Attachments

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Genre:  Fiction
Pages:  336
Published:  3/27/12 by Penguin
Format:  book
My Rating:
4 out of 5 stars







If you are looking for some light, funny, yet still intelligent chick lit, this book is for you! It was a fun book and left me feeling happy at the end! (I tend to like depressing books, so this is unusual for me).

Set in 1999, in the midst of the Y2K craze, Attachments is about Lincoln, a 28 year old who works the night shift as an internet security officer. His main job: monitor his co-workers' email. Also, Lincoln is single, lives with his mom and doesn't get out much, except to play the occasional game of Dungeons and Dragons. As Lincoln monitors the office e-mail, he finds himself engrossed in the e-mails of Jennifer and Beth. And the more he reads their e-mail, the more he realizes that he is falling in love with Beth. The only problem: he has never met Beth, he has no idea what she looks like, and if he did meet her, how could he possibly explain himself?

This novel is a fun twist on the traditional modern romance. It's cute and charming and funny. I recently read (and loved) Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell, and I definitely like Rowell's witty style and sense of humor. I also like that she is not afraid to write real characters. Lincoln is not your typical Prince Charming. Instead he is a real guy with real issues and real insecurities. That makes his story believable but also still enjoyable to read. I will be eager to pick up Rowell's next book!

Mother Daughter Me

Mother Daughter Me  
by Katie Hafner
Genre:  Nonfiction/Memoir
Pages:   288
Published:  7/2/13 by Random House
Format:  ARC

My Rating:
3.5 out of 5 stars







 
I received an early copy of this book for review from Library Thing.

Katie Hafner grew up with an alcoholic mother. For a large portion of her childhood, she was removed from her mother's custody. Her memories of her mother are not pleasant. Yet, as an adult, she decides to invite her elderly mother to move into her home with Katie and her teenage daughter Zoe. The resulting "experiment" brings up issues and memories long buried in the past. Katie's story explores the complex relationships between mother's and daughters through multiple generations.

As a mother of two young daughters, I always find books about mothers and daughters to be interesting. Especially as I look to the future and wonder about my relationship will be like with my grown daughters. I enjoyed reading Katie's story about both her mother and her daughter and the relationship between the three of them. While not always pleasant, I felt like this book was a testimony to the enduring relationships between mothers and daughters, overcoming even the most difficult moments of the past.

While this was an enjoyable read, I felt like it was a little too long. There didn't quite seem to be enough content to necessitate the length of the book, and I was a little restless during the last half of the book, being eager to finish and move on to something else.

But I am glad I read this book. Katie's story is worth telling, and her writing is worth reading.

Brain on Fire

 

Brain on Fire
by Susannah Cahalan

Genre:  Nonfiction/Memoir
Pages:   288
Published:  11/13/12 by Simon and Schuster
Format:  ebook

My Rating:
4 out of 5 stars







Brain on Fire is a medical memoir written by New York Post reporter Susannah Cahalan. Several years ago, Cahalan suffered from an autoimmune disease that caused psychotic episodes, complete breaks from reality, severe physical impairments, and sickness that nearly took her life. All physical tests came back negative, and her disease was misdiagnosed as a mental illness, until finally a doctor put the pieces together and discovered that an infection in her brain was reeking havoc on both her body and mind.

Fascinating stuff in this book! Just the idea that a perfectly healthy and successful woman could so quickly morph into someone else completely, with no warning and no explanation...aaugh, so scary! Cahalan does a good job piecing together the story of her medical mystery. She had to do a lot of research to tell her own story, as she does not remember much of what happened to her. I thought the narrative was a little awkward at times, with Cahalan telling the story in first person but then it switched to more of a third person voice at times to tell the perspectives of other people. Sometimes there wasn't much transition between these shifts, and I thought it was not quite right, but overall it didn't really detract from the story.

The most intriguing part of Cahalan's story (which also seemed to be most intriguing to Cahalan as well) is how many people both past and present could possibly have had this disease but were misdiagnosed. People who have spent their lives in nursing homes and psychiatric wards unnecessarily because the medical community was not able to put the pieces together. There is no way to know how many people would fall into this category, but quite possibly it could be a large number. There is still much to be learned about this relatively new disease, but Cahalan's book serves as a great tool for raising awareness.

I would highly recommend this intriguing real life story!