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Notebook

By Nicholas Sparks

(297)

| Others | 9780606191265

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Critics

Book Review: The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks Share

When The Notebook came to the big screen, I thought it was just a movie – and it is. It’s a chick-flick romance that is unique only in that we get to see romance into the elderly years, when Alzheimer’s sets in and loved ones pray for even ten minute ... (read full critics)

blogcritics published on Tue, 21 Sep 2010

THE NOTEBOOK

When author Nicholas Sparks sat down to write THE NOTEBOOK, a tender love story inspired by the enduring relationship of his wife Cathy's grandparents, he wanted his readers to walk away with a renewed spirit of hope. "I'll never forget watching thos ... (read full critics)

teenreads published on Thu, 16 Sep 2010

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21 Reviews

1 person find this helpful

Being in North Carolina for five years and visited Charleston (love this town), where the movie was filmed (although I've never watched the movie), I had high expectation for the original story.
The plot is a bit of cliche, but that is fine with me. What is intolerable is the detailed description o ... (continue)

Being in North Carolina for five years and visited Charleston (love this town), where the movie was filmed (although I've never watched the movie), I had high expectation for the original story.
The plot is a bit of cliche, but that is fine with me. What is intolerable is the detailed description of everything -- every move of the characters was mentioned, and every thought of Allie was spoken out. There was no room for ambiguity, where the sweetness and bitterness of love reside, nor room for the readers to fit in their own experiences and interpretations. The only seemly uncertainty regarding which man Allie chose was too deliberately plotted to drive me into the story. In addition, every conversation in this book was so perfectly designed that appeared unnatural, and the conflicts were over-polished and failed to provoke emotions.
It is a sickeningly sweet story and not to my taste. I forced myself to finish the book for the sake of language learning, but sadly even that I should have better choices.

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Summertime said on Sep 28, 2011 about the Mass Market Paperback edition | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

The Notebook - a timeless story

I love The Notebook. I liked it so much that I bought 5 extra copies so that I could give them to friends. It's an incredible love story that overcomes the obstacles of distance, time and even the horrible disease Alzheimer's. If you like a good love story, this would be a great book for you to r ... (continue)

I love The Notebook. I liked it so much that I bought 5 extra copies so that I could give them to friends. It's an incredible love story that overcomes the obstacles of distance, time and even the horrible disease Alzheimer's. If you like a good love story, this would be a great book for you to read! By the way, the book is better than the movie, so if your thinking about skipping the book and going straight for the movie...don't :)

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Amber said on Jan 10, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

The movie version isn't that great either.

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jellybean said on Nov 9, 2007 about the Mass Market Paperback edition | 1 feedback

If it were possible to give this half a star, I would have. Pure schlock. I cannot believe people rave about this story. Pure, American shit. Like reading a Mills & Boon most of the time.

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Lcann563 said on Feb 6, 2012 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

good one and make me cry

Saw the movie makes me want to get the novel to see the detailed story...
Though a bit difference between movie and novel,
I like both, very touching story..and wish my love can endure for long and such strong.

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Syn said on Jan 16, 2012 about the Mass Market Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Noah was nothing special, of this he was sure.
He was a common man with common thoughts, and he had led a common life . There were no monuments dedicated to him and his name would soon be forgotten, but he had loved another with all his heart and soul, and to him, this had always been enough. ... (continue)

Noah was nothing special, of this he was sure.
He was a common man with common thoughts, and he had led a common life . There were no monuments dedicated to him and his name would soon be forgotten, but he had loved another with all his heart and soul, and to him, this had always been enough.
The romantics would call this a love story, the cynics would call it a tragedy.
In his mind it was a little bit of both, and no matter how you choose to view it in the
end, it does not change the fact that it had involved a great deal of his life and the
path he had chosen to follow.
He had no complaints about his path and the places it had taken him and though we may call him a dreamer or fool or any other thing, he believed that anything was possible.
He believed that science is not the total answer: miracles, no matter how inexplicable or unbelievable, are real and can occur, without regard to the natural order of things.
He had learned to enjoy simple things, things that couldn't be bought, and he had a hard
time understanding people who felt otherwise.
His father taught him to read with books of poetry. "Learn to read this aloud and you'll be able to say anything you want to.". he always said.
Poetry wasn't written to be analyzed; it was meant to inspire without reason, to touch without understanding.
Noah read the works of Whitman and Tennyson and through them, he knew that the first time you fall in love, it changes your life forever, and no matter how hard you try, the feeling never goes away.
There's a part of you that you keep closed off from everyone, your mind is on someone else.
"A living poem" had always been the words that came to mind when he tried to describe Allie, his Allie to others.
She had traits like intelligence, confidence, strength of spirit, passion, traits that inspired others to greatness, traits he aspired to himself.
And Allie, like Noah, wanted something else, something different, something more. Passion and romance, perhaps, or maybe quiet conversations in candlelit rooms, or something as simple as not being second.
Their souls were connected in a way that few things are, like day and night; there cannot be one without the other, yet they cannot exist at the same time.
Maybe they had lived a thousand lives before that one and in each of them they had found each other.
They knew they had spent every life before that one searching for each other and they
would have seen each other again in another life.
A love like that they shared happened only once.
Every minute they spent together had been seared in their memory.
They would have never forgotten a single moment of it.
Every day they were together was the greatest day of his life: Allie was the one who taught Noah the value of love. She showed him what it was like to care for another, and Noah was a better man because of it.

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Cri1967 said on Aug 29, 2011 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

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Book Details

Rating:
(297)
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English Books
Others
ISBN-10: 0606191267
ISBN-13: 9780606191265
Publisher: Turtleback Books Distributed by Demco Media
Pub date: Feb 01, 1998
Also available as: Mass Market Paperback, Paperback, Hardcover, Audio Cassette, School & Library Binding and eBook
In other languages: other languages 繁體書, Libros en Español, llibres en català