You can’t avoid it.


Everywhere you look this time of year, it seems you see lace and hearts and chocolates.  You see people holding hands and sneaking smooches in the snack line at the movies. And the movies? Ugh. They’re all about love and stuff like that.


Valentine’s Day — and the weeks before and after — stinks if you’re alone, but you don’t have to wallow in your pain. Instead, read the new book “Things I’ve Learned from Woman Who’ve Dumped Me,” edited by Ben Karlin. You won’t find amore between these pages, but you’ll at least have somebody to commiserate with.


In the realm of relationships, nothing is ever certain. In these 32 chapters from screenwriters, comedians, novelists and others, you’ll see dumpings that appeared from nowhere, ditchings that the ditchee should’ve seen coming, and break-ups that were exactly the right thing at