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    Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close
    Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close
    Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close
    Audiobook5 hours

    Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close

    Written by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman

    Narrated by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    A close friendship is one of the most influential and important relationships a human life can contain. Anyone will tell you that! But for all the rosy sentiments surrounding friendship, most people don’t talk much about what it really takes to stay close for the long haul.

    Now two friends, Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman, tell the story of their equally messy and life-affirming Big Friendship in this honest and hilarious book that chronicles their first decade in one another’s lives. As the hosts of the hit podcast Call Your Girlfriend, they’ve become known for frank and intimate conversations. In this book, they bring that energy to their own friendship—its joys and its pitfalls.

    Aminatou and Ann define Big Friendship as a strong, significant bond that transcends life phases, geographical locations, and emotional shifts. And they should know: the two have had moments of charmed bliss and deep frustration, of profound connection and gut-wrenching alienation. They have weathered life-threatening health scares, getting fired from their dream jobs, and one unfortunate Thanksgiving dinner eaten in a car in a parking lot in Rancho Cucamonga. Through interviews with friends and experts, they have come to understand that their struggles are not unique. And that the most important part of a Big Friendship is making the decision to invest in one another again and again.

    An inspiring and entertaining testament to the power of society’s most underappreciated relationship, Big Friendship will invite you to think about how your own bonds are formed, challenged, and preserved. It is a call to value your friendships in all of their complexity. Actively choose them. And, sometimes, fight for them.

    Editor's Note

    Deepen your friendships…

    Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman, the best friends behind the hit podcast “Call Your Girlfriend,” share their origin story about meeting at a “Gossip Girl” viewing party and go through all the ups and downs their long-distance relationship has endured through a decade. Their book celebrates female friendship in particular, but is full of helpful advice on how anyone can deepen relationships with their friends in a society that prioritizes family and romantic partners above all.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJul 14, 2020
    ISBN9781797107110
    Author

    Aminatou Sow

    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.

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    Reviews for Big Friendship

    4/5

    265 ratings17 reviews

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    • 1/5
      Please make it available in the UK so I can read this.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Loved the content but the audio was really choppy. Made it unlistenable.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      Very sparse in terms of practical advice. The authors prattle on about their relationship including every mind-numbing and irrelevant detail. I do not care about their jobs, their life choices, their personal lives; I picked up the book looking to be informed not dragged through a mire of nauseating play by plays of every decision they made as adults. To present this drivel as a self-help book is disingenuous and an inconsiderate diversion of time and money readers are investing in trying to find practical advice on a significant issue.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      Make it available in my country and I will rate you better
    • 5/5
      Such a breath of fresh air. I loved how easy it was to get through the book. The writing was fantastic and the story telling was epic. An amazing story about the dynamics of a loving, long lasting friendship.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed it until Chapter 10, then I was rolling my eyes. You have a problem with your best friend offering up her house for someone else’s party - meaning she did not control the guest list -because everyone except you is white? I don’t get upset if my straight friends don’t invite other gay people besides me to a party; I’m just happy to go. The world doesn’t revolve around you.

      The earlier chapters were especially interesting, but I agree with another reviewer that it could have used more background on the history of friendship.
    • 3/5
      interesting but not mind blowing. The audiobook was a bit annoying. The music at the beginning of each chapter could have been eliminated and there were times from chapter 8 going forward that the audio would skip and I had to stop it because I was missing parts of it. Overall, just an okay read.
    • 4/5
      “I love that you know every version of me. You were there in the beginning and I want you there in the end.”
    • 5/5
      I absolutely loved this book. Aminatou and Ann are charming, genuine people with real friend problems. They bring insightful perspectives and hilarious stories to light, and I can’t stop listening. I’m so sad it’s over! Definitely reading again once my physical book gets here.
    • 2/5
      Like the book quite a bit... at least what I could hear of it. The audio kept cutting in and out skipping huge chunks. Really disappointing.
    • 4/5
      This validated my own feelings about my long distance friendships as well as helped motivate me to do more in maintaining and repairing those friendships.
    • 4/5
      As my friend said, it's a memoir with thoughts on how to navigate friendship. I enjoyed it. I wish there was more about the history of friendship and about overcoming obstacles. But I was definitely engaged throughout my listening to the book
    • 5/5
      Excellent!!! So grateful to have some Big Friendships in my life. This book helped me see my friendships for what they are and what they can be. Highly recommend!
    • 5/5
      Lovey read! It caused me to think about all the ways I have not done enough work in certain friendships. I LOVE their podcast so it was exciting to see what was behind their friendship curtain!
    • 5/5
      a must read/listen. So many lessons and tips to make friendships works!
    • 5/5
      Really enjoyable read. Definitely walked away with a few gems to enhance my friendships. Loved the Shine Theory.
    • 4/5
      3.5-4 stars! Insightful and oftentimes very assuring but not every point made felt radical or revolutionary