Just in time for Valentine’s Day . . . if you need some help:

Love Links
Joe Carter Tells Guys How to Write a Love Letter
All for Love: Kelli’s Valentine Traditions
Strawberry Cake recipe for Valentine’s Day

Books about Love, Romance, and Marriage
Anatomy of a Marriage: Novels about Marriage
The Love Letters by Madeleine L’Engle.
Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins
Random Harvest by James Hilton
Green Mansions by WH Hudson. ““Our souls were near together, like two raindrops side by side, drawing irresistibly nearer, ever nearer; for now they had touched and were not two, but one inseparable drop, crystallised beyond change, not to be disintegrated by time, nor shattered by death’s blow, nor resolved by any alchemy.”
Real Romance for Grown-up Women
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Yes. Heathcliff and Cathy were actually the worst of lovers –capricious, unfaithful while remaining bonded to one another, but let’s not quibble. “I am Heathcliff!” says Cathy, and what better description of the marriage of two souls is there in literature?
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Jane and Mr. Rochester are as radically faithful and loving in their own way as Cathy and Heathcliff imagine themselves to be. And they actually get together before they die, surely an advantage for lovers.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy are the epitome of lovers in tension that finally leads to consummation.
Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers. Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane are such a hesitant, battle-scarred pair of lovers that thye almost don’t get together at all, but that’s what makes the series of romance-within-a mystery novels that culminates in Gaudy Night so very romantic. They’ve used the same formula in TV series ever since, but Sayers is much better than any Remington Steele (Laura and Remington) or Cheers (Sam and Diane). And Ms. Sayers was even able to write a credibly interesting epilogue novel in Busman’s Honeymoon, which is better than the TV writers can do most of the time.
At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon. Who says love is only for the young? Father Tim and Cynthia make it through thick and thin and through five or six books, still in love, still throwing quotations at one another. They’re great lovers in the best sense of the word.

My Love Song Playlist (very retro–70’s)
The Twelfth of Never by Donnie Osmond.
Cherish by David Cassidy and the Partridge Family.
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack
Just the Way You Are by Billy Joel

I Honestly Love You by Olivia Newton John.
Evergreen by Barbra Streisand.
Can’t Help Falling in Love With You by Elvis Presley.
Laughter in the Rain by Neil Sedaka.
L-O-V-E by Nat King Cole.

Poetry of Love
A Slice of Life by Edgar Guest
Come Live With Me and Be My Love by Christopher Marlowe
She Walks in Beauty Like the Night by Lord Byron
Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe.
Young Lochinvar by Sir Walter Scott
As I Walked Out One Evening by WH Auden
If Thou Must Love Me by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Sonnet 116: Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds by William Shakespeare.
Oh, My Luve’s Like a Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns.
How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

“Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes;
Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers’ tears.
What is it else? A madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.”
~Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Recommended Movies for Valentine’s Day
Marty. “Ernest Borgnine (Oscar for Best Actor) stars as a 35 year old Italian butcher who’s still not married in spite of the fact that all his younger brothers and sisters have already tied the knot.”
It Happened One Night. Clark Gable is a reporter in this romantic comedy about a run-away rich girl.
Much Ado About Nothing. Kenneth Branaugh and Emma Thompson. The reparte between Benedick and Beatrice is so memorable that you may find yourself quoting Shakespeare in spite of yourself.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I really loved the fact that Ian knew that he was not just marrying a girl but also her family.
The Princess Bride. Romance at it finest and funniest. “That day, she was amazed to discover that when he was saying ‘As you wish’, what he meant was, ‘I love you.’ And even more amazing was the day she realized she truly loved him back.”
You’ve Got Mail. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are a great pair.
Romeo and Juliet. The Franco Zefferelli version.

Love Quotes
“There is no happiness in love, except at the end of an English novel.” ~Trollope

“It may have been observed that there is no regular path for getting out of love as there is for getting in. Some people look upon marriage as a short cut that way but it has been known to fail.” ~Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy.

One advantage of marriage, it seems to me, is that when you fall out of love with him or he falls out of love with you, it keeps you together until maybe you fall in again.
~Judith Viorst

Love Quotes 2007

My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;
The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.
Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.
My beloved is mine, and I am his . . .

What are your favorites? Romantic movie? Romantic novel? Love song? Love poem?