no idea the instant she opened her eyes that she was in another time, where she wasn't even born! And in that fraction of a second, on that fateful Beltane day, her life changed, from being in a loving relationship with her husband to being thrown back in time and in the day's course of events, finds herself, assaulted, threatened, kidnapped and jostled. From being in the comforts of the nineteenth century, to being thrown back to seventeenth amidst the Jacobite uprising and clan wars, with nothing but her wits and mind, Claire has an uphill task of finding her way back to her time and her husband.
Diana Gabaldon authoritatively portrays the historical time of Jacobite Rising, weaving an intrinsic web with laborious detail, sparingly brushed with humor and liberally laced with passion and pain, bursting with violence and staying appallingly true to the living conditions of 1743.
Scotland has always been a place of romance for me. Rich in its history and folklore, Scottish heroes have always harbored a romantic notion in my heart. When I read the book, with absolutely no back drop, I did not see the time travel element coming! It starts off rather slowly, but once Claire finds herself in 1743 Scotland, the story progresses rather rapidly. The author managed to capture my attention with the story that made me turn the pages faster than I thought possible, because of the sheer insanity of the story line, of a modern time female, living in a male dominated society, finding herself in situations that are rather mind numbing to me, personally. (WHAT?!?.)
For a wartime nurse, gunshots and mortal wounds are an everyday thing. But, it certainly is something to witness the crime and punishment of the then era. And it certainly is another, to cut and stitch people up without pain killers or disinfectants! I swear, I had goosebumps when I read few passages. But, running underneath it all, is the love she finds in Jamie, an outlawed convict. Torn between infidelity and passion, between reason and reality, she sure had a tough time in the seventeenth century!! Poor Claire!!
Jamie has fast become one of my favorite fictional characters of all the time, with his humility, his presence of mind and untamed passion! Oh Jamie, how my heart aches for you!!! Why, O Why could you just not be a knight in shining armor, with a valiant heart and blue eyes? Why did you have to be a convict running from law? Gah!! His character is one of my favorite in the novel, from being a laird of Lallybroch who had to run away from home and family treading on danger with every step he takes, to finding his soul mate in Claire (his Sassenach (Outlander) as he fondly calls her), he sure is a character portrayed to touch everyone's heart, especially a female's!
Though time travel was what kicks the novel to a jump start, it does not reoccur in this novel, the first in the series of eight novels. Each novel is lengthy, rich in detail and authentic in depiction of the period time. It certainly is not for the faint hearted! But for every zealous reader, who loves a story set in periodic times, for the romantics and non-romantics alike, this is an unadulterated pleasure to read. And for those who have no patience to read the novel, the series is being telecasted as a show on Starz and so far, the TV series stays true to the novel.
I thoroughly enjoyed this historical tale and I hope you do too!!
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Gone Tomorrow
- By Lee Child
Careless and reckless, I want to fly and fly to a dream land. Can you imagine a place, when you walk on a street with tree shades and small lawns in front of every house? When you say a hi to everyone on the street, cheerfully waving at them and wishing them a good day, sometimes patting their puppies, because all are too familiar to you? When you look across and see the pretty boy on the other side of the street, the way your heart starts humming and the day looks bright and hopeful? You walk into the door and smell the aroma of fresh and strong coffee, hmmmmmm, what more do you want? Flying to your room and picking up your favourite couch book (yeah, well, there are few you can read on couch and there are others when you sit down and make notes ;)), playing rock music and pouring a mug of caffeine and settling on the couch to read the fantasy fiction and well, be lost in the world of suspense, thrill and adventure.
Hmmm, I have had an experience like that today. Well, the first part of cheerful streets, familiar people (shudder! No way!), pretty boy (boys and pretty can’t come in a sentence :D, so there are NO pretty boys, at least not in my dictionary), puppy (well, … I will be as far away from them as possible.. to be precise – borrowing Chandler’s words – my neck is exposed, they can sense my fear!) – this was just my stretch of feel good factor, but, the cup of coffee, the couch book, music and the world of suspense was for real. And the new book that took me through a tremendous experience and made me completely relaxed for the week was Lee Child’s “Gone Tomorrow”. Jack Reacher – yet again springs in with his impeccable logic and sheer heroism and takes me to the land of Afghan tribes, Osama bin Laden, US, UK, Soviet and to the year of 1983 – and into the life of a Delta veteran! As with every Lee Child novel, the logic and the logistics and the fights are dramatically simple, what with two hundred and seventy five pounds of muscle and thirteen years of military career and the tricks and smarts of a Military Police.
I desperately required some form of excitement and relaxation, with my mind being conked and crazy with no sleep for the past God knows how many days and adrenaline pumping for no reason in particular, the thrill of the novel took me to a different world and shunned me completely of my thoughts. Just filled it up with the terrain of grit, logic, wry humour and Jack no-middle-name Reacher! Starts of with the suspected suicide bomber and goes on to the deduction of a piece of information potentially embarrassing to U.S. Throw in NYPD, FBI, DoD, ex-Delta, ex-military and you got yourself a coup that even the caffeine stimuli is not required for the adrenaline rush through your nerves. Simple, logical, fairly unrealistic (well, I think so) and absolute time pass. I read it with a cup of coffee and a box of pizza and Linkin Park music and I did not realize that the day passed and I have not done anything fairly/remotely important!
Careless and reckless, I want to fly and fly to a dream land. Can you imagine a place, when you walk on a street with tree shades and small lawns in front of every house? When you say a hi to everyone on the street, cheerfully waving at them and wishing them a good day, sometimes patting their puppies, because all are too familiar to you? When you look across and see the pretty boy on the other side of the street, the way your heart starts humming and the day looks bright and hopeful? You walk into the door and smell the aroma of fresh and strong coffee, hmmmmmm, what more do you want? Flying to your room and picking up your favourite couch book (yeah, well, there are few you can read on couch and there are others when you sit down and make notes ;)), playing rock music and pouring a mug of caffeine and settling on the couch to read the fantasy fiction and well, be lost in the world of suspense, thrill and adventure.
Hmmm, I have had an experience like that today. Well, the first part of cheerful streets, familiar people (shudder! No way!), pretty boy (boys and pretty can’t come in a sentence :D, so there are NO pretty boys, at least not in my dictionary), puppy (well, … I will be as far away from them as possible.. to be precise – borrowing Chandler’s words – my neck is exposed, they can sense my fear!) – this was just my stretch of feel good factor, but, the cup of coffee, the couch book, music and the world of suspense was for real. And the new book that took me through a tremendous experience and made me completely relaxed for the week was Lee Child’s “Gone Tomorrow”. Jack Reacher – yet again springs in with his impeccable logic and sheer heroism and takes me to the land of Afghan tribes, Osama bin Laden, US, UK, Soviet and to the year of 1983 – and into the life of a Delta veteran! As with every Lee Child novel, the logic and the logistics and the fights are dramatically simple, what with two hundred and seventy five pounds of muscle and thirteen years of military career and the tricks and smarts of a Military Police.
I desperately required some form of excitement and relaxation, with my mind being conked and crazy with no sleep for the past God knows how many days and adrenaline pumping for no reason in particular, the thrill of the novel took me to a different world and shunned me completely of my thoughts. Just filled it up with the terrain of grit, logic, wry humour and Jack no-middle-name Reacher! Starts of with the suspected suicide bomber and goes on to the deduction of a piece of information potentially embarrassing to U.S. Throw in NYPD, FBI, DoD, ex-Delta, ex-military and you got yourself a coup that even the caffeine stimuli is not required for the adrenaline rush through your nerves. Simple, logical, fairly unrealistic (well, I think so) and absolute time pass. I read it with a cup of coffee and a box of pizza and Linkin Park music and I did not realize that the day passed and I have not done anything fairly/remotely important!
Who’s that Girl?
- By Alexandra Potter
Splendid! This book is insightful, funny and definitely an indulgence.
It is about Charlotte Merryweather, owner of a successful PR agency. She runs on a tight schedule and hardly has a minute to spare. At thirty two, she has everything- a steady boyfriend, a luxury house, a car and a successful enterprise. On her way to office, one day, she suddenly notices someone driving a familiar car, her old car, when she was twenty one and as she proceeds to look at the driver, she shocks herself when she sees a reflection of herself, ten years younger. She proceeds to follow her and to her dismay notices that the girl stays in her apartment, the apartment she stayed in, when she was twenty one. She was wearing the same dress, driving the same car and living in the same apartment. At a chance meeting she realizes with some fascination that her name is Charlotte! Too much of a coincidence? Well, hell, yes. And before I realize, I was caught in this web of fantastic write up that takes the story from one twenty year old girl, full of life, to thirty year old successful entrepreneur and back, with many insightful points to remember, and certainly many incidents to reflect.
Charlotte feels that this is some sort of a second chance for her life and is determined to make certain changes in her life, so as to not let certain incidents happen. With this thought, she sets out to change the twenty one year old girl and help her not do certain things, that, as she got older, realized she should not have done. But, as it turns out, she realizes that those mistakes were what made her stronger and wiser. But she also realized that, at this age, with more wisdom under her hat, she does not have answers for everything. Perhaps, she needs to address few issues in her life first. And as this realization hits home, there certainly are few surprises for her…
“Who’s that girl?” is certainly a life every woman would want to live, but more importantly, it also points out many things that could slide down, when one stops realizing their dreams and starts compromising. Mistakes can happen and mistakes make one stronger. But, when one forgets that they need to realize their dreams, there comes a point when one will have to do a little retrospection and stay silent when the inevitable question of “happiness” comes out. This is a chick-lit for sure, but I can assure that this book is for everyone. It holds a mirror to one’s life and forces one to reflect their paths chosen.
I could not keep down the book, it is a page turner, with its ease of writing and it certainly is entertaining!!!
Splendid! This book is insightful, funny and definitely an indulgence.
It is about Charlotte Merryweather, owner of a successful PR agency. She runs on a tight schedule and hardly has a minute to spare. At thirty two, she has everything- a steady boyfriend, a luxury house, a car and a successful enterprise. On her way to office, one day, she suddenly notices someone driving a familiar car, her old car, when she was twenty one and as she proceeds to look at the driver, she shocks herself when she sees a reflection of herself, ten years younger. She proceeds to follow her and to her dismay notices that the girl stays in her apartment, the apartment she stayed in, when she was twenty one. She was wearing the same dress, driving the same car and living in the same apartment. At a chance meeting she realizes with some fascination that her name is Charlotte! Too much of a coincidence? Well, hell, yes. And before I realize, I was caught in this web of fantastic write up that takes the story from one twenty year old girl, full of life, to thirty year old successful entrepreneur and back, with many insightful points to remember, and certainly many incidents to reflect.
Charlotte feels that this is some sort of a second chance for her life and is determined to make certain changes in her life, so as to not let certain incidents happen. With this thought, she sets out to change the twenty one year old girl and help her not do certain things, that, as she got older, realized she should not have done. But, as it turns out, she realizes that those mistakes were what made her stronger and wiser. But she also realized that, at this age, with more wisdom under her hat, she does not have answers for everything. Perhaps, she needs to address few issues in her life first. And as this realization hits home, there certainly are few surprises for her…
“Who’s that girl?” is certainly a life every woman would want to live, but more importantly, it also points out many things that could slide down, when one stops realizing their dreams and starts compromising. Mistakes can happen and mistakes make one stronger. But, when one forgets that they need to realize their dreams, there comes a point when one will have to do a little retrospection and stay silent when the inevitable question of “happiness” comes out. This is a chick-lit for sure, but I can assure that this book is for everyone. It holds a mirror to one’s life and forces one to reflect their paths chosen.
I could not keep down the book, it is a page turner, with its ease of writing and it certainly is entertaining!!!
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