Love hurts - read all about it

Here's an interesting recommendation that landed in my Inbox, courtesy of veryshortlist.com: The book "My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead," edited by Jeffrey Eugenides. He's the author best known for "Middlesex," a literary saga about a hermaphrodite. The award-winning novel got rave reviews, was featured on Oprah's book club and was devoured and much-loved by just about everybody I know.

"My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead" (and I would've recommended it on the awesome title and cover alone) is an anthology of 26 love stories. As Very Short List puts it: "In his introduction to "My Mistress’s Sparrow Is Dead: Great Love Stories, from Chekhov to Munro," Jeffrey Eugenides makes an important distinction between love and the love story: 'Love stories depend upon disappointment, on unequal births and feuding families, on matrimonial boredom and at least one cold heart. Love stories, nearly without exception, give love a bad name.' "

Valentine's Day is coming. I'm so reading this to get in the mood!