An Invitation to Love

“Love consists in this, that two solitudes protect and touch and greet each other,” said the poet, Rainer Maria Rilke. Here’s a terrific book for Valentine’s Day, impulse shoppers, and gift givers. The warm, romantic, beautifully composed and reproduced photos come with brief excerpts from love poems, proverbs, and well-known tales. Their authors include Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Dylan Thomas, Victor Hugo, and many others. It’s a celebration of innocent first love, mothers’ love, enduring love, passionate love—and love of every kind. Magnificent black-and-white photography sets the mood for famous quotations and excerpts from a wide range of sources, including world literary classics and popular songs in Barron’s beautiful “An Invitation to . . .” series. These are wonderful books for dreamers and lovers—a blend of nostalgia, charm, and gentle wit, with photographs of unusual beauty.