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Love Stories by Karen West

“LOVE is the greatest refreshment in life.”— Pablo Picasso

Let’s face it, we could all use a bit of life’s refreshment — especially with the economy still reeling and the holiday hangover still lingering.

Romantic getaways, lavish dinners and diamonds would be nice, but if you want a quick and inexpensive dose of romance, what better way than through a good love story.

Whether they’re traditional, contemporary, classical or historical, love stories provide the ultimate escape into a different time and place — a peek into somebody else’s world, for better or for worse.

We culled Seattle’s bookstores, the public library and literary Web sites to bring you a sampling of some good reads for 2010. Share them with your Valentine or just curl up in a cozy chair and enjoy.

Julie Connoley, a librarian at Seattle Public Library and member of the library’s fiction staff, recommends:

Old Girlfriends by David Updike (St. Martin’s Press, 2009). If you’re a fan of short stories, this book is for you. The son of John Updike and author of Out on the Marsh, David Updike has written a collection of stories in his newest book that examine the many nuances of love. In the title story, Trevor and his Holocaust-survivor psychotherapist, Sonya, are working together to help him get over his former girlfriend and remain single for an extended period so that he can learn about his feelings toward women.

The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman (Three Rivers Press, 2009). Hoffman, a veteran heartstring puller, tells the stories of three women at different crossroads in their lives. Publishers Weekly calls it an “elegant and stunning novel...Hoffman interweaves the three stories, gazing unerringly into forces that cause some people to self-destruct and others to find inner strength to last a lifetime.”

Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos (William Morrow, 2008). If you like Jodi Picoult and Anne Tyler, you’ll like this book, a sequel to her novel, Love Walked In. It continues with the story of Cornelia gaining unexpected insight into her troubled marriage, Piper finding her carefully controlled life unraveling in the wake of a friend’s crisis, and Lake telling a complex series of lies to gain her son’s entry into a school for gifted students.

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory (Touchstone, 2003). This historical fiction reads like a romance novel, and centers around the daughters of a ruthlessly ambitious family. Mary and Anne Boleyn are sent to the court of Henry VIII to attract the attention of the king, who first takes Mary as his mistress, in which role she bears him an illegitimate son, and then Anne as his wife. A truly guilty pleasure!

Anne Wyckoff of Queen Anne Books recommends Labor Day by Joyce Maynard (William Morrow, 2009). In her sixth novel, Maynard tells the story of a long weekend and its repercussions through the eyes of a then 13-year-old boy, Henry, who lives with his divorced mother, Adele. This is a quick read that Wyckoff says is beautifully written. “It’s incredibly romantic and unlikely. You never know where love is going to find you.”

Tracy Taylor, manager at Elliott Bay Books, recommends About Alice by Calvin Trillin (Random House, 2006). A loving portrait of the author’s wife written five years after her death, the book chronicles a romance that began at a Manhattan party when Trillin tried to impress a young woman who “seemed to glow.” Taylor says: “I think it’s what everyone wants their marriage to be.”

Another recommendation from Taylor is The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (Mariner Books, 2004). This book has been described as an intriguing science fiction concept, a realistic character study and a touching love story. It’s the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry thirty-six, and who were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty one. Impossible but true, because Henry finds himself periodically displaced in time.

DeDe Teeters, manager of Arundel Books in Seattle, says she has read The Time Traveler’s Wife four times. She also recommends Possession by A.S. Byatt (Vintage Press, 1991). Winner of the 1990 Man Booker Prize, the UK’s highest literary award, the story is about two contemporary scholars, each studying one of two Victorian poets, who piece together their subjects’ secret affair through poems, journal entries, letters and a modern scholarly analysis of the period.

Teeters also recommends Katherine by Anya Seton (Chicago Review Press, 2004 reprint). Originally published in 1954, this classic romance novel set in the 14th century tells the true story of the love affair that changed history — that of Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster — the ancestors of most of the British royal family. Philippa Gregory, author of The Other Boleyn Girl, has said she was inspired by Seton.

Then there are the classic love stories that have been around so long that, in addition to being great reads, have the added benefit of not having long hold lists at the library:

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë/Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (both 1847). No list of love stories would be complete without the Brontë sisters. One shouldn’t try to pick between Emily and Charlotte. Read (or reread) both of their masterpieces and see if you can decide whose foggy English moors are moodier, whose manor house is creepier and whose leading man is more romantic. It’s a tough call.

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1936). Read the book and see the movie. The novel won a Pulitzer Prize in 1937, and the movie won 10 Academy Awards three years later. It chronicles the trials and tribulations of Scarlett O’Hara, a Southern belle whose selfish determination pulls her and those close to her through the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (1877). Considered one of the greatest novels of all time. This enduring classic follows the unhappily married Anna as she succumbs to temptation and embarks on a dangerous affair with the handsome Vronsky; a bad idea in 19th century Russia.

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough (1977). A saga of forbidden love between a beautiful, headstrong young girl and a priest that starts off in Australia in 1915. It may not be great literature, but you’ll laugh, cry and stay up too late reading this popular tale.

And you can’t talk about love stories without mentioning the revered English author, Jane Austen, best known for Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Sense and Sensibility (1811). Her essentially light-hearted novels focus on the connection (and possible trade-offs) between love, marriage, financial security and social status in early 19th century England. If you’ve not yet read any Jane Austen, now would be a good time to start.

Karen West is a Bainbridge Island-based freelance writer and a frequent contributor to Seattle Woman.

©Copyright 2010, Caliope Publishing Company