Books About Love that I Don't Hate

Adverbs by Daniel Handler
After I read this book, I ran to the bookstore and bought a copy to send to my friend Kevin. Actually, I drove there, but the point is, everyone should read this book, RIGHT NOW.
Handler is better known for his Series of Unfortunate Events, writing as Lemony Snicket. (that will get its own review later) Adverbs is not quite a novel, not quite short stories. Each character has his own experience, but they float into each others' stories. Each chapter is an adverb, in this case, a way to love. It seems a little gimmicky but actually works quite well. Like in the Snicket books, Handler sometimes explains things in such great detail that the explanation becomes a tangent. To me, these are endearing, as they typically involve awful puns delivered deadpan, and I love a good pun (or a bad one). My mother finds Handler a bit annoying for much the same reason, so it's a wash. One of my all-time favorites.
The A.V. club has a review here.

A Taxonomy of Barnacles by Galt Niederhoffer
Ok, it's been a while since I read this one. I headed over to Amazon to refresh my memory, whereupon I read pretty much the worst reviews I've ever seen there (such as: worst book ever written, whose wife/girlfriend/niece IS this woman, published by mistake, et cetera). So, I will still (sheepishly) admit that I liked it, but I'm not forcing you to go out and read it.
Anyway, all the characters names start with B, which is confusing, and there are twins (also B names) who sometimes pretend to be each other, which is also confusing. The 5 (or 6 or 7?) Barnacle girls are challenged by their father to guarantee that the Barnacle name will live on (King Lear, anyone?), resulting in all sorts of zany adventures (all those B names add a sense of frenzied chaos to the whole thing, although maybe that's just me desperately trying to keep track of them all). The oldest girls love/hate the twin boys, who they've known since childhood, and in their efforts to get together there are all kinds of schemes involving switching places and climbing on fire escapes (Romeo and Juliet, anyone?) and arguing about baseball. There's also a nice little nature/nurture/Darwin thing going on, hence the title, and as you may have noticed, I love that pseudointellectual crap. Anyway, everything is fine in the end, and people learn lessons about love and families and things, but it's not too sentimental.
I thought it was charming, but not in a way that made me ill. Then again, apparently, the rest of the world hated it. So there you go.