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

Girlfriends are something I never take lightly. You are lucky to have one or two good friends in your life, imagine having 10 of them!

The Girls from Ames A Story of Women and a Forty Year Friendship by Jeffrey Zaslow is an amazing book about Karla, Kelly, Marilyn, Jane, Jenny, Karen, Cathy, Angela, Sally, Diana, and Sheila who have been fixtures in each others life.

They were all just ordinary girls growing up in Ames, Iowa. Their unwavering bond (40 years and counting) is documented in the national bestselling book, The Girls from Ames, by Jeffrey Zaslow. Sifting through their childhood diaries, notes, and photos Jeffrey gives readers a look into an extraordinary friendship that really mirrors great friendships in all women’s lives.

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.

Meet the Girls of Ames

BTW...love that a Rod song was used in the video since they all found him sexy!


Head to the Girls From Ames website for tons of information.

There is a discussion guide here which I found very interesting.



Disclaimer: Thanks to Penguin for getting the book mailed to me for review.