Welcome back to Another Year of Books! It’s been over a month since my last post about a recently read book. I’ve taken the past month to just relax, whether it was by re-reading some books I previously read, or by reading some corny romance novels I stumbled upon. Long story short, I didn’t have much to write home about. But I’m back! Don’t worry, more reads are coming soon.
Book Read: Attachments
Author: Rainbow Rowell
2020 Book Count: 39
It’s 1999 and people are preparing for Y2K. That includes a local Nebraskan newspaper, The Courier, where Beth Fremont works as a movie reviewer and her good friend Jennifer is a copy editor. They know somebody is monitoring their emails, but that doesn’t stop them from talking about whatever they want via email. Whether it’s stories from Beth’s sister’s bridal shower, or Jennifer’s thoughts on having kids, they email about it.
Lincoln O’Neill didn’t think his job description would include reading people’s emails (or those flagged by their monitoring system) late at night. At twenty-eight, he is living with his mom and doesn’t get out much, except his weekly D&D games. Since college, he has been quiet and keeps to his routine.
As Beth and Jennifer’s email conversations are constantly flagged, Lincoln can’t bring himself to send them a memo. He becomes intrigued by the conversations, and finds himself having feelings for Beth. Feelings he doesn’t act on, because how could he explain reading her emails? But as he continues to work the graveyard shift, he begins to open it, by eating in the break room, joining a gym, reconnecting with old friends and his current friends, and finding his own apartment.
Will Lincoln find the right words to introduce himself to Beth? Read Attachments to find out.
I requested this one from the library after stumbling upon it on Amazon. The description seemed interesting. Mostly, it caught my eye because it made me chuckle wondering if my emails would make the cut to be read at work. I sure hope they don’t, but people may be entertained if they read them (there are a lot of memes from The Office).
I was hoping this book would suck me in. Unfortunately it did not. About 85 pages in, it started to pick up the pace, but it took me well over a week to read this one, because I didn’t want to keep reading. I’d put the book down and pick it back up days later only to repeat the cycle until finally I needed to finish it before my library loan was due.
Frankly, this book was weird. I couldn’t convince myself to like it if I tried. This book can go one of two ways for you - creepy or not. Although Lincoln knows and is troubled by how creepy his job is and deals with this for most of the book, I really couldn’t get over the creepiness of this one.
Luckily, the next two reads were enjoyable and made up for suffering through this one.
Next Read: Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan
