Book bits

The Monitor's weekly literary roundup.

from the February 13, 2007 edition

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Three books about love

He was shy and geeky while she was loud and impulsive but their passion for music brought them close. Love Is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield tells of Sheffield's love for his wife Renee who died in 1997. Each chapter begins with a play list and while these might speak best to enthusiasts of 1990s music, any reader will be able to understand the love so movingly remembered.

They were married for only six months before World War I separated them. Your Death Would Be Mine by Martha Hanna relies on the letters of Paul and Marie Pireaud, a rural French couple, to recreate their experience of war, rural life, and marital affection that endured – although at times uneasily – the vicissitudes of war, a lengthy separation, and daily hardship.

It's edgy rather than sentimental, but good writing about love can be found in Mr. Wrong: Real Life Stories About the Men We Used to Love in which noted women writers (such as Marge Piercy, Jane Smiley, and Caroline Leavitt, edited by Harriet Brown) tell of their own relationships gone awry. This may not be the book you want to give your Valentine (and it's definitely too adult for readers under 18) but candor, wry humor, and moments of genuine insight mark these various accounts of love gone wrong.

– Marjorie Kehe

Readers' Picks

Bel Canto opens with an extravagant birthday party for an influential Japanese businessman at the home of the vice president of a South American country. The world's most popular lyric soprano has just performed. The guests applaud, some even weep. The lights go out and then on, revealing men with guns pouring in through windows and doors. Ann Patchett unfolds this story in beautiful detail with music softening the hearts of hostages and terrorists alike.

– Nancyruth Mack, Evergreen, Colo.

Mark Helprin's Freddy and Fredericka is a marvelously funny romp through the royal family and one man's pursuit of himself.

– Boyd Nyberg, Alta Loma, Calif.

Two Old Women by Velma Wallis, based on an Athabaskan Indian legend, tells the shocking story of two elderly ladies abandoned by their migratory tribe and left to die. As family and friends desert them, the duo decides not to die, but to forge ahead. A surprise ending happily ties up the thin volume.

– Mary D. Allison, Walnut Creek, Ohio

I am reading Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, a great story about Abraham Lincoln and his election to the presidency and the rivals who fought for the nomination. Maybe America would be wise to look at history, heed the warnings, and again elect an inspiring new man from the Midwest.

– Francis W. Warren, Stow, Mass.

Horses They Rode, by Sid Gustafson, who not only grew up here and knows Montana, but also knows the Blackfeet Reservation. This story is about race horses. None dies.

– Mary Scriver, Valier, Mont.

What are you reading? Write and tell us at Marjorie Kehe.

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