Shelf Improvement: Best Books on Love Edition

How to Love, by Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh, beloved Zen master, Buddhist monk, and peace activist, is known worldwide for his influential teachings on mindfulness. In addition to creating numerous mindfulness communities throughout America and Europe, he has also written more than 100 books on the practice of meditation. Recently, through a Parallax Press Mindfulness Essentials Series, Thich Nhat Hanh created a collection of unparalleled handbooks, including the titles How to Relax, How to Eat, How to Sit, How to Walk, and, perhaps most importantly, How to Love.
How to Love is a tiny, pocket-sized read that packs an enormous punch. Within, Thich Nhat Hanh guides readers through the process of learning how to truly love others, beginning with a profound first entry on understanding. “Understanding someone’s suffering,” he writes, “is the best gift you can give another person. Understanding is love’s other name.”
A sampling of subsequent chapters includes, “The Four Elements of True Love,” “Hugging,” “Empty Sex,” “Asking for Help,” “Friendship,” “A Sleeping Child,” and “20 Questions for Looking Into Your Relationship.” All of the chapters are no more than a page or two, and all are simply phrased, but don’t be fooled by the book’s spare writing or small size; this indispensable jewel covers everything you need to know about every type of love, from parental to platonic to passionate.

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë
This coming-of-age classic explores one of the greatest romantic relationships in literary history, that of Jane Eyre and her employer, Edward Rochester. Though the book begins with Jane’s unhappy childhood as an orphan rejected by her aunt and cousins, and details her subsequent years of hardship at Lowood Institution for poor girls, the core of the book centers on the profound love between Jane and Rochester, which begins when she is hired as a governess at Rochester’s Thornfield Hall.
Both stoic lonelyhearts desperate for connection, Jane and Rochester are first brought together by a horseback riding accident in which Jane rescues Rochester, and later through fireside talks that feature plenty of dry banter and unspoken longing. As Jane’s time at Thornfield progresses, so does their bond. When she finally professes her feelings to him, Rochester, to her surprise, proposes. But it is with Rochester’s unexpected proposal that Brontë chooses to take readers on an inconceivable trip: a wedding veil is ripped in two by a madwoman on the loose, Rochester’s previous marriage has not been annulled, an elopement is denied, and Jane runs away to teach at a school and nearly dies in the process.
Ultimately, Jane and Rochester are brought back together, but only when circumstances are at their most tragic, proving to readers that the love between them is one for the ages: utterly unconditional and divinely destined. A must-read, must-own masterpiece that has been hailed as ahead of its time in the ways it tackles sexism, poverty, and religious oppression, Jane Eyre is, more than anything, an epic story of an epic love affair.

The Fault In Our Stars, by John Green
John Green’s dazzling The Fault In Our Stars is another one of the most readable, can’t-put-downable love stories ever. This brilliant novel details the young love story between 16-year-old Hazel Grace Lancaster and 17-year-old Augustus Waters, both of whom are battling cancer. After meeting in a support group, Hazel and Augustus quickly connect and agree to exchange favorite novels; Hazel’s is titled An Imperial Affliction and is about a girl named Anna whose story is much like hers.
Frustrated that the book lacks a satisfactory ending, Augustus becomes determined to track down the author and discover what happens to his characters. In order to do so, he realizes he must travel to Amsterdam to meet the author, and decides to take Hazel with him. Despite their failing health, the two young lovers embark on an overseas adventure, only to find that the author has no answers for them and that the end, of both the book and their personal stories, is for them to write. What results when Hazel and Augustus return home is one of the most romantic, star-crossed conclusions ever penned, one wrought from grief, irrepressible dark humor, and pure devotion. Praised by critics and readers as incredibly real and refreshingly hilarious, as well as heartbreaking and unafraid, The Fault In Our Stars speaks perfectly to the purity of first love, the tragic unfairness of illness, and how incredibly high the stakes are when those two worlds collide.