Book Round-Up: Love Stories

 Persuasion by Jane Austen: I think this is now my favorite Austen novel. It was her last work, published posthumously, and I find the comedy funnier, the satire sharper, and the emotions more heartfelt than her other works.

 Well Met by Jen DeLuca: The Ren Faire setting was cute, and the argument the protagonists had about the Authorship Question had me laughing, but overall I found the characters behaving more like teenagers than the mid- to late-twentysomethings they were.

 Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn: a love story where the protagonists are more interesting than usual, and which had some smart things to say about friendship. My only complaint is that the narration, the interior monologue of the heroine, was verbose to the point of distraction.

Writers & Lovers by Lily King: I read this in 23 hours, neglecting sleep and chores and work (but not my kids -- they are too noisy to neglect easily). It's a moving novel about grief, daily pressures, inspiration, writer's block, and opening one's heart. Its setting of Cambridge and Boston in 1997 is evocative (I lived in Somerville in 1998, and Boston thereafter) and the depiction of Casey's struggle to get her life under control was moving. I will be thinking about this book for a long time.

Who Can Save Us Now? Edited by Owen King and John McNally

Who Can Save Us Now? is a collection of short stories about superheroes, and it was about what one would expect -- satires and parodies of characters like Batman and Superman, stories that show the darker, more prosaic side of superpowers such as broken relationships and inconvenient consequences, and riffs on issues like heroism, sacrifice, and idolization.  The stories were, for the most part, enjoyable and clever, but they don't add much to the genre.

There were a few exceptions.  I preferred the stories that addressed the human impulse to make things better, and recognized the inherent dignity of the characters no matter how dorky or pathetic they were. The (adorable) standout for me was "Nate Pinckney-Alderson, Superhero" by Elizabeth Crane.  It pits a child's idealism against adult cynicism, but I was left with the distinct impression that Nate would not be outgrowing his idealism.  Owen King's "The Meerkat" was both odd and touching. Jennifer Weiner's "League of Justice (Philadelphia Division)" was probably the most conventional, and incorporated many non-superhero elements from her other fiction, but the actual plot was surprisingly compelling. And the last story, "The Lives of Ordinary Superheroes" by David Haynes, was quite moving and at times profound. These stories alone are worth the price of the collection.