Anna Karenina

by Leo Tolstoy

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In a word: passionate

In a sentence: Love burning as candles and embers; one fast and bright, one twinkling slow and enduring; both hot.

Synopsis: Anna Karenina weaves the lives of a group of Russian gentry and the quilt of their relationships with one another.

It juxtaposes politics, husbands and wives, the country and the cities, men and women. The heroine Anna links them all, characterizes their victories and emboldens their downfalls.

Reactions: Simply, a juxtaposition of love. Broadly, a sweeping still-life of Russian gentry: whims, joys, politics, traditions, and downfalls. Less vanilla, more visceral, but no Lady Chatterley's Lover nonsense. You will laugh, live, and lament with each and every character. Good to the last drop.

I read most of Anna aloud to my mother on our weekly drives up into the Rockies. She's ordinarily a lover of happier, simpler books, strong lovable characters, and happy endings, but she holds this up as the epitome of great literature.

Read if: your thirst for a love story is left un-quenched by the likes of Nicholas Sparks or even Jane Austen, or require perfectly flawed, full bodied characters to appreciate a novel.

ps. It's not as intimidating as 'they' made it sound in high school.