Five books for those in love (Part 1)

Love is a beautiful thing. There is a range of emotional feelings in relation to love. There are those related to family members which is love that is soft on the inside, fondness, bonding, memories of growing up years. A sweetness that cannot be exchanged for money. There is love between two lovers, the height […]

Love is a beautiful thing. There is a range of emotional feelings in relation to love. There are those related to family members which is love that is soft on the inside, fondness, bonding, memories of growing up years. A sweetness that cannot be exchanged for money. There is love between two lovers, the height of the tremors of the heart, cant sleep, cant eat, cant function, can do nothing until you see the subject of your love. Love indeed is a beautiful thing. It tugs at your heart holds unto it and acts like its going to kill you. Indeed in many literary works, love has killed lovers, and in real life it is like an opiate and many have died for love.
Are you in love? Are you about to get married? Do you love your family?  Are you in love with a craft, your passion, a job, fashion? In a world full of catastrophe, betrayal, death and callousness, its time to look at an area that is soul-lifting, that is beautiful and uplifting.
Love.
Here are five books for those in love.

1) If you are in love, its hard to see each other’s faults but one book that does in a funny way is Why Men don’t listen & Women cant read maps. A phenomenal book written by a couple, Allan and Barbara Pease is a No 1 international best seller which deals with the practical, humorous and the incredible truths about men and women and teach you what to do about it. It is as hilarious as it is educative and it is also liberating. It is revealed in this book “Why Men really can’t do more than one thing at a time”, why women make such a mess of reverse parallel parking, why men should never lie to a woman, why women talk so much and men so little, why men love erotic images and women aren’t impressed etcetera. If you are in love, you need to understand these things. An important book for all those in love so they understand each other better.

2) The trials of brother Jero by Wole Soyinka and Jero’s metamorphosis. Soyinka’s humour is in top form when he writes this book on the deceit of religion and the prophet who is a charlatan. But underlying all of this theme is also the story of love in a most hilarious place. Amope, Chume’s wife is a character to behold.

3) Edmund De Waal’s book The White Road, a pilgrimage of sorts is such a beautiful book about love for the art of porcelain. Acclaimed writer and potter, Edmund de Waal sets out on a quest, a journey that takes him through China, Venice, Dublin, the Appalachian mountains of South Carolina and the hills of Cornwall to tell the history of porcelain. Along the way he meets the witnesses to its creation, those who were inspired, made rich or heart sick by it. It spans a thousand years. In these intimate and compelling encounters with people and landscapes who made porcelain, Edmund de Waal enriches his understanding of this rare material, white gold, he has worked with for decades and the many livelihoods minds and bodies broken by this obsession. A love story of the rarest kind!

4) Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Is there any story told with such verve and such tragedy that no one has heard of it? A truly sad tale but of love and about love. A tragic romance book about two young star crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. Let me say whatever you do,  do not kill yourself because you are in love. You may feel like that but honestly its not the best way to go about showing your love.

5) Ox Travels introduced by Michael Palin is one of my favourite books of Travel tales and love of humanity. It also made it as BBC Book of the week on BBC Radio 4. I read this book every year. To love another person is to incoveniene yourself, to love another human being is charity. This book, commissioned by Oxfam is edited by Mark Ellingham, Peter Florence and Barnaby Rogerson. Thirty six compelling stories by 36 travel writers, each story is about a meeting and shows us the power of humanity. One of my all time favourites is the story of an Ethiopian masseuse who could tell all the countries any of his clients had travelled to just by massaging their feet. He was never wrong. Incredibly and most amazing, he was a blind masseuse. A book to read tenderly or aloud by anyone who loves humanity. Stories from Burma to Sierra Leone. A great read.

Bonus books
a) A man of the people by Chinua Achebe-Read this with whoever you are in love with and take note particularly of chief the honourable M.P. Nanga and his wife Mrs. Nanga who cared very little about those political parties.

b) Women of Courage edited by Katherine Martin. In it are human stories and i am intrigued by the story of Isabel Allende, Chilean author in The courage to persevere. And in The courage to heal, Dana reeve’s tells the story of how she nursed her husband Christopher Reeves who came to movie fame as superman and who in 1995 was left immobile from the shoulders down when he was thrown by a horse and broke his neck. A great quote from her is “I am no longer satisfied with simply dabbling. There is so much of life to be lived deeply”. Well said!