Books : The Notebook

Rating: - Heartbreaking book
Synopsis from Amazon:

Set amid the austere beauty of the North Carolina coast, The Notebook begins with the story of Noah Calhoun, a rural Southerner recently returned form the Second World War. Noah is restoring a plantation home to its former glory, and he is haunted by images of the beautiful girl he met fourteen years earlier, a girl he loved like no other. Unable to find her, yet unwilling to forget the summer they spent together, Noah is content to live with only memories...until she unexpectedly returns to his town to see him once again. Like a puzzle within a puzzle, the story of Noah and Allie is just the beginning. As it unfolds, their tale miraculously becomes something different, with much higher stakes. The result is a deeply moving portrait of love itself, the tender moments and the fundamental changes that affect us all. It is a story of miracles and emotions that will stay with you forever.

This is a story of love, illness and heartbreak. I would categorize it as chick-literature I think.

We follow the story of Noah, who fell in love with Allie and never got over her. She returns and we see how love develops and how their life unfolds. This book is so touching, the love is so strong and moving. It is beautiful.

I think my favourite character was in fact Allie's Mum, as she comes through for her daughter, there is a different sort of love there, and that too is wonderful. The bond between a mother and daughter is often strong, and that definitely came through in this book.

Complaints? Not many :-) The story of their relationship as young lovers ended quite abruptly and then we went from a detailed story to glimpses of the past through letters, I would have liked the story to have continued in the detail it had been in. Although a lovely story, I did feel Noah was maybe a little bit too obsessed with Allie, by the end it was a little too much. And the ending, well that too was abrupt, and I was surprised the story finished, I was expecting more. However, all that aside, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

8/10


And as a note on the side, this has been made into a film, and I would recommend that too. Slightly different from the book but heartbreaking and lovely anyway.

---

Rating: - Simple but divinely romantic
A simple but beautiful novel about true love and what it means to find your soulmate.

An old man in a nursing home reads to an old woman who no longer recognises him. He tells her the story of Noah and Allie, a young couple who fall in love and spend one beautiful summer together before Allie's family leave town again. Fourteen years later, Allie is engaged, but is drawn back to Noah in an attempt to find out whether this was true love or whether he has forgotten her. Although he is older and wiser, he is everything she remembered and they fall in love all over again. But will she choose her new life with her new man, a high-flying lawyer, or will she stay with her soulmate, the gentle and hard-working country boy?

The book only took a day to read, but more than once I found myself waking up from the novel's thrall with tears rolling down my cheeks. Though the language is simple, even clumsy, it does allow the emotion and the love between the characters to shine out with a radiance that transcends the words on the page, making it more moving and electrifying than ever. It reminds the reader of the important things in life, and the everlasting nature of true love.

In short, it's absolutely beautiful and should be read by any woman longing for love, and any man who doesn't understand that even in the modern world, romance, gentleness and humility often mean so much more than shows of money and machismo.

---

Rating: - For the romantics out there...
I really must have a stone instead of a heart. This book is a best-seller, and it was said to be one of the greatest love stories of all time. I'm not all that much into "greatest love stories of all time", but I thought that I would give it a try anyway - after all, there must be a reason for the great buzz about it. But I have just read the last line and shut the book, and I did not feel anything. I liked the way it was written - there were just enough details for the reader to imagine the setting, but not pages of them which prevented me from getting bored (I always skip the pages when too many (useless) details are given). The story was touching but still, it didn't do anything to me. Maybe I'm too cynical. Maybe I'm too convinced that real, life-long love doesn't exist. That he always ends up sleeping around or she makes things more complicated than they really are.

I think this book is probably worth more than two stars, but people like me cannot appreciate it for what it's worth. If you're a sentimental heart, though, I'm sure you'll love it.

---

Rating: - A Lovely Read.
I purchased this book after I had watched the movie which, brought me to tears! At the end of the movie I was really sobbing and so had to watch it again and it had the same effect. :)

So I got this book and started it straight away. I was pretty hooked from page one and it is pretty easy to read, as it flows nicely and is a gentle read. I noticed the differences from movie to book or book to movie should I say, which didn't bother me at all, as I love the movie.

I don't really want to go into the story as I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it or seen the movie. But if you love to read romance love stories and sentimental slushy stuff, where you want an afternoon to just relax and chill out with a romantic book, then this is for you.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and shall be reading more by Nicholas Sparks. I'm now a fan! But for some reason I prefer the movie. For me it's because the movie brought the characters alive more and I loved watching them fall in love in the movie.

---

Rating: - A Love Story
This is the first book by Sparks that I have read and am pleased that this is also his first published book, as I shall certainly read more, and I do like to read and feel how an author grows and gains confidence with each book written. The Notebook is an enjoyable and tender love story which is very easy to get into and can be read in one or two sittings. The book is well written, the plot is well thought out and the story content although not fast paced, certainly has you turning the pages. The only downside is that the book is not great value for money in that there are only 221 pages of fairly large print - I know the `Product Details' shown above says 272 pages but, if this publication is like mine, the rest of the book will be the first chapter of another book.