OK, a fun little post to get you in the mood for Valentine’s Day at the end of this week. Mr Gums and I don’t make a big thing of the Day – it wasn’t a big thing in Australia when we were young – but that doesn’t mean I can’t use it to give some air to Australian books about love.

Australians will recognise my post’s title, but I don’t know how well known it is elsewhere, so, briefly, “Love is in the air” is the title of a 1977 disco song, written by George Young and Harry Vanda, and performed by John Paul Young. It featured in the 1992 film, Strictly Ballroom. According to Wikipedia (linked on the song title), it became a “worldwide hit” in 1978, though what is meant by the “world” is an interesting point, eh?

However, I’m not going to be political today. Instead I want to mainly throw it over to you, wherever you are, to share books about love that you love! To get us going, I will just share a handful of Aussie books that I have reviewed in which love is a significant theme or thread. I’m focusing on fiction, and on romantic love – in honour of the theme – but from various angles.

Carmel Bird’s Love letter to Lola (2023) (my review): a short story collection, which includes a story comprising a sad love letter written by a Spix’s Macaw to his lost mate. (I also mentioned this story, or a version of it, in my post on Bird’s The dead aviatrix.) This is eco-lit about species extinction, told with wit.

Nigel Featherstone’s My heart is a little wild thing (2022) (my review): affecting story about a 40s-something “semi-closeted” gay man who experiences real love for the first time, and just when his life is closing in.

Andrea Goldsmith’s The buried life (2025) (my review): describes a few romantic relationships, some healthy, some very not, but all exploring how hard love can be, and how precious it is when it is found. It also includes deep, supportive love between friends.

Marion Halligan’s Wishbone (1994) (my review): about, as I wrote in my post, “the tension between our wishes – particularly regarding love – and living with what you’ve got” (and more). This novel has it all – love, marriage, affairs – but told with warmth and compassion for people coping with life as it changes over time.

Anita Heiss’ Paris dreaming (2011) (my review): one of Heiss’s “choclit” books about young professional First Nations women making their way through work and love.

Toni Jordan’s Addition (2008) (my review): almost standard chicklit, but with a heroine who is definitely not standard. (This book has been adapted to a film that is showing in Australia now).

Alex Miller’s Lovesong (2009) (my review): a carefully structured novel featuring several love stories, some longstanding, some new in the making. I described it as, among other things, “a meditation on the mystery and power of love”.

Christina Stead’s For love alone (1945) (my review): autofiction about a young woman who follows a man to the other side of the world, only to find him not what she believed … but, this is Stead, so there’s so much more to our young protagonist’s life and hopes.

Tasma (Jessie Couvreur)’s Uncle Piper of Piper’s Hill (1888) (my review): a nineteenth century novel which I described in my review as “a romance, a marriage story, set against the social backdrop of a meeting between these well-to-do parvenu Pipers, and the impoverished but upper crust Cavendishes”. It’s of its day, but is nevertheless both a fun and interesting read.

And, I’ll end with a touch of reality from a writer who always makes me smile:

Beauty always falls in love with the Beast, who always turns out to be the Prince, but that’s only the end of the telling, not the end of the lives of Beauty and her Beast-Prince. Life goes on until it doesn’t. Cinderella died in the end, and so did Snow White. (Carmel Bird, Field of poppies)

This is a small selection of the books about love that I have written about over the last 16 or so years. I have tried to include a spread of time and themes – including classics, eco-fiction, chicklit, queer fiction, First Nations writing, serious writing, comic writing – but there are so many more. I most like – perhaps because of my age – those dealing with love in the long haul rather than early romantic love. The latter is easy, but, as Carmel Bird reflects above, it’s what happens next that is the stuff of life!

Now, over to you – the world is your oyster. I’d love to hear about any books about love (of any sort) that you have enjoyed.