Agape Reads

A friend of mine has been reading her way through my "best" lists of 2017.  Her book club is meeting in February to discuss an "agape" read.  She is looking for a book about friendships between women.  

Initially I thought I could come up with a list in no time flat. But when I started thinking about it and looking through my journals of book I'd read, it was harder for me to do than I thought it would be.  

None of the ten books I found for her are brand new.  But all of them definitely focus on women's friendships.  

1.  Waiting to Exhale by Terry Macmillan - I love Macmillan's writing; and I love these four African American friends who are waiting for the perfect man to come into their lives.


2. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan - four women in California, all recent Chinese immigrants meet to eat dim sum and play mahjong. Over the years they share joys and sorrows and children who struggle to be American, not Chinese.


3.  Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fanny Flagg - Southern.  Mrs. Threadgoode recounts the wild and crazy days of her youth and a pair of good friends


4.  The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs- once a week a group of women meet at a yarn shop in New York City to work on their knitting. As they spend time together, friendships are forged.


5.  Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rosemary Wells -Vivi is upset about the way her oldest daughter has portrayed her in a play she wrote.  When Vivi shares a scrapbook about her friendships with daughter. we get to see a more accurate (but still flawed) account of these friendships.

6.  Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik - this book club began in the 60s and continued on through the years.  We see children grow up, marriage struggles, and every other life event of these friends who get together to talk about books.


7.  The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood - one of my favorites by Hood; similar to Friday Night Knitting Club, but I loved the main character who has joined this group to help cope with the death of a her child.


8.  The Summer Sisters by Judy Blume - Victoria becomes friend with Caitlin, a wealthy girl who introduces Vix to a different world than the one she is used to.


9.  A Train In Winter by Caroline Moorehead - non-fiction, women who had worked for the Resistance from all different walks of life were imprisoned together and eventually sent to Auschwitz.  Story of how they came together as friends.


10. Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett-Patchett writes of her friendship with Lucy, a woman she met at the Iowa Writer's Workshop.  She traces the ups and downs of their friendship over two decades, and what happens when one friend dies, leaving the other alone.

I know there are tons of other great friendship books out there. If you have a title in mind, please leave me a comment.