Our Draper James Orange Blossom Special Candle, Large DJ Mint Julep Cup, Pencils, and Magnolia Paperweight alongside books about love chosen by a few of our favorite Southern bookstores.
This time of year, there is nothing we would rather do than delve into a gripping love story. So we asked eight of our favorite bookstores in the South to give us their picks for books that explore the many facets of love, from tragic romances to unbreakable family ties.
1) Love Warps the Mind a Little by John Dufresne
Chosen by Faulkner House Books in New Orleans: “This book fulfills all of the requirements of a terrific read: funny, tragic, honest and extremely well written.”
2) A Fine Romance: Falling in Love With the English Countryside by Susan Branch
Chosen by Full Circle Bookstore in Oklahoma City, OK: “With beautiful pictures and handwritten print throughout the book, this diary of love in England is a true joy.”
3) The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George
Chosen by G.J. Ford Bookshop in Saint Simons Island, GA: “Anyone who loves books will love this one, since it is all about how the right book can heal what ails you.”
4) A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Chosen by Sundog Books in Seaside, FL: “This book beautifully explores a variety of unexpected, but graceful, enduring loves.”
5) Music of the Swamp by Lewis Nordan
Chosen by Square Books in Oxford, MS: “This story of a young boy growing up in the Mississippi Delta with his mother and his hapless, hopeless father, whom he adores, is terribly funny, sometimes heartachingly so.”
6) The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm
Chosen by The Wild Detectives in Dallas: “Prominent German philosopher Erich Fromm proposes a self-aware, selfless kind of love that can only come from a state of complete self acceptance.”
7) My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
Chosen by Parnassus Books in Nashville: “This is no romance, but love saturates every word of this perfectly distilled little novel about family.”
8) Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins
Chosen by Blue Bicycle Books in Charleston, SC: “Despite the hullabaloo about a certain bondage trilogy, this is by far the sexiest book ever written about the Pacific Northwest.”
