An Absolute Must Read - The Girls From Ames - A Story of Women and Friendship

What I Can Tell You: I believe this to be a complete testament to the love and sisterhood women feel for each other. I loved all of it, from cover to cover you will read how friendship even through the years and miles created a support system for the women of Ames. All now in their 40's, most meeting in childhood, these ladies love, support, lean on, care about, listen, advise, and comfort each other with familiarity that you can only get from your girlfriends. Understanding, acknowledging and accepting their differences and loving each other through good times and bad in non-judgemental love makes you happy to even have a part of what they have. 

I love the beginning which has a picture of each of them from childhood, college and adulthood which I referred to in the beginning while reading. I constantly turned back to see which one they were referring to. 

You will find yourself relating to each of them at different times. From the lose of virginity, the lose of a parent, the lose of a child, a friend, a divorce, health issues, the women remained there for each other first through mail than email with reunions in between. 

Being in my 40's I loved reading about the shows they watched, Dinah Shore, Mike Douglas, The Partridge family. Their crushes were reminiscent of mine and I found myself longing for my childhood friends and connections.

Reading about the lose of Karla's daughter was probably the hardest for me. I cannot imagine and picturing all the women gathered during the memorial in a closed room, supporting their friend just made me so sad. 

This book is a beautiful tribute to the glorious, beautiful, relationships women have. 

Jeffrey Zarlow did a fabulous job of recounting the intertwined hearts that keep these women together.