August is Romance Awareness Month and we’re here to put the spark back into your library visits!
The library has a large romance collection. There’s something for everyone.
Looking for a historical romance set in Regency England? Try out the first in the Bridgerton series by Julia Quinn. It’s sweet and funny, with the perfect balance of historical realism and fictional romance.
How about a contemporary romance between the heir to the English crown and the son of the President of the United States? Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston is a hugely popular book that inspired a Netflix movie. In fact, Casey McQuiston will be joining us for a virtual author visit on August 20 at 6:00pm. You can either come to the library to watch it, or watch from home.
The Kiss Countdown by Etta Easton is a romance by a Black author featuring Black lead characters. Amerie Price is jobless, newly single, and about to lose her apartment in Houston. When she runs into her ex, she panics and grabs a random man at a coffee show and claims to be dating him. She also happens to mention that he’s an astronaut. Thankfully, he plays along. They come up with a mutually beneficial plan that threatens to turn into true love.
If you’re not interested in romance novels, how about some non-fiction? Check out Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari. He answers questions about romance in modern times and looks at the data of love and companionship. As a comedian, he’ll also make you chuckle at the absurdities we face when we love someone.
Looking to read yourself into a romantic place? A Passion for Paris: Romanticism and Romance in the City of Light by David Downie will take you away into a unique combination of memoir, history, and travelogue. Weaving together his own with the lives and loves of Victor Hugo, Georges Sand, Charles Baudelaire, Balzac, Nadar and other great Romantics, Downie delights in the city’s secular romantic pilgrimage sites asking, Why Paris, not Venice or Rome–the tap root of ‘romance’–or Berlin, Vienna and London–where the earliest Romantics built castles-in-the-air and sang odes to nightingales?
Need some direction in your own love life? Check out 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go by Jay Shetty. Shetty lays out specific, actionable steps to help you develop the skills to practice and nurture love better than ever before. He shares insights on how to win or lose together, how to define love, and why you don’t break in a break-up.
Show the object of your affection just how much you’re into them by attending our Poetry Writing Workshops on August 7 or August 21 from 6:00pm – 7:00pm. We’ll teach you a little about poetry and help you shape your feelings into a beautiful poem.
You’ll have to wait until after August, but starting on September 7 at 7:00pm we’re be hosting a brand new Romance Book Club! The first book we’ll read is Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey. Get and read your copy during August so you’re ready to discuss it at the program.
Need help finding your kind of romance? Contact the reference desk at [email protected] or (815) 756-9568 ext. 2150.