friendship by the book

It's rare that I simply gush over books but I fell in love with Gail Caldwell's newest book: Let's Take The Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship (Random House, 2010). As sleepy as I was reading the last pages in bed, I didn't want the book to end and it's one of those books I'll read over and over again.

When someone is crunched for time, as most of us are, why take the long way anywhere instead of a shortcut? If you've ever been lucky enough to feel so close and so comfortable with a friend that you never have enough time to spend together, you'll understand why and you'll resonate to the story of the powerful bonds between the author and her best friend, Caroline Knapp.

The book begins, "It's an old, old story: I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that, too." While the loss of a best friend to Stage IV lung cancer sounds maudlin, it's only incidental to the beautiful story of love and connection that is the essence of this book.

An accomplished writer, recovering alcoholic, rower, dog lover, private person, single, and self-described introvert, Caldwell was 46 years old when she met Knapp, who was 37. In mid-life, they both found kindred spirits whose lives had many parallels.

 

"Finding Caroline was like placing a personal ad for an imaginary friend, then having her show up at your door funnier and better than you had conceived. Apart we had each been frightened drunks and aspiring writers and dog lovers; together, we became a small corporation," writes Caldwell. The two became part of each other's family of choice. The mix of similarities and differences both anchored the friendship and enriched their relationships with the larger world around them, personal and professional.

What Caldwell does best is to describe the indescribable, finding words that aptly translate the essence of friendship for those of us who often fumble trying to do so. Her prose is simply beautiful and her wisdom so insightful that it leaves the reader with indelible memories and life lessons.

She reflects on her first misunderstanding with her friend as a "testing ground and gateway for intimacy." Later, she writes about the friendship: "Our trust allowed for a shorthand that let us get to the point quickly." Characterizing their changed relationship when her best friend becomes critically ill, she describes it as a "choreography of silence." Despite its poignant ending, the Caldwell-Knapp friendship will make you envious---but it will also help you realize that friendships like this are, indeed, possible.

Caldwell writes after Knapp's death, "I know now that we never get over great losses; we absorb them, and they carve us into different, often kinder, creatures." The same might be said about how the reader will emerge after reading this touching memoir of friendship.

A former chief book critic of the Boston Globe, Gail Caldwell is also the author of A Strong West Wind and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism in 2001.

 

Friendship by the Book is an occasional series of posts on The Friendship Blog about books that offer friendship lessons.

 

Several other recent posts on The Friendship Blog touched upon the topic of losing a best friend. These include:

On losing a best friend

When the loved one who dies is a friend

Talking about friendship with NYT best-selling author Jane Green

 

Listen to author Gail Caldwell talk about her book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnqfBMCU6o8&feature=player_embedded

Deirdre Madden's most recent novel, Molly Fox's Birthday (Picador, 2010), is a beautifully written story that aptly conveys the complexity of a woman's emotional bonds with her family and friends. The story is focused on a single day in the life of an unnamed narrator, a playright who is staying over at the Dublin home of her closest friend of 20 years, an actress named Molly Fox. The narrator is trying to work on her latest play, but keeps getting distracted and winds up doing far more reminiscing and thinking than writing.

 

I was honored to conduct this interview via email with Deirdre, an acclaimed Irish novelist, to have her respond to some questions about the book, about writing, and about her own friendships. Molly Fox's Birthday was a nominee for the prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction.

 

Irene:
Why did you choose to tell your story within the confines of a single day in the life of the main character?

Deirdre:
A book that was very much in my mind when I was writing Molly Fox's Birthday was Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. I liked the balance between the past and the present, and it seemed like a good model, a good way to arrange the material. My writing tends to be quite introspective and is concerned with memory rather than being active and narrative-driven. Setting the novel over a single day allowed for these elements to find a suitable balance.

 

Irene:
Why did you leave the main character unnamed?

Deirdre:
I liked the idea of knowing a great deal about a character - pretty much her whole life story - and yet not knowing her name. Usually it's the other way round: when you present or describe someone, the first thing you say is ‘This is...' and you name her. So it was a way of holding something back, of signalling a bit of distance between the reader and the narrator. On the same subject, when writing a novel, often you know that you've got to grips with a character when you've got a name for them that you know really suits.

 

Irene:
Is the narrator's flow of thoughts, procrastination, and writer's block something you've experienced first-hand?

Deirdre:
When you're writing a novel there are times, particularly at the start of the project, when, I find, you need to be quite passive and vague. You need to be receptive, to day-dream a bit, to follow stray thoughts that might or might not lead somewhere and become useful. The trick is to know when to move on from that phase to a more focused and active mindset. If you don't get it right, you do end up wasting time and procrastinating, stuck on something that's going nowhere. I suspect that sooner or later most writers go through something similar to the narrator's creative problems in Molly Fox's Birthday. You just keep going and you get through it.

 

Irene:
Do you have many long-term friendships of your own and how have they weathered the years? Do you believe in such a thing as "friends for life?"

Deirdre:
Yes, I have quite a few long term friends, some of them very long term indeed! Everyone changes as the years pass, but in a true friendship there's something at the heart of it that either evolves with the changes, or else over-rides them so that they don't matter. Circumstances can change but the thing that drew you to that person in the first place can stay constant. But like any important relationship, you can't take a friendship for granted or neglect it. It merits attention and respect.

 

Irene:
Why did you characterize Molly as a friend-poacher? What are your thoughts about friend-poaching (taking someone else's friend and making them your own)?

Deirdre:
Although she is vulnerable in many ways, Molly Fox has a much stronger personality than her friend, the playwright who narrates the novel, and has a stronger will. What one person sees as friend-poaching another will see simply as mutual friendship. Much depends upon the nature of the friendship that is being encroached upon: often the person about to become the wounded party won't have fully understood or admitted to the real nature of a friendship until they feel it to be under threat. That's certainly the case in the novel.

 

Irene:
Do family relationships, in any sense, predetermine our friendships?

Deirdre:
I'm very interested in relationships within families, most particularly siblings where one person is an artist - a painter, a writer or an actor - and how that impinges upon their brothers and sisters. Family and friends aren't, of course, mutually exclusive, and I believe people who are happy and at ease in their families are more likely to be relaxed about making connections and friendships outside the family. I suppose most of us take some kind of lead from our parents on how we conduct friendships, without our even being conscious of it. Molly Fox's Birthday is about family as well as about friendship.

 

Friendship by the Book is an occasional series of posts on The Friendship Blog about books that offer friendship lessons. 

 

 

*****BOOK GIVEAWAY

To be eligible for a free copy of Molly Fox's Birthday, post a comment about friendship, writing, or friend poaching here. Please include your email address so I can contact you if you are the winner. (If you don't want to post your email address here, you can post the comment and send your email address to me at irene@thefriendshipblog.com/)

Winners will be selected at random from all entries received by 11:59 PM on Sunday, August 15, 2010. U.S. shipping addresses only, please. Good luck, girlfriends!

 

Allison Winn Scotch's novel, The One That I Want (2010), is an engaging summer beach read that makes you think about the friendships you have and those that have drifted apart.

 

The main character, Tilly Farmer, is a 30-something high school guidance counselor who marries her high-school sweetheart, and still lives and works in the same small town where she grew up. As the story unfolds, we learn how Tillie's past has affected her current relationships. With the help of an old friend and a dash of clairvoyance, Tilly begins to re-examine the choices she's made.

 

I asked Allison, my friend and colleague, about her latest book, her characters and her own friendships. Also check out my previous interview with Allison soon after the release of her last NYT bestseller, Time of My Life.

 

Irene:

Two of the characters that figure prominently in The One That I Want are Tilly Farmer's friends, Susannah and Ashley. Both friends support Tilly during some tough moments in her life. What role have your own friendships played in developing these characters?

 

Allison:

Well, Susannah is a compilation of a few of my closest friends - not in terms of personality or what she goes through, but the understanding of that unconditional support that they offer. That, in your lowest of moments, that she'll show up with a bottle of wine or answer that phone call in the middle of the night or get you out of the house if that's what's called for. I'm someone who can probably count her really true honest-to-god best friends on one hand, but those women are like sisters to me, and so that's more than enough. And that's what Susannah is for Tilly.

As far as Ashley, she was a reflection of some of the friends I've outgrown (or who outgrew me). I think we all have those friends too: girls you were blood sisters with until, say, you hit puberty or went to college or even grew out of in your twenties, and you still look back on them fondly, but now maybe don't have so much in common with anymore.

In Ashley and Tilly's case, they find a way to forge new bonds, but their relationship isn't based strictly on the past, and I think this is important if you're going to renew a friendship like this. It's all well and good to sit around and laugh over high school, but an honest friendship needs more than that. Eventually, Ashley and Tilly discover their new common ground.

 

Irene:

At the start of the story, Ashley feels more like a frenemy than a friend. What happens to Tilly's friendship with Ashley over time?

 

Allison:

A few things. For one, Ashley is the person who literally sparks Tilly's "clarity," which Tilly initially resents and blames Ashley for. But because of this, they start interacting more, and when Tilly really starts to unravel, she realizes she needs someone in her corner, and surprisingly, she wants that person to be Ashley, who is having plenty of problems of her own. And in watching her cope with these problems, Tilly discovers she has a begrudging admiration for Ashley's tenacity. Sometimes - and I've experienced this in my own life - the people you expect to have your back aren't there for you in the way you anticipate, while other people step up and offer support in ways you wouldn't have imagined. That's what happens exactly with Tilly and Ashley - the support and growth and learning goes both ways.

 

Irene:

Because Tilly has remained in the town where she grew up, her friendships have remained fairly constant. Do you think that is a good or bad thing?

 

Allison:

For me, I'm not sure that it would be a good thing, but I know that there are plenty of people for whom it is. What's interesting for me, in terms of assessing my friends and friendship groups, is that many of my truly dear friends are women I've met it my adult life, women who share commonalities with my life now and that's why we've become close. I also have a very tight core group of friends from college, and those women are invaluable to me too - that shared history is important but, at least with the ones I've stayed close with, we also still grown up together and share some similarities in our adult life.

So again, this is just for me, but my friendships are almost similar to romantic relationships in the sense of it's important to me that they not just be about nostalgia but are current and in-the-moment and pertinent to what's happening now, around us, in our thirties. Which isn't to take anything away from childhood friendships or staying close to the friends you grew up with. AT ALL. I think that's admirable too - and it's really what works for each individual. Only that now, at 37, what works for me is that many of my dearest friends are women I've known since my mid-twenties, not necessarily earlier.

 

Irene:

You use the term "friendship fidelity" in the book? What does that mean to you?

 

Allison:

For me, this gets back to your first question: that underlying understanding that through thick and thin, Susanna would be there for Tilly. And I feel the same way about some of my own friends - there is very little I wouldn't do for them. At the same time, many of my friendships have their own rhythms and tides: sometimes, I may literally go two months without connecting with my best friend, but there is no doubt that when either one of us picked up the phone and truly needed the other, that we'd be there.

I feel like the strongest friendships - at least in my life - are those that don't need daily reassurance. It's enough for me (and my friends) to know that somewhere out there, someone has my back, and that when that times comes - whether I just want to crack up for 20 minutes on the phone or am really embroiled in a true crisis - that woman will be there for me, hands down. I'm pretty grateful to know that I have the security of this and to have these women in my life.

 

Friendship by the Book is an occasional series of posts on The Friendship Blog about books that offer friendship lessons.

Follow The Friendship Doctor on Twitter.

 

 

New York Times best-selling author Jane Green is a mother of six. Remarkably, she has written a book a year for the past 12 years. Like her other books, the newest one also focuses on the emotional lives of lives of women.

Promises to Keep, was inspired by the life and death of her real-life friend Heidi, who was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer. The journey she shared with her girlfriend, accompanying her to chemo and spending time with her when she was too weak to leave her bed, profoundly affected the way Jane thinks about relationships, especially her friendships. My interview with Jane highlights some of her thoughts about that life-changing friendship with Heidi:

 

Irene:

Jane, I know you were born in London. What challenges did you face as an expat making friendships in a new country? How did you meet those challenges?

Jane:

It took me a long time to find my footing here. I moved and made instant friends through having a young child and joining a mommy and me group, but few of them were lasting. By the time a year was up, I had a core group of three who remain amongst my dearest.

 

Irene:

How did you meet your friend Heidi, who inspired the book? What was special about that friendship?

Jane:

Heidi was one of those three mentioned above. I met her first at a children's music class. I didn't know her name, but we cracked up laughing at the ridiculousness of the teacher. When she left, I was instantly regretful that I didn't ask for her number. All I knew was that her name was Heidi, she had a son, and she lived on the other side of town. I spent a week trying to find her, and on the Friday I was hosting a playgroup in my yard. I was alone with my son, waiting for our regular mothers to arrive, when my garden gate opened and in walked Heidi. She had been invited by one of the regulars.

We became instant fast friends, and put our children into pre-school together, so we were together every day. She was a remarkable girl. She had more confidence and sparkle than anyone I have ever met, was utterly comfortable in her own skin, and as a result drew people to her. She was incredibly wise, and measured, and the first person I always turned to for advice.

 

Irene:

What impact did the premature and tragic death of a friend have on your life/friendships?

Jane:

I am very busy, life is very busy, and I was, I think, a somewhat lazy friend. I love them, I know they love me, but I didn't make much of an effort. I would forget to call, and was relieved that even if we didn't see each other often, our friendships somehow stayed the same. Going through an illness and then death of a close friend, has changed my attitudes to friendship enormously.

I learned that saying you love your friends isn't enough; that love is a verb, it requires Acts of Love. It is all about the doing, not the saying, and now I make a point, every day, of emailing, or phoning, or making a plan with those I love.

 

Irene:

You have four young children, a new husband with two children of his own, and an active career. How do you balance friendships with the rest of your life?

Jane:

I have learned that it is imperative that I make time for my friends, that they demand to be as much a part of the mix as my family and my work, and perhaps more so, because they are not an inevitability. All relationships, be it your spouse, your family, your friends, take work, and I make sure that a part of every day is spent connecting with friends.

 

Irene:

What friendship lessons do you think that mothers need to convey to their daughters?

Jane:

Kindness, I believe, is key. Avoiding "girl drama" by not engaging and walking away. Consideration of others.

 

Book Giveaway:

Jane's latest book is so gripping that I had a hard time putting it down. Would you like a chance to win a free copy and be one of the first people to read Promises to Keep? If so:

Post a comment here about the most important friendship lesson you've ever learned or else email it to me at Irene@TheFriendshipBlog.com with the subject line: FRIENDSHIP LESSONS.

Please be sure to include your email address if you post it so I can contact you if you are the winner.

Winners will be selected at random from all entries received by 11:59 PM on Tuesday, July 6, 2010. U.S. shipping addresses only, please. Good luck, girlfriends!

The Unfaithful Widow is a collection of essays by Barbara Barth, describing her first year alone after her husband's death. "I blush to say that everything in the book happened to me, or rather I did it all, " says Barbara. "Saying I did it all has more power to it, which is the message in my book." I spoke to Barbara about the role that friendships played during that life-changing year.

 

Irene: Losing a life partner turns a woman's life upside down; how does it affect her friendships?

Barbara: When my husband died it was amazing how my friends looked after me. A bit of my background history may explain that statement. I am not the type of gal who went off for weekends with girlfriends. I never had a roommate. And when I was single I preferred to drive myself to parties so I could leave when I wanted. However, I am very social and love people. I have to head out of the house every day for a small adventure, and then come home to my nest.

My husband and I were rarely apart for the twenty-five years we were a couple. I was home with him most nights. After I retired from my federal job, I became an antique dealer. I lunched with my antique buddies during the day and several of us set up at antique shows. My best friend was also his good friend, his tomboy friend he liked to call her. So I had my best friend, my close antique buddies, and many women in the antique business I knew casually.

My best friend was my lifeline. I can't tell you how many times a day I'd call her. My antique buddies stayed close. The surprise was that the other women I knew from the antique world rallied around me. Suddenly I was in a social whirl of lunches and dinners. I turned 60 three months after my husband died, and my friends gave me a wonderful week of celebration. A friend of mine that I knew for twenty years as an antique dealer said one night over dinner, "There are angels that come into your life when needed. Sometimes they stay, sometimes they move on. I hope I am one that stays." My friend was right. I was well protected by angels my first year.

 

Irene: Did your friendships remain stable or did your find that the type of friends you wanted to be with or felt comfortable with changed?

Barbara: My friend who I mentioned above has become one of the angels that stayed. We have dinner every few weeks and have a ball. She has a guy at home, but comes out to play at night. We aren't out late because I have dogs at home to feed. Some of the other angels have gone back to their own lives, but will forever be in my heart for being there at a time I was so lost.

My friends and I are very open with each other. Nothing I tell them shocks them. We laugh about everything and they accept the changes in me. They don't judge my choices. Most are married. Sometimes I think it would be nice to find other single women to do things with, but I am still that homebody at heart.

My husband's cousin kids me that for someone who talks about wanting to date I have put up barriers - six dogs. But they are so much company. I have chosen to write in this new life of mine and that is isolating so I have to work harder to get out and be social. When I say I haven't done anything my friends laugh. I've usually done more than anyone, but I have a high level of energy and need to stay active.

I feel as comfortable with my old friends as I always have. I am not in that world of married women fearing suddenly single women. My friends and I are as we always were. That has not changed.

 

Irene: What are the ways in which girlfriends can support a woman who is recently widowed?

Barbara: Pick up the phone and call. Call again. That was the most important thing for me. I needed to have human contact. Sometimes it is hard to know what to say to someone who has had a loss. Don't worry about it. I didn't care what anyone said. I just needed to hear a voice. To know someone was thinking about me.

I remember years ago when I was a kid I read somewhere that if you visit someone who lives alone, let her talk, don't take over the conversation. I never thought it would apply to me. But it did. I was surrounded by silence in my house.

I remember the night "Sex In The City" had its premier. Two of my antique buddies had planned for us to go. I fell asleep on the couch, depressed. The phone rang three times in twenty minutes. The fourth ring I picked it up. My friends shouted at me, "Wake up, Sex In The City. Picking you up in twenty minutes." I threw water on my face, dabbed on some lip gloss and was ready when they pulled up. We had a ball. I would have languished on the couch that night without their pushing me to get out.

 

Irene: What are some of the ways in which girlfriends can grate upon you are feeling vulnerable?

Barbara: I guess I was lucky, still am, with the friends I have. If I had someone question what I was doing, made me feel guilty, that would have been horrible. My friends all encouraged me to do what I needed to do. When I started dating we all laughed at my bad dates. I am a good storyteller, but my friends laughed with me, not at me. Big difference.

 

Irene: Did you join any support groups or connect with other widows? If so, what was that like?

Barbara: I decided to find my own way. I didn't want to go to a support group and I didn't want to talk to other widows. I was afraid it would depress me more. I was at a bookstore with my best friend and wandered into the self-help section and pulled out a "widow" book. It depressed me. The author talked about women my age starting to date again after a long relationship and all the pitfalls. That was another yuck moment.

I started writing at night to purge myself. I danced at night to my favorite music. Bad dates led me to good things. I felt the universe was sending me signs and I kept moving forward. My book is about all the oddities of that year. I found that laughter was the best medicine. I think that support groups can be very helpful. I just couldn't deal with going to one. I didn't want to be around people who had suffered a loss, I wanted to be in the middle of life.

 

Irene: Dogs play a big part in the story of your first year. Can pets substitute for friends or companions?

Barbara: I am a dog lover. Always have been. I now have six, five from the local shelters in the last year. Perhaps I have gone overboard. But they are so much fun. My dogs are not substitutes for friends but are a special part of my life. I can't imagine not having a pet. They make me laugh. They teach me lessons about life. They show me that love is more important than a good rug.

They helped me find joy again. They are my writing muses. I think anyone can benefit from the unconditional love a pet gives you. My book has a dedication to animal rescue shelters and my favorite quote, "I like to think that I have rescued dogs, truth is they have rescued me."

 

Irene: Any other advice to widows about friendships?

Barbara: I was always focused on the fact I needed to talk to someone. One day I called a good friend, embarrassed to be on the phone yet again. It turned out she was in worse shape than I was and it was good I had called. I think being alone, being a widow, makes you feel vulnerable you are imposing on others. The truth is we all need the support of our friends and should not be afraid to make that first move.

 

Friendship by the Book is an occasional series of posts on The Friendship Blog about books that offer friendship lessons.

Follow The Friendship Doctor on Twitter.

 

 

I was delighted to interview HuffPo blogger and fellow author Marcia Reynolds, PsyD to discuss her new book and the topic of female friendships in the workplace. Marcia is the author of Wander Women: How High-Achieving Women Find Contentment and Direction (Berrett-Koehler, 2010). Her doctoral degree is in organizational psychology with a research emphasis on the needs of high-achieving women; her road to success is nothing short of impressive.

 

Irene: In what ways can female friendships help or hinder women at work?

Marcia: I believe women should create "communities of support" at work that consist of at least two other like-minded women who will help each other stay on target to their dreams and resolve problems along the way. I describe how to create these communities and what you should look for when choosing who should be in your group in my book:

"Coming together with like-minded women will keep you from feeling isolated. Empathetic, encouraging friends committed to growth can help one another maintain focus even when layoffs loom, employees whine, the kids at home scream, health issues nag, and projects overwhelm. If you can find other women who are consciously trying to become better leaders or live more satisfying, purposeful lives, you can develop personal connections and create communities with women who regularly help one another learn and grow."

Once you align with these women, there are four requirements for sustaining your community: you trust each other to tell the truth, speak directly to you, and not talk behind your back; you honor that you are all changing and learning and respect the shifts that are taking place; you allow each other to express emotions as long as they do not hurt anyone else; and you find ways to laugh together as often as possible.

 

Irene: What are some of the ways women tend to sabotage one another on the job?

Marcia: Sabotage more commonly consists of passive-aggressive behaviors that a person can deny than the more apparent behaviors such as sending out slanderous emails or exaggerating someone's behavior and reporting it to HR. The more underhanded behaviors include withholding information that could be useful to a colleague's success on a project, derailing someone's good idea or taking credit for the good idea while making the originator look inadequate.

Often women who stand out as star performers unwittingly become the brunt of sabotage. They hog the limelight and generate jealousy by not including or acknowledging other's contributions. Superstars need to understand that their colleagues can choose to assist or hinder their efforts. They need to create collaborative relationships to successfully achieve their goals. Sometimes this can be as simple as asking another women for her help. The sabotage might stop.

 

Irene: Do women treat each other any worse as colleagues in the workplace or is that a myth?

First, let me say that I believe cattiness and backstabbing behaviors are on the wane as women become more confident in themselves and their accomplishments. The more a woman rises in her field and experiences success, the more she is likely to mentor and provide opportunities for other women. Sabotaging other women only keeps the saboteur in her place.

The workplace culture breeds or squelches this behavior. Managers who use fear and favoritism to motivate people perpetuate bad behavior. Because women are generally given fewer opportunities for promotion and recognition, they resort to putting other women down to feel more secure.

Women tend to coalesce into tribes. High-achievers, if they aren't loners, will hang out with other high-achievers. The same goes for poor or average performers. Then women might "clique-up" by other means including lifestyle, cultural differences, physical appeal, or even by similar life problems. They may not bad-mouth those outside of the tribe, but exclusion hurts nonetheless.

Yes, many women AND MEN gossip, criticize and even bully their colleagues. However, if a woman is a bully at work, she is probably a bully elsewhere in her life.

 

Irene: Do you have any thought about a single female friendship that was most significant in determining the person that you are?

Marcia: I have a wonderful community of support around the world. I am grateful every day for authors, speakers and coaches I know that keep me learning and loving every day. Yet when I think of the ONE most significant friend I have had, the woman who was my cellmate in jail 35 years ago comes to mind. I call her my "unexpected angel." We had completely different upbringing and completely different circumstances to face when released. However, she is the person I credit for helping me see that I am more than what I have done in the past or what I can accomplish in the future.

I had fallen onto a dark path as a drug user as a young adult. When I ended up in jail, I not only felt lost, I felt like a failure. Vicky helped me see that who I am-a smart, funny, creative, generous, and caring person-was still intact. When I claimed who I was on the inside, I could accomplish anything I wanted on the outside.

This was a significant turning point. I had been brought up believing my accomplishments were most important. I had to get straight A's, be good at sports, entertain at parties and outshine my peers whenever I could. When I stumbled at being a superstar in high school, I felt confused, even angry. When I had no external validation, my internal support system failed me.

Don't get me wrong-I still felt I needed to be the best. That is why I wound up in jail as the best drug user in my group. I have no regrets. I have a greater understanding about life than all three of my advanced degrees I earned since then have provided me. And I have a depth of compassion that serves me well in my work. Most importantly, I met Vicky. Then I met myself.

You never know who will be your unexpected angel. Look for her in the eyes of every woman you meet. I believe that this is how our bonds will change the world.

 

Friendship by the Book is an occasional series of posts on The Friendship Blog about books that offer friendship lessons.

How many times have you felt that there simply aren't enough hours in the day? Or perhaps, thought you really would like to spend more time with girlfriends but don't have the time?

 

If feelings like these haunt you, you'll want to read Laura Vanderkam's inspiring new book, 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think (Portfolio, 2010). Based on interviews with happy and successful people who have mastered the art, Laura provides practical tips to manage the ample time you have so your life and your relationships are more satisfying and efficient. I was delighted to interview Laura about the book and its relevance to female friendships.

 

Irene: Why do you think so many people feel time-challenged, never having enough time to do the things they want to do?

Laura: We live in a distracted world. If something is important to you, you simply have to put it in your schedule first. But if you schedule time at work to think about your career, and where you'll be in five years, you'll be far more likely to reach your goals. Your email will still be there in 45 minutes, so go for a run now. Television is fine in small doses, but many people don't take it in small doses. Instead of watching 2 hours after the kids go to bed, trade off with your spouse and spend an evening catching up with a friend you haven't seen in ages. This takes a lot of self-discipline, but has a big payoff in terms of happiness.

 

Irene: What are some of the worst time-wasters?

Laura: People always mention things like Facebook and Twitter, but these tend to waste minutes. A meeting you didn't need to attend, or a business trip you didn't need to take can easily waste hours or days. More broadly, if your job isn't getting you toward where you want to be in life, you're wasting even more time. Fix the big things first, and then you can tune up the little things.

 

Irene: How does the perceived time crunch affect people's friendships?

Laura: It's an almost universal complaint among working parents: there's just no time for maintaining friendships. Not only do you want to make sure you spend plenty of your non-working hours with your kids, there's the hassle of finding babysitters and making get-togethers work with everyone's schedules. Not all friendships may be worth preserving, but some are. You just have to get creative.

 

Irene: In your book, you talk about making "alignments." Can you give some examples of how you can align your life to have more time for your friends?

Laura: To "align your time" is to build in time for friendships by including friends in your regular activities. I try to meet friends for lunch sometimes - I have to eat anyway, and this is usually a time when I have childcare. Or we have friends who don't have the babysitter problem over for a late dinner. I'd love to find an occasional running partner. I'm a big fan of scheduling playdates with kids whose parents you really like. And over the years, I've actually found it easiest to keep up friendships with people who also sing in my choir, the Young New Yorkers' Chorus. We rehearse every Tuesday night, so it's pretty easy to grab a drink afterwards or socialize during our breaks.

 

Irene: Why did you write 168 Hours?

Laura: A few years ago, when I was a new mom, I kept hearing how hard it was to build a career and a family at the same time, or if you did manage to keep your job while raising your kids, you'd never sleep. I was quite concerned about this, so I set out to write about this time crunch. But then a few things happened. First, I discovered that many of the most successful people I was interviewing didn't feel particularly starved for time. I also found plenty of studies and data sources suggesting that the widespread perception that Americans are overworked and sleep deprived is inaccurate. And finally, when I was honest with myself, I realized that I usually didn't feel too frazzled either. I wrote this book to share this message, which I hope will be inspiring: we can choose how to spend our time, and we have more time than we think.

 

BOOK GIVEAWAY

If you would like to revisit your own "168 hours" and have the chance to win one of the first copies of Laura's book:

• Post a comment below about how you make time for friends by JUNE 2nd. (Plenty of time between now and then :-)

• Be sure to include your email address or send it to me at Irene@TheFriendshipBlog.com so I can follow up if you win.

• Put 168 HOURS in the subject line and we'll randomly pick one person to win a copy.

Friendship by the Book is an occasional series of posts on The Friendship Blog about books that offer friendship lessons.

Becoming an older mother is never easy---physically or emotionally---especially if there's no logical father-to-be on the horizon. Three Wishes: A True Story of Good Friends, Crushing Heartbreak, and Astonishing Luck on Our Way to Love and Motherhood (Little Brown, 2010) is an incredibly wise, witty and powerful memoir written by three brave and accomplished women who had the desire to be mothers---each one, on her own terms.

 

On their shared journey to becoming mothers, they forged an incredible sisterhood that speaks to the importance of friendship in women's lives and shows how empowering friends can be. May I briefly introduce you to the authors---my new BFFs---Carey Goldberg, Beth Jones and Pam Ferdinand?

 

How old were you when you gave birth for the first time?----And what lessons have you learned as an older mother?

PAM

I was 41 when I gave birth to Emma, and I'm still learning the lessons of being an older mother. So far, I have found the downsides are that I definitely don't have the energy I once had in my 20s and 30s, and that my daughter will not know her great-grandparents, as I did. Nor will she likely have an extended amount of time with her grandparents and Mark and I (though we hope to stick around for a long while.) The upside is that I fully lived and worked, understand myself more now than I did as a young woman, and am having a new wonderful adventure at an unexpected stage of life. I don't take anything about motherhood or my daughter, or my relationship with Mark, for granted.

 

CAREY

I was 41 when I had Liliana and 43 when I had Tully. I second all that Pam said: I feel tremendously lucky that I had the chance to fulfill my career dreams, which involved extensive travel and sometimes 24/7 work, before having a child. And I feel tremendously lucky to have my children and husband. My only regret is that, now that I know what being a mother is like, I risked missing it by waiting so long. If I had it to do over again, I would start trying earlier. Also, this is a little strange, but as a mother well into middle age, I'm deeply aware of my own mortality, and that helps keep me focused on how I most want to spend my time: with my children. I still work, but I'm far less likely to worship what one friend calls The Bitch Goddess of Success.

 

BETH

I was 41 when my son was born and all the cliches are true: I'm more tired, I have less time to take care of myself, I fear that I'll be gone before I could be a grandmother (and my body's never been the same). But, as with Pam and Carey, I lived a life before I had my son, and I'm comfortable with who I am. I have friends who had children in their 20's or younger, and they're trying to figure themselves out now, in their 40's and 50's. I feel like I might move slower than twenty years ago (I'm certain), but I'm more patient, and I'm far more settled, literally and figuratively, than I would've been if I'd had children during my first marriage or earlier. I'm very okay with how it all turned out, and for me, that's a lesson, too.

 

What effect have your friendships had on your desire  to become a mother?

CAREY

I like to think that I served as a kind of single-mother mentor for Beth and Pam, and a single-mother friend of mine named Sally had filled that role for me earlier on. It is a huge decision to become a single mother, and it helped enormously to be allowed in to the life of a woman who had already made that decision, a woman whom I deeply admired. She showed me that it was possible, and though demanding, deeply wonderful.

 

PAM

I always wanted to have a child. But Beth and Carey encouraged me to become a mother before it was too late and showed me it was possible even if our lives had not gone according to plan. I could see their joy as mothers, and we wanted love and happiness for each other as much as we wanted it for ourselves.

 

BETH

It's easier to do anything - hang-glide, ice climb, have a child alone - if you've seen someone else do it first, and seen them thrive (or merely survive, when necessary). I met Carey when her daughter was a baby, and I have many friends and family who are single mothers. I believed I could be a good mother, even if I had to go it alone. Carey was not only doing it successfully but she had the vials to make it possible for me, and offering them was a huge gift for a new friendship. Pam had introduced me to Carey, and she was on the same road as me. Knowing you're not alone is extremely powerful. I didn't end up as a single mother, but having friends who encouraged me in the direction of motherhood, by whatever means necessary, was a great motivation.

 

What effect has marriage and motherhood had on your close friendships

BETH

Fortunately, second-time-around, I married a man who my friends like. Still, with a family, especially with a young child (my son is five) scheduling my life is harder, and being spontaneous - which I loved - is mostly out the window. No more driving off into the sunset alone or with a girlfriend. But my friends have always been, and will always be, an intrinsic and core part of who I am. Phil understands that, and isn't jealous of my friends and the time I spend with them (or at least I don't think he is). Motherhood has made me less available on a moment's notice, but even my single friends have confirmed that I haven't been lost to them, that I remain the same person I was for the majority of my life.

 

PAM

Time, of course, impacts all aspects of my life these days, including my relationships. But I try very hard to sustain close friendships from throughout my life, and not all of my close friends are married and/or mothers. (I am not married!)

With some of my women friends, marriage and/or motherhood are not and never were among the primary bonds we share; for a few, it's a source of discomfort or pain because they are still hoping to have one or both of those things, and it's been important for us to communicate openly and honestly about that. Others desire neither marriage or motherhood. And for the close women in my life who are/were married and/or mothers, it's added a new dimension to our friendships in terms of sharing experiences, understanding each other's lives, and spending time together as moms and women in committed relationships.

 

CAREY

I've found that marriage mixes just fine with friendships; motherhood, however, is another matter! It is just so incredibly difficult to find the long blocks of time for talking and adventuring that helped build the basis for my close friendships in the before-children years. We can share outings that include the children, but then the children tend to make conversation difficult. My friendships have survived motherhood, and in some cases -- as I've found with Beth and Pam -- our mothering experiences, the anxieties and the joys, have even deepened the friendships. I've also found some new friends in the parents of my children's friends. But overall? I'd have to say motherhood is a challenge that friendship must overcome.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Carey Goldberg has been the Boston bureau chief of the New York Times, Moscow correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, and most recently a health and science reporter at the Boston Globe. She now writes happily at home.

Beth Jones is a freelance writer and educator who has contributed to the Boston Globe, the New York Times, and numerous academic journals. She plans to climb many more frozen waterfalls.

Pamela Ferdinand is an award-winning freelance journalist and former reporter for the Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Miami Herald. She remains an incorrigible romantic.

WIN A BOOK

If you would like to know more about the authors and their wishes, send your email address to me at Irene@TheFriendshipBlog or post it in the comment section below.

Put THREE WISHES in the subject line by COB Mother's Day, May 9, and I'll randomly pick one person to win a copy of this impossible-to-put-down book!

 

Friendship by the Book is an occasional series of posts on The Friendship Blog about books that offer friendship lessons.

Every Last One (Random House, 2010) is a beautifully written, gripping novel by Pulitzer Prize winning columnist and author Anna Quindlen. Told in the first-person, Mary Beth Latham is a mom of three teens, who is married to an ophthalmologist. She works as a part-time landscaper in her small town but is totally devoted to her children. Then the family endures an unimaginable tragedy one New Year's Eve that shatters the routines of their comfortable world, dividing Mary Beth's life into before and after.

 

Quindlen's layered depiction of marriage, home, children and friendship are so authentic that you feel like her characters might be the family next door. What I found most provocative about this haunting story, however, was the author's ability to describe the invisible boundaries and "vows of silence" that characterize our relationships with family and friends. Like many moms, Mary Beth wrestles with when she should "mother' and when she should allow her growing teens to make their own decisions. After the tragedy, Mary Beth says, "Small talk feels too small; big talk too enormous." The book reminds the reader that words unsaid can powerfully affect our lives and relationships.

 

Are there "words unsaid" that have affected a close friendship of yours?

 

Friendship by the Book is an occasional series of posts on The Friendship Blog about books that offer friendship lessons.  

When it comes down to it, being comfortable in your own skin is key to making friends and keeping them. With that in mind, Things I Wish My Mother Had Told Me: A Guide to Living with Impeccable Grace and Style (DaCapo, 2010) is a practical advice book that touches upon the many aspects of a woman's life that affect self-confidence and friendships: her looks, her home, her work and her other relationships.

 

Author Lucia van der Post is a style columnist for The Times (UK) where she writes "Luxury with Lucia" and "Ask Lucia," specializing in interior design, luxury good and travel. A mother of two and godparent to Prince William, she has massed encyclopedic information on the practical aspects of living with style and grace--- such as how to dress, how to organize a dinner party, and how-to pick the perfect present. Unlike most self-help or advice books, this one focuses on the concrete rather than the abstract, complete with names of products for a range of budgets, and telephone numbers and website addresses.

 

Closest to my heart, of course, is the section of the book where van der Post offers her seasoned perspective on the importance of friendship: "When you see the banana skins that lie await in life-the love affairs and marriages that go wrong, the illnesses that hit most of us at some time or another, and all the other more minor tragedies that make up life's tapestries-it is friends and lovers who see you through."

 

 

Friendship by the Book is an occasional series of posts on The Friendship Blog about books that offer friendship lessons.