Books on Love, Part I: Cynics Version

There is an over-abundance of books on love, and very few of them end happily, which is why I've rounded up a list of recommended fiction for those who are less than thrilled about Valentine's Day this year.

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene -- The name says it all; if you like your love stories to include terminal disease and weird Catholic overtones, this is the one for you.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood -- For those among us who have decided to swear off men for good, this is the validation you need.

Heartburn by Nora Ephron -- A very funny, sweet novel based on Ephron's own divorce experiences. Not nearly as cynical as the rest of the list, and an excellent breakup book.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte -- A book about love for anyone who feels too much. 

The Awakening by Kate Chopin -- I am so tempted to summarize this novella about an unhappily married woman but I would inevitably ruin the ending for you, and it is such a treat (if you hate Edna, as I did).

Books by Funny Women

Lena Dunham's memoir Not That Kind of Girl follows in a long and illustrious (albeit recent) tradition of famous, funny women publishing essays and memoirs. Part of the reason she received such a publicized advance on the book was because of the incredible (and somewhat surprising) successes of her predecessors. Below are some of my favorite funny lady books, including some titles to watch for in the coming months.

Bossypants by Tina Fey -- The O.G. of books by funny ladies in the modern era. I like how seamlessly she blends autobiographical stuff with funny essays, and then somehow manages to give you really profound advice about feminism without your realizing what just happened.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling -- Another classic, which you've likely already read. If not, got on that, and also watch her show on Fox, 'The Mindy Project,' and then join me in anxiously awaiting her second memoir, which she's currently working on.

I Don't Know What You Know Me From by Judy Greer -- I cannot abide this one because she claims to be from Detroit and then reveals she actually grew up in Livonia. This is simply too much for me, but I still love her in everything, but mostly 'Arrested Development.'

 I Hate My Neck by Nora Ephron -- She's an incredible wit, a strident feminist, and a very sweet lady, whose personal voice as a writer is probably the strongest of this group. When you read her essays, you feel like you're reading something written by a friend or a very hilarious mother. This particular volume is focused on aging and womanhood, but all her writing is excellent.

Yes, Please by Amy Poehler -- Forthcoming in October! She earns the very high praise of being worth saving my next Audible credit for, as I'm hopeful she'll be the reader in her own audio book version. She's talented and funny and if her presence in Bossypants is any indication, she has plenty of sage feminist wisdom to dispense with as well. Additionally, if you're not already enjoying her incredible media empire that is 'Smart Girls at the Party,' go remedy that.

#ReadWomen2014: Nora Ephron

This week's #ReadWomen2014 is a particularly fun one, because getting to know Nora Ephron as a writer absolutely includes a screening of her movies, especially When Harry Met Sally, the screenplay of which is even included in The Most of Nora Ephron, a posthumous collection of her work which I recommend for its breadth and variety. In addition to the screenplay, it includes her early journalism, later essays, her Wellesley commencement address about being flat-chested, and her post-divorce novel Heartburn. Really hardcore Nora Ephron fans might want this in addition to some of the individual essay collections (Wallflower at the Orgy, I Feel Bad About My Neck), even though there will be some overlap.

Her writing is smart and funny and so. so absolutely touching and human. She bares her soul in so many ways that manage to be simultaneously funny and sad, and she pretty unapologetically and honestly embraces her flaws, which feels in a strange way like a granting of permission for the reader to do the same. She is someone you can read when you want a really fun, smart book that is entertaining and soulful.

#ReadWomen2014: Roxane Gay

In case you haven't figured it out already, I am a fan of Roxane Gay. I have already endorsed her first novel, An Untamed State, and her essay collection Bad Feminist, out this week. Both are great, and by all means, buy them and read them.

I would be remiss, however, if I didn't include an endorsement for Roxane Gay's prolific writing on all manner of subjects, all over the Internet, most of it freely available. She is at the very forefront of the literary Internet, and her Twitter feed is a joy to behold. There are a few authors I really truly enjoy following on Twitter because they approach it as just another form of authorship, rather than a stream of self-promotion, and Roxane Gay is certainly one of them. I know a lot of people who don't use Twitter because they aren't really sure how or why they need it, and she's a good example of what you might be missing.

Equally as an enchanting is her Tumblr page, which she updates almost daily. This is the best place to find aggregation of all her Internet writing, including terrific essays written for the likes of The Rumpus and Salon. If you enjoyed Bad Feminist, this is the source material from which it was born, and there is plenty more out there. What I particularly love about her Tumblr though is the deeply personal, almost diary-like writing exercises she posts every week. Lately they've been following a similar structural pattern of Gay's narration and photos of her cooking a recipe (she's a devotee of Ina Garten) while she reflects on her life. The results are equally profound and delicious, and if you're a fan of food writing, you'll love it. It reminds me of Nora Ephron's food writing, but maybe a bit more heartfelt and somber. Really, really lovely stuff.

I often try to carve out a ten minute chunk in every work day to see what she's been writing, and I never find myself skimming her content, which is rare for stuff in my RSS feed. I read and digest every word while I sip my coffee, and then I impatiently wait for her to post again. Every voracious reader understands that anxiety and enthusiasm that comes from waiting for a favorite writer to finish a project so it can be consumed, and with Roxane Gay, you only have a wait a few hours.

Finally, she has a work of non-fiction/fiction/poetry on the Haitian diaspora, Ayiti, I haven't read it yet, but I really can't wait to check it out. For those who enjoyed An Untamed State, it will provide a lot of parsing out of the Haitian-American cultural  context of that novel.

#ReadWomen2014: Ayn Rand

Okay, okay. But hear me out-- there are really only two authors I read that I would consider "guilty pleasures." There's no good reason to ever feel guilty about reading, even if it's strictly for pleasure. But when you read something that is not only pleasurable but also just plain bad and bad for you, then you might be justified in feeling some guilt. For me, that's George R.R. Martin and Ayn Rand. I'm not sure either one needs much explaining, but the Game of Thrones books (or Song of Ice and Fire books if you're a nerd) are pretty violent and misogynistic, and I normally can't abide genre fiction, but those books just sucked me in.

Ms. Rand on the other hand, is a bad writer and sort of an immoral person, which is why I felt so guilty reading The Fountainhead. which I'm still embarrassed to admit I gulped down in a week. I read it immediately after finishing grad school, when I had lots of time on my hands and was depressed about my employment prospects. I wanted to read something huge, for its own sake, and I picked The Fountainhead. I knew going into it that I had missed the boat-- I was way too old to be indoctrinated into the cult of Ayn Rand, but that almost made it even more pleasurable. It is so silly and the prose is just obnoxiously, deliciously overwrought. Nora Ephron has a terrific essay on it, probably some of the best literary criticism on Ayn Rand I've read, and there are more posts on Nora Ephron coming up, so I highly recommend you check it out.

I read Anthem in high school with the delusional idea that I would submit an essay for the Ayn Rand Institute essay contest, which now that I think about it-- Why are we letting them insert themselves into public education in this way?! But anyway, I never wrote an essay, because I thought the book was pretty dumb-- but I still raced through it and kinda secretly enjoyed it.

I haven't yet read Atlas Shrugged but I have every intention of doing so, again, partially just for the sake of reading a gigantic book. I've already been considering what will happen after #ReadWomen2014 is over (chronologically, that is. Reading women will never actually stop for me), and reading enormous books for the blog is one idea I've been tossing around. I will obviously need to start reading much, much faster in that case, but Atlas Shrugged would definitely make the cut.

If schadenfreude is more your cup of tea, try a good biography of Ayn Rand, which will provide plenty of anti-Rand ammunition. As obnoxious as her belief system was, she was still a pretty fascinating public figure, so this is more on the pleasure side, less of the guilt.

For those who reject my premise of Ayn Rand as guilty pleasure altogether -- here is George Saunders mocking Ayn Rand, which is just pure pleasure in every sense and another ringing endorsement for George Saunders.