Better yet, just give me a list, just the top ten. I found myself keeping a finger stuck between the pages that show the Girls' photos, and every time something in particular about their story resonated for me, I'd flip to the front and look at the Girl or Girls in question. I felt myself wanting to know them, to look the I didn't think I would like this book half as much as I did. I felt myself wanting to know them, to look them in the eye. Through this book, in an infinitesimal way, you can meet them.
You had to have been there. But I am so glad for this peek into their lives and the friendship they share. In a way, they offer a glimpse into understanding myself. Jeff Zaslow, you've got balls to venture into this territory. A woman at my store told me she did not think this book would appeal to her year-old daughter and left hurriedly before I could reply. Any girl who has had a friend, or wanted one; any girl who has had a sister, or wanted one; any woman who knew her mother or daughter well, or never knew her at all, or wished she knew her better; any girl who has ever felt alone and needs to know she isn't or doesn't have to be, can relate to and enjoy this book.
I didn't think it would appeal to me not being an upper-middle class Midwestern housewife but I have been all of these girls at one point or another.
The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship
From childhood crushes to familial heroes, from mean-girl intrigues and girlfights to crying sessions and group hugs, from courtship to marriage--I've been at some of those same intersections of life. And I can see the first blips of other life milestones of theirs that I will pass too: I'm looking forward and backward at the same time. Mar 06, Monika rated it really liked it Shelves: Sure they disagreed sometimes, but overall, they we're the true epitamy of best friends. SO glad i got this as a first reads! So I started the book last night, and put it down page because it was really late, and I had to get to bedotherwise I think I update: So I started the book last night, and put it down page because it was really late, and I had to get to bedotherwise I think I would have kept reading it.
I do like this book. I think the stories about the friends are amazing, and I know the feeling of being separated from close girlfriends. The stories bring back memories from my own childhood, even though I grew up in a big city. The one issue I have with the book is that it is written too "journalistically" and not like a "story teller" would tell a story. There are points where I caught myself thinking, why is this side story about a completely different person in here, when I have 11 charachters to already keep track of! I think this is a book I am definately going to give my future daughter, so that she can realize eary on how important true friendships are, and how regardless of how different you may be, or how you grow in different ways in life, that your true friends will love you for who you are regardles I can't wait to jump into it!
Aug 05, Mandy rated it liked it. I thought this book was an interesting idea, in concept. It was a quick, easy read. It would be good for a book club book or for a group of girls who have or appreciate long lasting friendships. In my opinion the stories of the women and the sociological reflections by the author were often jarring and not seamless. Sometimes you felt like you were reading an email, other times you felt like you were reading a textbook. I also had a difficult time getting into the writing.
I come from a school of I thought this book was an interesting idea, in concept. I come from a school of creative writing that preaches showing vs.
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And the author did a lot of telling. Its understandable did a lot of telling because he was It was journalistic, socioligical studying in nature. I just can't dig it. I really really wanted to love this book. Perhaps if I had a core of girlfriends from the age of kindergarten onward I would have appreciated it more. I did enjoy, as I said before, the concept of the book, the relationship of the friends and all they'd been through. I also found connections with specific women in the book. I guess, in short, I thought the book was a gimmick. While the author meant everything he wrote about the importance of female friendships, to me it is to "on the nose" an attempt to create a book for female friends, book clubs, Oprah.
I would however reccommend this book to friends who enjoy the likes of Eat, Pray Love, books that combine anectotes with studies, etc. I will say the book did make me appreciate the friendships with family that I have. My family was my first friends and I've had them forever!
May 21, Jennifer rated it it was ok. It has taken me many months to read this. I read a little of this book at a time in between novels because it just wasn't compelling enough to hold my attention. I'm not much of a non-fiction reader, but having spent the first 12 years of my life in Ames, I was intrigued by this book. Sadly, it is not very well written, and I was also a little turned off by what these girls were like as teenagers though I think I'd like most of them as grown women. I realize that many people lacked good sense a It has taken me many months to read this.
I realize that many people lacked good sense as teenagers, but I've never had much patience for that nor for the adults that then assume that their own teenagers have to act in the same stupid waysas if stupid teenagers are inevitable. What I enjoyed most were the few memoirs of Ames that struck a sentimental chord for me like mentions of Boyd's Dairy. I was too young to know the girls in the story, but I did know one of their dads, Dr. McCormack, which made the story even more personal. That being said, I felt that too much attention was lavished on the doctor in this book; he seems to have been a great man, but this book shouldn't be about him.
And too much attention was given to Kelly one of the "girls" and her opinions. This book may worth reading if you are from Ames and were born in the 60s or late 50s, or if you are from any small town and have maintained close friendships with friends from your youth. It is heartwearming to read how these girls managed to maintain connections to such an extent that they are able to provide support to one another throughout their lives.
Feb 25, Lisa rated it did not like it Shelves: I didn't finish this book. I read about half of it, and was interested in the stories of the eleven friends who make up the group and how they got together when they were chldren and became "the Shisters.
I was also interested in the author's insertion of results of studies that have researched friendship and how they compared to this group of friends. As they left high scho I didn't finish this book. As they left high school and their stories became individual with some descriptions of planned or unplanned reunions , rather than the stories of a group of "girls," I lost interest. I also sometimes felt like a voyeur, wondering why these friends would share such intimate details of their lives with the author--even stories they may not have shared or discussed with anyone in the group--and I wondered why I cared to read about those stories.
Not for me, although I really liked the author's earlier work on The Last Lecture. Jul 07, Laurie rated it it was ok. I was thinking I'd like this book a lot more than I did. Women and friendship sounds good. I think having a male author made this a more clinical read--I never really cared about the women as characters or individuals.
I guess he focused on her beca I was thinking I'd like this book a lot more than I did. I guess he focused on her because she was liberal, single, and feminist. Why are women only applauded as feminists when they have careers like men? When will society value the work that goes into raising a family? Isn't that feminist too? Sep 07, Kim rated it liked it. I really enjoyed reading about the girls and them growing up in Ames.
May 28, Rhonda rated it it was ok Shelves: OK, maybe it's really a 2. Wall Street Journal comumnist sets out to write a story on "the deep bonds of women as they experience life's joys and challengesand the power of friendship to triumph over heartbreak and unexpected tragedy. The book was more his story-telling than his deductions on friendship, but it was still interesting.
- Buffalito Destiny (Adventures of the Amazing Conroy Book 1).
- The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship by Jeffrey Zaslow;
- The Feng Shui Detective (THE FENG SHUI DETECTIVE SERIES).
I expected more "reflection" and what he learned from it all But those are just the particulars. What Kelly really hopes Liesl will pick up in her retelling is a feeling of how deep the bonds between women can get. She's not sure what exact words she'll say, but Kelly the wordsmith would like her daughter to know this: Having these women in my world has meant not only acceptance, but radiant joy and laughter that knocks me right out of my chair. Through our darkest moments, we have lifted each other up.
In every moment of grief we've shared, our laughter is a life vest, a secure promise that we will not go under. Perhaps, they say, it is because over the years, they have come up with unspoken or barely acknowledged ground rules that seem to work. They don't brag about their husbands' jobs or incomes.
They talk about their children's achievements, but not in a gloating way. They root for each other's kids, just as they root for each other. They make every effort to be with each other for key events in their lives: If they have disagreements among themselves, if they have negative opinions about each other, if they have things that need to be hashed out, it all remains in the group.
They don't go to their husbands with their complaints. They don't tell their friends outside the group.
One upside of being in their forties, they girls say, is that they feel like they've grown beyond a lot of things. They're beyond a cutthroat kind of ambition, they're far less competitive, they've lowered their expectations of others, and they're learning to find satisfaction in just living. They're seeing what feels good: I so badly wanted to like this book chronicling the true friendship of 11 women spanning 40 years since I myself have experienced such female bonding.
But alas, the book is so poorly written and shallow that I couldn't help but groan throughout. So obviously written by a man as he failed miserably at telling a good story nor capturing the complexity and depth of BFF's and frenemies. The writing was atrocious. Honestly, the worst I have ever seen. The author loosely generous word organiz Ugghhh. The author loosely generous word organized the first few chapters based on one of the women and then quickly abandoned that a third of the way through their names and then focused on events. The problem lies in the actual bones of the chapters where random stories, having little bearing on each other are sprinkled throughout.
It kind of reminded me of reading a child's first attempts at writing an open ended story. One thought leading to another thought with little relationship in between other than the characters are all the same, who are all insanely boring and flat by the way. My life long friends' life stories have been and are still way more interesting than this pablum. I finished the book not really grasping what has bonded these women together so fiercely to travel across country regularly to keep in touch, in person, by email, by letter, and by phone. Obviously, the meat of their closeness has been painstakingly edited in order to portray them, their families, employers, and town in the best possible light at all times, then and now.
Real events and personal qualities are merely hinted at. Careful is the word that comes to mind. The author was very careful with his wording, so obviously crossing the line to crushing on his new female friends that he dare not offend them by telling the truth. I do understand the difficulty in being able to delicately expose 11 real women's lives and their interactions. However, if the author is incapable of fleshing them out then there is no need for the book in the first place.
Barely scratching the surface of these women would have worked better in a feel good newspaper or magazine series. The only one with any depth was Kelly which I suspect was the only one honest enough to expose herself, fitting with her no holds barred personality. I honestly couldn't tell the rest apart. Out of 11 women, the only ones with a husband issue were the two that got divorced. The phrase "mighty white of you gals" ran through my brain as I read each kiss ass rambling line that dissolved like cotton candy fluff in my psyche. I gave it 2 stars for the effort in attempting to capture the nature of female relationships in the first place and second, for the only time I felt any emotion other than sheer boredom, Christie's heartbreaking journey.
That one brief passage however was not enough to warrant writing or reading this book though. Otherwise, it is saccharine sweet, folksy, and cloying.
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While they were a unit, each girl had at least one defined role. To fully understand the Ames girls, Zaslow takes an in-depth look at the beginning of each girl's family life and how their families impacted their From my blog To fully understand the Ames girls, Zaslow takes an in-depth look at the beginning of each girl's family life and how their families impacted their personalities.
Of the eleven, only ten remain; although the women say when they get together, Sheila is with them in spirit. The girls are different enough to make their group interesting, and they credit their willingness to talk and listen to each other for their long friendship and admit in their 20s and 30s they had a difficult time connecting, which holds true with the science behind friendships. According to the study in this novel, women have the most difficult time maintaining friendships between the ages of , after which friendship suddenly rates higher. The Ames girls discuss their children, especially their daughters.
Current research indicates today's girls will be life-long dieters, have distorted body images, and be scarred by cliques. The Girls From Ames is an intriguing sociological look inside a group of women who forged deep bonds as young children, forged their friendship by junior high and maintained and strengthened their friendships through time and distance, marriages, births, and divorces. I found this book to be an intriguing look at the social science of friendships, being of the same age group, I do not think I would have been friends with many of these girls, however, I did find it interesting that the McCormick's had a summer house on the same lake my family did, and briefly pondered whether I ever met any of them.
All in all it is an intriguing sociological study on friendship and I would recommend The Girls From Ames to anyone interested in the social sciences of women and friendship. Jul 24, David rated it liked it. The setting is a long-weekend reunion of the 10 surviving of 11 women from a tight group of lifelong friends from Ames, Iowa. Nothing much happens at the reunion, so that functions mostly as a scene-setter for flashbacks and commentary about their lives and friendship.
The book was a mixed bag for me. On the minus side, it's poorly edited -- repetition is unwelcome when the subject is interesting e. Relatedly, it's poorly organized -- a chapter per "girl" for a while and then switches to loose themes such as relationships with men, loss, being in one's 40s etc.
Would have worked better I think to use one or the other scheme throughout. Finally, it's poorly written -- author seldom trusts you to draw a conclusion from the action or dialogue but instead hammers home obvious points along the lines of "not every girl always felt close to every other one or agreed with all her decisions, but as a group they were always there for each other". Many of these points are followed by non-amazing generalizations from social science research about sex differences in friendship patterns etc.
Redeeming the book, for me, was the underlying content. Actual stories from their lives about marriage, having kids, career decisions, high school memories, illness two have breast cancer; one had a daughter die of leukemia , middle age infirmities, and so on kept me turning the pages. Probably helped that they are just a couple years younger than I am, and I have remained in touch with several close friends since 8th grade, so the "hey, me too" response kicked in fairly often.
Jun 15, Katherine rated it liked it Shelves: I picked this up at the library thinking it was fiction, however, it is the true story of a 11 girls from Ames, Iowa who became close friends in elementary school and despite the fact they are spread out all over the country are still extremely close friends in their mid-forties. Interspersed with the details of their lives are passages about studies which show that a close group of female friends is one of the contributing factors to being healthy, happy and living a long time at least for wome I picked this up at the library thinking it was fiction, however, it is the true story of a 11 girls from Ames, Iowa who became close friends in elementary school and despite the fact they are spread out all over the country are still extremely close friends in their mid-forties.
Interspersed with the details of their lives are passages about studies which show that a close group of female friends is one of the contributing factors to being healthy, happy and living a long time at least for women doesn't seem to matter for men whose friendships are of an entirley different matter. Marriages even work better because women have someone other than their husbands to vent to and for emotional support, which again, we know women are better at than men.
It also seemed to be important that these be very long term friendships not ones made in adulthood. What depressed me reading all this was that I had such a group of girlfriends in elementary school and I can well imagine we would have continued that way through high school and on til today. In fact, I've reconnected with some of them via email and facebook in the last year. However, at the end of my 7th grade yeare we moved and then I changed schools every year or two until college so was never able to reestablish friendships.
Oh well, one more thing to blame my parents for Aug 10, Diana Bogan added it. What is remarkable about this story is not the individual trials and tribulations that these women face in their own lives.
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And it isn't even really the fact that a woman can have such a deep and meaningful bond of friendship with another woman. What struck me as remarkable - astonishing really- is that a group of 11 women can share such a deep friendship that transcends the group as a whole. The Life of Paul Simon. This event is FREE with a reservation. The new year arrived under threatening skies in Portland.
Stark and wintry, wind-tossed wires slapping the living skeletons of the aged cruciform elms. I walked the dog and realized that marks the th birthday of the house our family has called home for sixteen years. The generations of folks in our neighborhood lived through a lot: The nation will cough him up like an accidentally swallowed bug, wipe its mouth and get back to being the shining city on the hill.
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