12 Books for the Bae (and One for All the Single Ladies)
Everyone knows that books make the best Valentine’s Day gifts. (And if you didn’t know: now you do. You heard it from us.) Here’s a short list of 12 books to get you in the mood this weekend. Why go out to a fancy dinner when you can stay home and read?
- Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos
This delightfully racy epistolary novel is about two ex-lovers and rivals, the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, who delight in using their seductive wiles to manipulate others. The Marquise endeavors to corrupt a young woman freshly removed from a convent, while the Vicomte attempts to seduce a notoriously unattainable lady. After reading this drama of revenge and seduction, you can also watch the 1988 movie with Glenn Close and John Malkovich.
2. Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch
Venus in Furs could be called the inverse Fifty Shades, centered on a man who seeks a submissive relationship with the woman he loves, has been widely banned and is one of the earliest depictions of a female dominant in literature.
3. Delta of Venus by Anaïs Nin
This collection of short stories by the famed poet and author was published posthumously. Creating a new ‘language of the senses’, Nin explored an area that was previously the domain of male writers and brought her own unique perceptions to erotica. These stories are a joyous celebration of beauty and sensuality.
4. The Animals by Christopher Isherwood
This collection of letters between novelist and screenwriter Christopher Isherwood and California teenager Don Bachardy is a testament to their extraordinary partnership. Their relationship began in 1952 and lasted until Isherwood’s death in 1986―despite the thirty year age gap, affairs and jealousy (on both sides), the pressures of increasing celebrity, and the disdain of twentieth-century America for love between two men.
5. Women by Chloe Caldwell
This novella about relationships between women — mothers and sisters as well as lovers and friends — may be short but nonetheless packs a powerful emotional punch, delving into the life of a young woman newly moved to the city and her first love with another woman.
6. Fear of Flying by Erica Jong
Famously controversial for its depiction of female sexuality, Erica Jong’s second novel explores the life of Isadora Wing, an author of erotic poetry. Struggling to find her place in the world, while in Vienna with her husband she strikes up an affair with another man. Frankly sexual and unabashedly feminist, this book explores how we define ourselves and how we find ourselves through relationships.
7. Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan
This acclaimed and accessible nonfiction book explores the origins of patterns of human sexuality and relationships in our evolutionary past. Their arguments seek out the reasons, as the subtitle of the book says, “why we mate, why we stray, and what it means for modern relationships.” Drawing primarily on biological evidence, Sex at Dawn challenges the conventional wisdom of evolutionary psychology.
8. Me, You, Us by Lisa Currie
If your bae is less about the reading of novels, try out this collaborative book/journal you can fill out together. Whether it’s writing fortune cookies for each other or deciding on a theme song, this activity book provides plenty of activities to enjoy — and leaves you with a perfect written time capsule once you finish.
9. 150 Shades of Play: A Beginner’s Guide to Kink by Em & Lo
If you and your partner are interested in exploring something new and kinky in the boudoir, this handy guide might be helpful in getting you started on safe, sane, and consensual fun. (And if you don’t know if your bae is interested — giving them this book as a gift would be an exciting way to find out!)
10. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
A modern love story set on a college campus in the 1980s. As Madeleine Hanna writes her senior thesis on the marriage plots of Jane Austen and George Eliot, real life intervenes in the form of two very different guys, Mitchell and Leonard. Together, the three of them begin to take the first stumbling steps out of the theoretical abstracts of college classrooms and into adulthood.
11. Tête-à-Tête by Hazel Rowley
Hazel Rowley’s biography of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, philosophical titans and legendary couple, offers a dual portrait of these two colossal figures and their intense, often embattled relationship. This intimate portrayal of their intertwined lives gives a glimpse into a remarkable and unorthodox relationship.
12. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver
This famous collection by Carver pulls together several of his short stories dealing with themes of love, loss, and companionship. Carver’s spare, simple style captures moments of simple humanity and pathos with rare sensitivity.
BONUS: Never Have I Ever: My Life (So Far) Without a Date by Katie Heaney
If you’re not feeling the bae vibes this Valentine’s Day — Katie Heaney’s funny memoir of her dateless years will have you laughing into that glass of wine you get all to yourself — or you can always get one of these books for you! It’s always good to be your own bae first. ♥️