Making friends isn't easy, particularly now. Neither is holding on to friendships. The hosts of the hit podcast Call Your Girlfriend explain why you need to fight for them.
Keep your friends close—but it's not that simple, right? A close friendship can be one of the most influential and important relationships in our lives, but keeping it together for the long haul is no small task. In their book, Big Friendship, Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman, hosts of the podcast Call Your Girlfriend, chronicle the first decade of their messy and life-affirming relationship: from moments of charmed bliss and deep frustration to profound connection and gut-wrenching alienation. Through interviews with friends and experts, Big Friendship reveals that we all must make the decision to invest in one another again and again.
Friedman and Sow discuss how bonds are formed, challenged, and preserved and call on us to choose, value, and fight for our friendships in all of their complexity.
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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Aminatou Sow is a writer, interviewer, and cultural commentator. She is a frequent public speaker whose talks and interviews lead to candid conversations about ambition, money, and power. Aminatou lives in Brooklyn.
Ann Friedman is a journalist, essayist, and media entrepreneur. She is a contributor editor to The Gentlewoman. Every Friday, she sends a popular email newsletter. Ann lives in Los Angeles.
GET THE BOOK
Readers everywhere who wish to purchase copies of Big Friendship can do so at the NYPL Shop. Proceeds benefit The New York Public Library. Plus, receive a free 125th Anniversary tote bag with your purchase! Visit the shop at https://shop.nypl.org/
If you have a NYPL library card—or live in New York state and want to apply for one now—you can borrow Big Friendship for free with our e-reader app SimplyE, available for iOS and Android devices at https://nypl.org/simplyE
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RECOMMENDED READING
Aminatou and Ann suggest these titles for further reading:
• Sister Love: The Letters of Audre Lorde and Pat Parker 1974-1989 by Audre Lorde and Pat Parker
• Sula by Toni Morrison
• Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym
• The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
• You’re the Only One I Can Tell: Inside the Language of Women’s Friendships by Deborah Tannen
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