Also of interest...in the ways of love

The Last Nude

by Ellis Avery (Riverhead, $26)

Writing about desire between women is still “an act of courage,” said Meredith Maran in The Boston Globe. It’s a wonder even today, in fact, that a mainstream publisher took a risk on Ellis Avery’s “quite amazing” second novel. Set in 1920s Paris, The Last Nude follows an affair that develops between a real-life Polish artist and her model-muse. In essence, it’s an old story, but made new. “Scenes that might fall flat or offend, written by a lesser talent, singe the page.”

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Why We Broke Up

by Daniel Handler (Little, Brown, $20)

This book is “so good at capturing what it feels like to be a jilted 16-year-old girl” that it seems wasted on its intended young-adult audience, said Yael Goldstein Love in the San Francisco Chronicle. Written by the author also known as Lemony Snicket, it’s told in the form of a “confessional letter” from a wry high school junior to her jock ex-boyfriend. Only older readers will fully appreciate its wistfulness, but “as a sad, playful” love story, it is “perfectly pitched to woo romantics of any age.”

The Odds

by Stewart O’Nan (Viking, $26)

Here is a love story for the Great Recession, said Ron Charles in The Washington Post. Stewart O’Nan’s trim new novel introduces us to Art and Marion Fowler, saddled with debt, headed for divorce, and ready to send their marriage off with a bang by wagering their savings on a scheme Art has for winning big at a Niagara Falls casino. “A few hours with this witty, sad, surprisingly romantic novel might be a better investment for troubled couples than a month of marriage counseling.”

An Available Man

by Hilma Wolitzer (Ballantine, $25)

Hilma Wolitzer’s “often hilarious and always compassionate” new novel is a touching tale about finding love after the death of a spouse, said Nancy Kline in The New York Times. Edward Schuyler, a 62-year-old widower, becomes an unlikely hot commodity when his stepchildren sneak him into a dating ad. Though he’s more comfortable ironing his dead wife’s shirts than playing the field, he steps out reluctantly—and disastrously, at first. Yet as Edward heals, anything becomes possible.