Attachments - Rainbow Rowell

I can definitely see why EVERYONE rated this 5/5 stars and has professed their undying love for Rainbow Rowell.  I should have known it would be that good - her name is Rainbow, for goodness sake!  I thought that my name was unique, but she takes the cake for alliteration.  This was a very quick and easy read - literally read this in one sitting.  I finished this book in a couple hours and closed the book with a smile on my face, unlike the previous library book I borrowed.

This book, despite being published in 2011, takes place in 1999.    Lincoln (another sweet name) is the 28-yr old IT guy for the local newspaper.  Because the Internet has been newly introduced (WOW, I feel old) and things have not been beautifully automated yet, his job is to review flagged e-mail exchanges and send wayward employees warnings on their misconduct over electronic correspondence (and such).  That's when Beth and Jennifer come into the picture.  Their exchanges made me laugh so hard, and the way they talked about the "new" movies, music, pop culture, Y2K issues... ah, nostalgia.  Lincoln is "forced" to read them but then he starts reading them of his own accord, cracking up at their juicy conversations, smiling at their inside jokes AND THEN - he starts falling in love with Beth.

This is You've Got Mail in the way that email exchanges lead to love and you're wondering how it's going to play out, but frustratingly enough, it's also like How I Met Your Mother because I keep thinking that every single girl that even talks to Lincoln is Beth.  And then I'd be proven wrong 2 chapters later.  Which drove me crazy.  No spoilers, sorry, but the ending was so quick!  I wanted there to be mooooore.  But that's how great this book was.  

Things I LOVED about this book:

I loved all the relationships between Lincoln and his mother, Eve, his Dungeons and Dragons group,  his wingman Justin (on most nights, the other way around), and Doris.  Even though they nagged him from time to time, they were always there and rooted for him.

Lincoln's sweetly awkward shyness and his fear of accidental eye contact.  Also the fact that he's supposedly super hot but is so unaware.  HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE.

Here, have some awesome quotes:

Jennifer (about her mother): She's just waiting.  She keeps poking my marriage with a toothpick. Almost done!

Beth being an Octoberlover: October, baptize me the 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!

Beth and her crazy descriptions: I've got the arms of a Sicilian grandmother.  Arms for picking olives and stirring hearty tomato sauces.  Shoulders for carrying buckets of water from the stream to the farmhouse.

Beth is far from being a Sicilian grandmother. But she does have freckles, a heart-shaped face, and is brunette.  I flipped out when I finally got a description, because then I put 2 and 2 together and it was beautiful.