NOVEL

In the season of hearts, flowers and chocolates comes a tempting array of books on timely themes.

HISTORY BUFFS WILL CRAVE: Love Letters Lost, by Babbette Hines. Unearthed by Los Angeles-based photography dealer Hines at flea markets, auctions and yard sales, love letters written over a span of 150 years are paired with photos of (anonymous) loving couples that are touching and in many cases sweetly hilarious.

LOVE SEX AND THE CITY? Revisit the world of strategic dating with Be Honest—You're Not That into Him Either by Ian Kerner, Ph.D. It's a neat rebuttal to last year's He's Just Not That into You. Kerner's advice? Don't truck with losers just to get out of the house—keep your eyes on the prize.

STILL STUCK ON THAT LONG-LOST EX? My Boyfriend's Back, by Donna Hanover, will fuel the fire. Divorced from former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani, actress and journalist Hanover wed her college boyfriend Ed Oster in 2003. Here she tells the moving tales of other couples who happily reconnected late in life.

SASSY VERSES TO PLEASE YOUR SQUEEZE You Drive Me Crazy: Love Poems for Real Life was compiled by the editors of the bestselling The Hell with Love. Poems include Just a Sestina to You, Honey, Letting You Know What an Interesting Thing Happened to Me While You Were at Home Rubbing Your Wife's Back.

A CHOCOHOLIC'S GUIDE TO LIVING In Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light, author Mort Rosenblum—a guy who knows his Callebaut from his Valrhona—serves up a natural history of the scintillating staple.