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Bookmarks Thursday 12 Feb 2015 g Today's top stories More » Signior Dildo – and other perfect poems for Valentine’s Day The antithesis of hearts-and-flowers romance, the poetry of the 2nd Earl of Rochester is moving too  The best recent crime novels – review roundup The Shut Eye by Belinda Bauer, The Liar’s Chair by Rebecca Whitney, The Little Old Lady Who Struck Lucky Again! by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg, Satellite People by Hans Olav Lahlum and Fallout by Paul Thomas  Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon review – ‘a life’s work now inextricable from heartbreak’ The Sonic Youth bassist and singer on her disillusionment with the band, her ex-husband’s betrayal and her friendship with Kurt Cobain  The Sculptor review – Scott McCloud’s first graphic novel in a decade examines art and commerce The American cartoonist and comics historian has penned an inventive story about a young man’s deal with death  Will Self reviews Charles: The Heart of a King by Catherine Mayer Self, a lifelong republican, warms to the heir to the throne, and asks: is he the king we deserve?  Most viewed in Books More » Straight from the heart: the best love letters Valentine’s Day is coming, and with it a poll to identify the greatest ever love letters. Here’s our alternative list, but which epistle would you nominate?  Centireading force: why reading a book 100 times is a great idea Author and columnist Stephen Marche, who has perused PG Wodehouse and Hamlet more than 100 times each, extols the virtues of literary repetition  The First Bad Man by Miranda July review – strenuously quirky The film-maker’s sentimental tale of a misfit’s quest for love indulges in California kookiness. By Laura Miller  Latest reviews More » Young Eliot: From St Louis to the Waste Land by Robert Crawford – review A strait-laced upbringing and a disastrous marriage taught the young TS Eliot to camouflage his emotions  Spymaster: The Secret Life of Kendrick by Helen Fry - review Thomas Kendrick was a spy who helped thousands of Jews to escape from Nazi-controlled Austria. He deserves to be honoured alongside Oskar Schindler, argues this valuable new book  Great Railway Maps of the World by Mark Ovenden review – from steam travel to the modern age Nicholas Lezard’s paperback of the week: A beautiful collection in which routes are illustrated with dogs, alligators, clowns and futuristic abstractions  Talking Points More » Fay Weldon webchat – as it happened The prolific novelist is publishing a career-spanning short story collection, Mischief, and answered your questions – tackling everything from contemporary feminism to the fascination with the upper classes  Tight young things: F Scott Fitzgerald’s tips on how to save money Alison Flood: The author of The Great Gatsby is not known for his restraint. But what can we learn from his suggestions of how to tighten the purse strings?  Where are all the grandparents in modern fiction? After writing a novel about a grandmother, I found an audience desperate to see themselves represented  Latest podcasts More » Paul Muldoon and Nicholas Carr – books podcast Pulitzer prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon on the ways in which modern life is intruding on to poetry, plus Nicholas Carr on the perils of automation  How to draw More » Mandy Stanley

Don't miss our Guardian Live events Kate Mosse & Robert McCrum,18 Feb, London Best selling novelist and OBE Kate Mosse talks to Observer associate editor Robert McCrum about his long (often painful) journey to find the 100 greatest novels Kazuo Ishiguro, 8 March, London The Man Booker Prize winner discusses his new novel, The Buried Giant

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