This week’s Top Ten Tuesday post from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share any topic we’d like related to “love” in honor of Valentine’s Day. I thought I’d share the 11 books I have rated with four or five stars in Goodreads with some form of the word in the title:

1. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
2. Love Is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield
3. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
4. Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern
5. Beloved by Toni Morrison
6. Love That Dog by Sharon Creech
7. My True Love Gave To Me, edited by Stephanie Perkins
8. Book Love by Debbie Tung
9. The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine who Outwitted America’s Enemies by Jason Fagone
10. Modern Lovers by Emma Straub
11. The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough

That’s out of 46 books with “love” in the title.

Interestingly, it’s a pretty balanced list: three books by guys, two nonfiction titles, one book of poetry, one collection of comics, one collection of short stories, two classics, and three books aimed at kids or young adults.

How about you? What “love” books have you loved?

It was a pleasant weekend, all told. Rudi came home tonight, and we got to watch episodes of Sanditon and My Life Is Murder and catch up with each other.

I had a great game of bowling, coming up with 111 points in nine frames. (The league is weird and is timed and so I didn’t get to bowl a tenth frame.)

I did a lot of walking out in the mild weather. (Isn’t that camellia gorgeous?)

I tracked down King Cake and Girl Scout cookies (Did you know each local council sets the price for a box of cookies, which meant cookies in D.C. cost a dollar more than they did 100 miles away in Pennsylvania?) and cat litter, bought greens and potatoes at the farmers market and tea made out of cocoa bean shells at a craft fair, picked up holds from the library, and did some other chores.

I finished two books and a shawl, rewatched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and had supper with some friends.

So, yeah, it was a good weekend.

Not bad for February, eh?

This is the only weekend left in February where I’ll be home the entire time, so I need to squeeze certain things into it:

• Visiting the library.
• Stopping by the bakery stand for King Cake.
• Doing laundry.
• Bowling.
• Meeting up with a friend to go to a craft fair.
• Cleaning.
• Taking advantage of some of my birthday month discounts.
• Going to the farmers market.
• Baking.
• Paying some bills.
• Getting outside.
• Catching up on some sleep.

How about you? What’s on your agenda for this weekend?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Cherry chocolate bread from the baker at the farmers market.

2. I spent Friday evening with a dear friend from college who lives on the other side of the country. We took a walk and celebrated our birthday early, I got to see both his daughters and his wife, and he drove me to the airport.

3. I was feeling a little sorry for myself after my Monday volleyball game, when no one wanted to go out afterwards. I stopped by the local fancy grocery store/bar on my walk home, not because I needed anything, but mostly as something to do before going home, and my friend (and teammate) came running in to invite me to join her, her husband, and her dog on the patio for a drink. (The volleyball bar doesn’t allow dogs, and it was an especially mild evening.)

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

I have absolutely nothing new to report on the knitting front. I still have to bind off my shawl. I would like to do that this week, so I can take it home with me to Connecticut and block it there in a place where there are doors to close against cats who like to lie on wool and pick up small things (like T pins) in their mouths. (To be fair, Corey has never actually picked up a T pin, but I imagine it’s only because I’ve never given him the opportunity.)

I’m also still carrying around the sock project in my bag that I started back before Christmas, thinking that it would certainly be done by the end of January. I did unravel a knot in the yarn last week, but that really seems like a low standard of success, unless you judge it based on the Senate, in which case I’ve won the week.

I was hoping to knit up my Valentine’s Day hat before next Friday, but at this point, that seems unlikely. But who knows…

I’ve had a better reading week. I didn’t take The Paper Magician with me to California because it was a library book, instead grabbing Cath Crowley’s Words in Deep Blue, part of my #tbtbSanta gift this year. It was a fantastic choice, demanding to keep being read long after I should have put it down and threatening to force me to buy a new book for the trip home. (It did not and I did not, which is good, because that was not in my budget and I don’t think I could have convinced work it was a mandatory travel expense, although…) But I did finish it on Saturday after I got back to D.C., and it was excellent, and actually worked together nicely with The Paper Magician, since it, too, highlights the magical power of words. (It’s a new year, so book reviews should resume shortly. They don’t usually fall off altogether until spring.)

I also started listening to A Fatal Grace over the weekend. I don’t love books that change points of view every chapter, and I clearly forgot about that from the first book, but Louise Penny has such affection for her characters that I think it will be fine. And who wouldn’t want to spend Christmas in Three Pines, particularly if you could guarantee you weren’t going to be the one being murdered? (It’s probably too much to ask that you aren’t amongst the suspects; I’m hoping your own conscience will keep you from being the murderer.)

I hope you’ve also had books you loved this week and that your craft projects are moving forward faster than mine… (Check As Kat Knits for people who are more productive than I — and who also don’t let their phone batteries die just as they need a blog photo.)