Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is "Love freebie" which means it can be almost anything.
I can't remember who, but someone I know was talking recently about the number of books that they had on the shelves with the word love in the title, so I thought I would have a look at my trusty spreadsheet and see what my list would look like if I did the same. This has ended up being far more traumatic exercise than it should have been as I accidentally copied a title down the whole list and now I have to try to recreate my spreadsheet for those entries which is not as easy as it sounds. I have been maintaining this spreadsheet for 15 years so the fact that I have messed it up is very annoying, or maybe the correct word is upsetting.
Anyway.....To be honest, I'm a little surprised that there are only around 60 books with some variation of the word love (be it love, lovers, loving etc), especially seeing as my spreadsheet goes back to 2004 (or it did) and I am a romance reader from way back.
I thought then that my list today would be books with a variation of love in the title, but that aren't from the romance genre that I gave a rating of 4 or more out of 5.
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - I first read GGM thanks to the Oprah Book Club back in the day when she had the forums on her website and her choice was One Hundred Years of Solitude - a very long time ago! Then I went through and read a lot of his other books including both of these titles. (Review here)
Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Peony in Love by Lisa See- I read this book more than 10 years ago. Recently I read Lisa See's latest book The Island of Sea Women and I still really enjoy her writing.
Friends, Lovers, Chocolate by Alexander McCall Smith - This is part of the long running Isabel Dalhousie series by this prolific author! (Review here)
The Sonnet Lover by Carol Goodman - It's been years since I read this author, but I have noticed that she does have a new book out soon.
The Food of Love by Anthony Capella - This author has kind of disappeared completely, or at least I can't find any evidence that he is still writing which is a shame as I enjoyed his writing. (Review here)
The Love Knot by Elizabeth Chadwick - Elizabeth Chadwick has long been a favourite author. I really need to get back to her books as I am a bit behind.
Last Letter From Your Lover by Jojo Moyes - This is an author who has just grown and grown in popularity over the years
Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes. by Elizabeth Bard - A book about Paris. Who knew I would manage to sneak one of those in! (Review here)
Love and Romanpunk by Tansy Rayner Roberts - This was such a fabulous short story collection from Aussie author. It was part of a bigger collection which featured all female Australian authors (review here)
The Restaurant of Love Regained by Ito Ogawa - a bonus book because this was one that I had forgotten about completely until I started putting this list together! I really enjoyed this book as you can see by my review here. Also a bonus because I only had 9 books on my list last week so that averages itself out right?
Love in the Time of Cholera was such a good book.
ReplyDeleteMy TTT .
I've enjoyed all of his books that I have read!
DeleteI really liked that Jo Moyes book.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely a good one Deanna!
DeleteI've always liked Love in the Time of Cholera as a book title. I've never read it though. Lunch in Paris sounds pretty good too!
ReplyDeleteFood and Paris...what more could we want Greg!
DeleteWhat a lovely selection of reads. Thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by Mystica.
DeleteI've seen several lists using this topic this week and it's surprising how many DIFFERENT "love" books have been highlighted. Apparently, there are a lot of them out there. Someone pointed out that, thankfully, books with the word "hate" in the title seem to vastly outnumber those with the word "love." I love that!
ReplyDeleteHappy TTT (on a Wednesday)!
Susan
www.blogginboutbooks.com
It's a really good observation!
DeleteYou've got me curious to see how many books I have on my shelves with "love" in the title. According to LibraryThing, I own 58 books with that word in the title. But that might not be exactly accurate because I may not have some of those books anymore or some might not have been entered for whatever reason. I couldn't tell you how many of those I've read and how many are just sitting on my shelves waiting to be read.
ReplyDeleteAh, read vs to read - a perennial issue for me!
DeleteImpressive list! I want to try the last one
ReplyDeleteI had completely forgotten about the last one until I reread the review! I'd like to reread it now!
DeleteGreat picks! I'm definitely looking into quite a few of these books. Like, immediately. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI hope you get to read at least some of them.
DeletePretty sure I could use this as a way to create a list as well - off the top of my head I feel like I have lots of titles with "love" on my shelf. :) Never read a novel by Jojo Moyes, but someday I'd like to give on a chance even though I know she tends to write bittersweet stories.
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed quite a few books by Jojo Moyes and I am looking forward to reading her latest one.
DeleteI "love" how you shared excellent books with "love" in the title.
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