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Pages And Pages Of Passion Await Book Lovers

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By KAREN HAYMON LONG, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 10, 2008

Publishers open their hearts as Valentine's Day approaches, and that means a torrent of books about love hitting the shelves.

Like love, each book is unique. They span poetry, letters, advice, love stories, inspiring quotes and passages about love, and steamy novels such as Carl Weber's "Something on the Side."

There's even one from the ubiquitous "Chicken Soup" collection: "Chicken Soup for the Soul: Love Stories."

"The Best American Erotic Poems: From 1800 to the Present," edited by David Lehman (Scribner, $30), offers a startling array of poems by some very famous poets, many not known for erotica.

Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Bishop, e.e. cummings are all here, along with some lesser-knowns. Some of the poems are graphic. Others, quite romantic. One, by Francis Scott Key (you remember him; he penned our national anthem), is titled "On a Young Lady's Going into a Shower Bath."

Another collection, "How They Met and Other Stories," by David Levithan (Knopf, $16.99), is aptly summed up on the jacket cover: "Love is a varied, complicated, addictive, volatile, scary, wonderful thing ... and it's all displayed in 'How They Met and Other Stories.'"

Levithan writes about first love, gay love, love at first sight, love blooming during war, love among friends and married love. Each story offers a slice of life - and love.

Another clever book, "Other People's Love Letters: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See," edited by Bill Shapiro (Clarkson Potter, $22.50), features letters Shapiro collected over the years.

One was written as a classified ad, another on legal paper and one on a postcard from Bozeman, Mont. One simply says: "Stay warm for me and have a nice day. You are my sweetheart even with popsicle feet. Love you."

"What Happy Couples Do: The Loving Little Rituals of Romance," by Carol J. Bruess and Anna D.H. Kudak (Fairview Press, $14.95), shares sayings and stories about what makes couple happy in love.

"Nurture your invisible bond. Little by little. Forever and ever," says one story heading over the tale of Joe and Natalie, who give each other "bare chested" hugs every morning before leaving the house.

Another story tells how Maria sings a song to her husband every night about what happened that day. Another couple hires a babysitter every Sunday night, packs a picnic and then goes downtown to a concert on the lawn.

"The Book of Love," by best-selling author Andrew M. Greeley and his sister Mary G. Durkin (Forge, $7.99), is subtitled "A Treasury Inspired by the Greatest of Virtues."

It's filled with poetry from such luminaries as Robert Burns and Percy Bysshe Shelley, as well as Bible verses, philosophy, fables, love letters and more. Here's a bit of wisdom from French writer Guy De Maupassant: Love "is a short word, but it contains all: It means the body, the soul, the life, the entire being."

Karen Haymon Long is the Tribune's book editor.

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