Love is in the Air: Books About Love
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It’s that time of year again – the Hallmark cards, the meal-for-two restaurant deals, the Love Island recouplings around the fire pit, the smug Instagram posts about engagements and pending nuptials – whether you’re coupled up or consciously uncoupled, you can’t really escape Valentine’s Day.
Whether you’re more about Single Awareness Day than 14th February, or you’re head-over-heels with someone, HIF have got you and your next reading pick covered:
Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman (2007)
Best known for its much lauded film adaptation, Call Me By Your Name is a beautiful book about an obsessive LGBT romance and was held up by writer Kate Kellaway as a romance book without the standard clichés.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847)
Spoiler alert: “Reader, I married him.” is a killer closing line. Jane Eyre revolutionised fiction writing back in its day by introducing its main character in the first person and is now best-known for introducing millions of teenaged girls to the moody and dark-haired Mr. Fairfax. In 2003, the novel was ranked number 10 in the BBC’s survey The Big Read.
Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding (1996)
The quintessential contemporary ‘chick-lit’ novel, Bridget Jones’s Diary rocked the literary world when it was released in the mid-90s as it followed its eponymous character through single life in London. If you’re more familiar with Renée Zellweger’s British accent and Colin Firth’s Christmas jumper than the book, it’s definitely worth giving it a go for a giggle.
Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney (2017)
The book that was so popular and tugged so many heartstrings that the Guardian published an advice column on how to move on from it; Sally Rooney’s startling debut novel follows the lives of four characters who enter a tangled web of love, infidelity, heartbreak, and lies.
Heartburn by Nora Ephron (1983)
The author of When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle turns her particular brand of humour and wit to a thinly-veiled novel about her divorce from her first husband. Following the TV chef Rachel Samstat as she is left, pregnant, after her husband’s infidelity, Heartburn is frequently recommended by other authors as one to help you get over heartbreak.