false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175609745m/534571.jpg 534571 2 <p>"Simon Van Booy's stories have the power and resonance of poems. They stay with you like a significant memory."-Roger Rosenblatt </p> <p>"Van Booy is a remarkable young writer. Taste, touch, smell, sight and sound, in spite of their evanescence, are frozen for a moment in these stories and celebrated, along with their subtle interconnection, in all the aspects of love."-Fred Volkmer </p> <p> <em>The Secret Lives of People in Love</em> is the first short story collection by award-winning writer Simon Van Booy. These stories, set in Kentucky, New York, Paris, Rome, and Greece, are a perfect synthesis of grace, intensity, atmosphere, and compassion. Love, loss, frailty, human contact, and isolation are Van Booy's themes. In radiant prose he writes about the difficult choices we make in order to retain our humanity and about the redemptive power of love in a violent world. </p> <p>Born in London, <b>Simon Van Booy</b> grew up in Wales. A keen rugby player, he was recruited to play football for Campbellsville University in Kentucky. He eventually returned to England, where he graduated from Dartington College of Arts. Now a New Yorker, he teaches at the School of Visual Arts and in the Bard College Clemente Course. As a freelance journalist, he writes for several New York newspapers. He has won a first-place award for in-depth reporting from the New York Press Association.</p> 522072 1 5 2007 The Secret Lives of People in Love total:142|5:63|4:49|3:20|2:9|1:1| 142 590 324 59 3 2 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 06 13:56:41 -0800 2007 Thu Jan 10 10:59:56 -0800 2008
I'll start off with the things I like then, hmm?: there were some stories that did work for me. I really liked "Apples," ...more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Aug 27 12:51:07 -0700 2007 Thu Feb 21 07:03:55 -0800 2008
Usually a story will incorporate several kinds of love - friendship, family, romance, and compare the two.

A rather large number of the stories show love overc...more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Aug 30 14:09:12 -0700 2007 Sun Aug 12 20:59:43 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 30 14:08:54 -0700 2007
It is almost like a fine wine... you inhale (it) gently, swirl it around just a bit to observe its delicate colours, and then take the first tentative sip. With each si...more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 23 15:05:07 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 02 16:26:40 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 11 09:40:11 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 17 15:13:15 -0700 2007 4 0 false false Thu Dec 11 20:14:09 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 11 20:24:31 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Nov 25 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 20 21:00:18 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 25 17:17:32 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Wed Jul 04 12:53:12 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 04 12:54:00 -0700 2007 5 0 false false Mon Sep 15 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Dec 04 09:01:01 -0800 2007 Tue Sep 16 06:26:06 -0700 2008 (http://dangerouslychallenge.blogspot.com...) and I thought I would read a couple stories yesterday and scatter the rest throughout the month. But! I started reading and could. not. stop. Seriously. I couldn't. I stayed up way pa...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Mar 18 07:09:47 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 18 07:19:16 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Dec 27 08:31:50 -0800 2007 Thu Apr 17 12:28:57 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Aug 19 19:41:57 -0700 2007 Sun Aug 19 19:51:10 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 12:01:12 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 09 13:49:46 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Sep 04 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 17 09:35:34 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 04 10:44:40 -0700 2008 ----

This book was recommended to me last week by an MFA student sitting at the information desk of Pr...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 04 22:42:34 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 03 11:58:03 -0700 2008
The stories in this book are simple and pure. They do not contain anything more ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Sep 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 30 17:45:11 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 03 14:53:09 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Fri May 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon May 11 08:29:21 -0700 2009 Fri May 29 10:21:50 -0700 2009 1 like all of the stories, per se, but a well-written story is not always one that the reader "likes." I have to say that the stories were not what I expected, given the title of the book...most were very bittersweet, filled with grief and ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 06 23:19:23 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 21 18:40:50 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jan 21 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 21 14:45:53 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 21 15:05:07 -0800 2008
That said, I felt the first story was the best of the bunch, and I kept hoping the la...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu May 08 13:07:31 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 01 09:58:14 -0700 2008 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=534571