Grab your girlfriends and these books that celebrate friendship and head out for a fun girls’ getaway!
Friendship is powerful…
These Girls by Sarah Pekkanen
Jodi Picoult praises These Girls: “At times bittersweet, laugh out-loud funny and painfully real, you’ll want to move in with these girls.”
Cate, Renee and Abby are each at a major crossroads in their lives, and it is through the bond of their friendship that each woman finds solace and insight. And with one another’s encouragement and support, they each take a hard, honest look within themselves in order to learn the lessons that will help determine their best solutions.
These Girls is a richly woven story about three women who find themselves in crisis — yet together, emerge as triumphant, strong and resilient, ready to tackle whatever the world has in store for them.
Friendship can be complicated…
Friends Like Us by Lauren Fox
J. Courtney Sullivan praises Friends Like Us: “Friends Like Us is at once a hilarious page-turner and a wise meditation on friendship, marriage, and the ways in which our parents’ mistakes so often change our lives.”
Best friends Willa and Jane are often mistaken for sisters, a comparison Willa secretly enjoys. They share a small apartment, paying the rent with freelance jobs while waiting for something better to come along. Willa sells flowers and writes advertising copy for a tea company (“The path to enlightenment is steep” and “Oolong! Farewell!”). While Jane cleans houses and writes bad poetry about it, rhyming “clog of hair” with “fog of despair.” Together they are a fortress of private jokes and shared opinions — so close that there’s hardly room for anyone else. Until Willa’s closest cohort and confidant from high school (dorky then, handsome and confident now) falls in love with Jane.
Friendship is about forgiveness…
How to Eat a Cupcake by Meg Donohue
Sarah Jio praises How to Eat a Cupcake: “How to Eat a Cupcake is an achingly honest portrayal of the many layers of friendship — a story so vividly told, you can (almost) taste the buttercream…”
Free-spirited Annie Quintana and sophisticated Julia St. Clair come from two different worlds. Yet, as the daughter of the St. Clair’s housekeeper, Annie grew up in Julia’s San Francisco mansion and they forged a bond that only two little girls oblivious to class differences could. Until a life-altering betrayal destroyed their friendship.
A decade later, Annie bakes to fill the void left in her heart by her mother’s death and a painful secret jeopardizes Julia’s engagement to the man she loves. A chance reunion prompts the unlikely duo to open a cupcakery, but when a mysterious saboteur opens old wounds, they must finally face the truth about their past or risk losing everything.
Friendship is about trust…
Four of a Kind by Valerie Frankel
Publisher’s Weekly praises Four of a Kind: “Addicting from the get-go, Four of a Kind contains a marvelous combination of wit, love and inspiring relationships among friends and family that every reader can relate to.”
Once a month, four New York City moms forget about shaky marriages, rebellious children and rocky careers — and place a bet on friendship. Besides the fact that their kids all attend the same fashionable Brooklyn Heights private school, Bess, Robin, Carla and Alicia have little in common. Thrown together on the tony school’s Diversity Committee, the women impulsively turn their awkward first meeting into a boisterous game of poker. Instead of betting with chips or pocket change, they play for intimate secrets about their lives.
Soon enough, virtual strangers are transformed into close confidantes. As the Diversity Committee meetings become a highly anticipated monthly ritual, the new friends reveal more with each game. Appearances deceive: Picture-perfect housewife Bess struggles to relate to her surly teenage daughter and judgmental mother. Robin, a bohemian single mom, grapples with the truth concerning her child’s real father. Carla, an ambitious African American doctor, attempts to balance the colossal demands of her family with her dream of owning her own private practice. And to distract herself from her troubled marriage, shy copywriter Alicia fantasizes about an attractive younger colleague. Putting all their cards on the table, the four women grow to rely on one another, bracing for one final showdown.
More reading
Must-read: The Thirteen by Susie Maloney
Must-read: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
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