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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1601404.The_Love_Letter?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Love Letter" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1185721410m/1601404.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1601404.The_Love_Letter?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Love Letter</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/127216.Cathleen_Schine">Cathleen Schine</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3739908?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 5 of 5 stars There is nothing more satisfying than realizing that the book you have on hand is actually fun and engaging and you cannot stop reading. This is such book.
 
 I picked this book, stylishly, in a used bookstore somewhere in Europe. I've always conjured up images of chic little me browsing smelly and musty but chic used bookstores with sunglasses chicly perched on my head picking up chic literary gems. However, upon flipping the first few pages at home, I was disappointed with this book and its excessive quotes from, I'm sure, worthy and astute but unknown writers. I stuck it in my shelf for months.
 
 Until last week. I decided to have something light to read and gave this book a second glance. I managed to pass through the boring and somewhat pretentiously mysterious and encrypted beginning to be enchanted by the sweet love story that bloomed because of a curious love letter. Helen, the protagonist, a scary but captivating independent bookstore owner, found a love letter from a Ram to a Goat and went on a mission to find the writer. Along the way, she fell in love with Johnny, her twenty-year-old staff (she was forty-two).
 
 She went doubting herself over this improper relationship until she found out that her issues were nothing shocking. The novel picked up in pace and suspense and intrigues from about one-third onward to a neat and satisfying yet unexpected endings for all concerned.
 
 The writing is pleasantly paced with lots of witty dialogues between the characters. My favourites are the mother and grandmother when the four generation of women lived in Helen's childhood house for a short period during summer. The writer successfully creates various comedies using lively dialogues and situations ala sitcoms. She uses unusual imageries to describe otherwise plain occurrences and thus, her novel actively engages the mind.
 
 To describe a scene when Helen's mother and grandmother arrived from a long driving trip to stay in her house, Schine wrote:
 
 "Your grandmother is here," Lilian said. "As she has noted. She's here and she's all yours. What you choose to do with her is your business. But may I suggest strangulation as the most satisfying option." She slammed the car door and stormed, on her little feet in their little high-heeled mules (it was diminutive but fierce storm), into the house.
 
 "She dislikes having an aged parent,"Eleanor said in a bland, even voice. "Imagine how I feel. With an aged daughter."
 
 I read the paragraph, along with several clever ones, over and over again.
 
 Finishing the book, I'm feeling lost and a little sad. It is described aptly in the book:
 
 "It's terrible to be between books, " she said. And Johnny marvelled at the tenderness of her voice. It suddenly seemed terrible to him, too, to be between books, though he was often between books for months and had never really noticed it before. "It's so disorienting, isn't it?" Helen was saying. "Like a divorce. An amicable one, but still."
 
 "Yes," the man said. "Now I have to date again."
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/233375?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Bookshop's review
rating:

bookshelves: fiction
status: Read in January, 2007

There is nothing more satisfying than realizing that the book you have on hand is actually fun and engaging and you cannot stop reading. This is such book.

I picked this book, stylishly, in a used bookstore somewhere in Europe. I've always conjured up images of chic little me browsing smelly and musty but chic used bookstores with sunglasses chicly perched on my head picking up chic literary gems. However, upon flipping the first few pages at home, I was disappointed with this book and its excessive quotes from, I'm sure, worthy and astute but unknown writers. I stuck it in my shelf for months.

Until last week. I decided to have something light to read and gave this book a second glance. I managed to pass through the boring and somewhat pretentiously mysterious and encrypted beginning to be enchanted by the sweet love story that bloomed because of a curious love letter. Helen, the protagonist, a scary but captivating independent bookstore owner, found a love letter from a Ram to ...more There is nothing more satisfying than realizing that the book you have on hand is actually fun and engaging and you cannot stop reading. This is such book.

I picked this book, stylishly, in a used bookstore somewhere in Europe. I've always conjured up images of chic little me browsing smelly and musty but chic used bookstores with sunglasses chicly perched on my head picking up chic literary gems. However, upon flipping the first few pages at home, I was disappointed with this book and its excessive quotes from, I'm sure, worthy and astute but unknown writers. I stuck it in my shelf for months.

Until last week. I decided to have something light to read and gave this book a second glance. I managed to pass through the boring and somewhat pretentiously mysterious and encrypted beginning to be enchanted by the sweet love story that bloomed because of a curious love letter. Helen, the protagonist, a scary but captivating independent bookstore owner, found a love letter from a Ram to a Goat and went on a mission to find the writer. Along the way, she fell in love with Johnny, her twenty-year-old staff (she was forty-two).

She went doubting herself over this improper relationship until she found out that her issues were nothing shocking. The novel picked up in pace and suspense and intrigues from about one-third onward to a neat and satisfying yet unexpected endings for all concerned.

The writing is pleasantly paced with lots of witty dialogues between the characters. My favourites are the mother and grandmother when the four generation of women lived in Helen's childhood house for a short period during summer. The writer successfully creates various comedies using lively dialogues and situations ala sitcoms. She uses unusual imageries to describe otherwise plain occurrences and thus, her novel actively engages the mind.

To describe a scene when Helen's mother and grandmother arrived from a long driving trip to stay in her house, Schine wrote:

"Your grandmother is here," Lilian said. "As she has noted. She's here and she's all yours. What you choose to do with her is your business. But may I suggest strangulation as the most satisfying option." She slammed the car door and stormed, on her little feet in their little high-heeled mules (it was diminutive but fierce storm), into the house.

"She dislikes having an aged parent,"Eleanor said in a bland, even voice. "Imagine how I feel. With an aged daughter."

I read the paragraph, along with several clever ones, over and over again.

Finishing the book, I'm feeling lost and a little sad. It is described aptly in the book:

"It's terrible to be between books, " she said. And Johnny marvelled at the tenderness of her voice. It suddenly seemed terrible to him, too, to be between books, though he was often between books for months and had never really noticed it before. "It's so disorienting, isn't it?" Helen was saying. "Like a divorce. An amicable one, but still."

"Yes," the man said. "Now I have to date again."...less

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