Valentine's Day Reads: The Theme of Love

Our Valentine's Day Reads: The Theme of Love Collection features titles centered on love and all of its complexities. This Collection represents authors who have grappled with romantic, familial, and other forms of love through writing. With titles ranging from contemporary romance picks to works by Shakespeare, this Collection has something to offer any reader who has ever lost or found love.

The Girl On The Train

by Paula Hawkins

Publication year 2015

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Loneliness, Conflict, Fear, Guilt, Hate & Anger, Love, Memory, Masculinity, The Past, Appearance & Reality, Truth & Lies, Marriage

Tags Mystery & Crime Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Horror & Suspense, Trauma & Abuse, Addiction & Substance Abuse, Modern Classic Fiction

Paula Hawkins wrote The Girl on the Train over the course of six months in 2014. Hawkins, an Oxford-educated journalist and writer, drew on her experience as a reporter in London to structure the novel and describe its locations. Drawing immediate comparisons to Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, The Girl on the Train had similar performance, debuting at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list in 2015, and remaining there for 13 consecutive weeks... Read The Girl On The Train Summary

The Golden Bowl

by Henry James

Publication year 1904

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Marriage, Loyalty & Betrayal, Forgiveness, Grief, Guilt, Loneliness, Love, Shame & Pride, Midlife, Future, The Past, Appearance & Reality, Fathers, Self Discovery, Social Class, Community, Power & Greed, Trust & Doubt, Truth & Lies

Tags Historical Fiction, Classic Fiction, American Literature, US History, World History

The Golden Bowl is a 1904 novel by Henry James. The novel explores the intricacies of marriage and affairs in the early 19th century through the affair of Amerigo and Charlotte, who were once in love but too poor to marry. Amerigo instead marries Maggie, and Charlotte marries Maggie’s father, a wealthy American museum curator. While Amerigo is at first happy with his new wife, the time she spends with her father creates an opportunity... Read The Golden Bowl Summary

The Great Divorce

by C. S. Lewis

Publication year 1945

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Fear, Forgiveness, Love, Grief, Good & Evil, Religion & Spirituality, Trust & Doubt, Order & Chaos

Tags Symbolic Narrative, Christian, Religion & Spirituality, Fantasy, Philosophy, Philosophy, Classic Fiction

C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce, first published in serial form in 1945 and as a novel the following year, explores an unnamed narrator’s experiences in Heaven and Hell. Although Lewis is best known for his contribution to children’s literature in The Chronicles of Narnia series, he also wrote many works of adult fiction and nonfiction. Almost all of his published work is either explicitly or implicitly religious in nature; many of his nonfiction works are... Read The Great Divorce Summary

The Great Santini

by Pat Conroy

Publication year 1976

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Fathers, Daughters & Sons, Family, Loyalty & Betrayal, Fear, Love, Masculinity, Coming of Age

Tags Life-Inspired Fiction, Military & War, Southern Literature, Historical Fiction

Pat Conroy’s 1976 novel, The Great Santini, is a semi-autobiographical work of fiction that explores the tumultuous life of a military family in the American South during the early 1960s. The story centers on Ben Meecham, the eldest son of Lieutenant Colonel Bull Meecham, a charismatic but violently abusive Marine Corps fighter pilot. As Ben navigates his 18th year, he grapples with the intense psychological conflict of loving and fearing his father, whose brutal warrior... Read The Great Santini Summary

The Great Unexpected

by Sharon Creech

Publication year 2012

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Fear, Gratitude, Love, Memory, Revenge, Death, The Past, Appearance & Reality, Place, Family, Friendship

Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech’s 2012 novel, The Great Unexpected, follows the relationship between two best friends, Naomi Deane and Lizzie Scatterding, both orphans who know little about their families. They have felt heartache and loss, though these experiences impact them in contrasting ways: Lizzie is talkative and enthusiastic, while Naomi is guarded and anxious. In a discussion of her inspiration for the text, Creech recounts her realization that when faced with the unexpected, children... Read The Great Unexpected Summary

The Guncle

by Steven Rowley

Publication year 2021

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Family, Grief, Loneliness, Love, Sexual Identity, Death

Tags LGBTQ+, Humor, Realistic Fiction, Grief & Death, Parenting, American Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, Romance

... Read The Guncle Summary

The Heart Goes Last

by Margaret Atwood

Publication year 2015

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Love, Power & Greed, Fate, Marriage, Conflict, Economics, Social Class

Tags Science Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction

Margaret Atwood’s The Heart Goes Last is a work of speculative fiction released in 2015. The novel is a reworking of her Positron series for the website Byliner: four interconnected stories that were digitally released as episodes over the course of a year, starting in March 2012. The project aimed to recapture the literary tradition of serialization, but the final installment was never released, and the novel is intended to bring things together and provide... Read The Heart Goes Last Summary