Count the Ways
The Greatest Love Stories of Our Times
“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” So wrote Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Robert Browning, the man whose love let her escape her tyrannical father, saved her from life as an invalid, and ultimately inspired her to become one of the world’s greatest poets. But even she could not count the many ways in which people love.From royalty to rock stars, Count the Ways delves into some of the most captivating love affairs of our times, including the obstacles, dramas, joys, and not-always-happy endings.Learn how love conquered the British monarchy when Edward VIII abdicated his throne in favor of the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Wonder why the love of Lee Krasner kept painter Jackson Pollock sane, yet the devotion of F. Scott Fitzgerald drove his wife, Zelda, mad. Witness the courage of love with Christopher and Dana Reeve, as their marriage overcame a tragic accident to give new meaning to the vows “in sickness and in health.” Observe how Ronald and Nancy Reagan proved that love and politics can mix and how Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow showed how love and crime do not. And don’t forget Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, the tumultuously enamored couple for whom fighting was itself a kind of lovemaking.Remarkably, many of these love affairs remained hidden despite the high-profile lives involved. While fans were quick to blame Yoko Ono for breaking up the Beatles, few attempted to understand the love she and John Lennon shared. And while the world focused on the disastrous marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, few paid attention to his enduring relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles.These stories and many others are here, each accompanied by a striking black-and-white photo of the couple. Love stories are too often reduced to either storybook romance or scandal, but—as this collection proves—the truth behind them often turns out to be more interesting . . . and more romantic.
Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction, Nonfiction, Self-Help. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.
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What the reading experience may hold
A fuller profile for choosing with more confidence—not just another copy of the preview.
Fiction · Nonfiction · Self-Help
Use these as starting points rather than limits; the most memorable books often stretch beyond their catalog labels.
Catalog signals suggest warfare and conflict, violence, death, or criminal harm, mental-health concerns, disturbing or confinement-related situations. These notes may not be complete; consult a publisher or reader-supplied guide when detailed warnings matter.
These notes are inferred from available catalog information and may not be complete. Check a publisher or reader-supplied guide if you need comprehensive warnings.
Dark tone · Steady pace
A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.
A good fit if…
Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.
This book's DNA
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Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc
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A quick reading snapshot
Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.
- ISBN-13
- 978-0-0713-8174-1
- Language
- English
- Edition record
- OL7299008M
A more thoughtful way into this book
This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.
A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.
Begin with its place in Fiction, then notice where the book resists that label.
Read for connection, not completion.
Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.
Three questions to carry with you
- What does the central character want, and what do they misunderstand about that desire?
- Which detail or relationship changes how you interpret the story?
- What feeling or question does the book leave with you after the plot moves on?
Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.
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