Kayla Thompson, Adult Services, Cape Girardeau Public Library
February is the month of love, but there are more ways than one to love a person. Here are some books that take a look at a few different ways we can love both ourselves and others.
Eat. Pray. Love. by Elizabeth Gilbert (self-love): At 30, Gilbert wakes up one day and realizes that she isn’t happy with her life or marriage. Divorced and unhappy, she sets out on a mission of self-love. On her journey, she feeds her body in Italy, her soul in India, and eventually lets love back into her heart in Indonesia.
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (familial love): This novel follows a South Korean family through the generations starting in the 1900s (during Japan’s occupation of Korea). It is a story of struggle, pain, love, and ultimately the importance of family.
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells (friendship): This is a story of both familial love and the love of friends. Sidda and her mother have a rocky relationship that only gets rockier when comments are made publicly about Sidda’s childhood. But the Ya-Ya’s step in and show Sidda the scrapbook of their lives and friendships together and she realizes that love and forgiveness come in many forms.
The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver (romantic love): Lydia’s life was perfect. Until it wasn’t. Lydia and her fiance, Freddie, have been together for over a decade when a car crash kills him and leaves his best friend, Jonas, alive. She’s lost, until the little pink pill to help her sleep transports her to an alternate life where Freddie is still alive. She knows she shouldn’t…but she can’t help herself.
