Friendship Development

Almost every day it seems that our world becomes more fractured, more digital, and more chaotic. Sheila Liming has the answer: we need to hang out more. Starting with the assumption that play is to children as hanging out is to adults, Liming makes a brilliant case for the necessity of unstructured social time as a key element of our cultural vitality. The book asks questions like what is hanging out? why is it important? why do we do it? how do we do it? and examines the various ways we hang out-in groups, online, at parties, at work.

In The Friendship Equation, you’ll discover the key ingredients that build and sustain meaningful relationships. Drawing from psychology, personal experiences, and real-world insights, this book explores the science and heart behind true friendship. Whether you’re looking to deepen existing bonds, make new friends, or navigate the challenges of modern relationships, this book provides the roadmap.

Doesn’t it seem like there simply isn’t enough time to take care of ourselves, our families, and our to do lists? Even when we’re partnered and surrounded by friends, we’re often too afraid of burdening others to ask for help. So how do we survive today’s age of overwork and stress, and who can we turn to for the support we need to stay afloat? Now, writer and cartoonist Sophie Lucido Johnson offers a radical answer to our age of overwhelm in Kin.

A narcissist is often characterized as arrogant, self-important, and attention-seeking. However, some narcissists can actually be very meek and self-effacing, making it harder to detect them. And they can be just as dangerous as more overt narcissists, if you allow them to be. In Narcissistic Friend, you’ll find research-backed guidance on identifying and dealing with narcissists.

An Asian American basketball star walks into a gym. No one recognizes him, but everyone stares anyway. It is the start of a joke but what is the punchline? When Won Lee, the first Asian American in the NBA, stuns the world in a seven-game winning streak, the global media audience dubs it “The Wonder”—much to Won’s chagrin. Meanwhile, Won struggles to get attention from his coach, his peers, his fans, and most importantly, his hero, Powerball!, who also happens to be Won’s teammate and the captain.

Acclaimed historian Stephen Ambrose begins his examination with a glance inward - he starts this book with his brothers, his first and forever friends, and the shared experiences that join them for a lifetime, overcoming distance and misunderstandings.

He next tells of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had a golden gift for friendship and who shared a perfect trust with his younger brother, Milton, in spite of their apparently unequal stations....

Alexandra Collier was a writer living in a light-filled Brooklyn brownstone in New York with the man she loved. But when she woke up to a ravenous hunger to have a baby that her partner didn't share, she had to make a choice between love or a future family. From defying her family's expectations to searching for sperm and navigating pregnancy alone, Ally deftly takes us through the ecstatic, complicated and demanding path to becoming a solo mother by choice.

In Walking into Walls, best-selling author, radio host, and counselor Stephen Arterburn identifies five prison walls, or blind spots, that will hold you captive and block the amazing things God wants to do in your life. Arterburn will help you learn how to overcome those life-blocking barriers and sprint into the future with renewed confidence and joy. This one audiobook is the breakthrough you need!

Dear White Woman, Please Come Home is Kimberlee Yolanda Williams's invitation to white women longing for authentic friendship with Black and brown women, the kind of friendship with no place for secrets, the kind of relationship where truth-telling is welcome, even when it hurts. The idea for the book was born after attending a workshop that left her shaken and angry. In it, Kimberlee listened as white woman after white woman didn't understand how this or that comment, custom, behavior, or norm so negatively impacted women of color.

In this zippy listen packed with true-life stories, Jen Nash explains how the opportunity to connect is everywhere and how we can get more than we ever dreamed of out of life if we make the effort to lean in and say hello. Whether you want to go to more parties, get a better job, make more money, or be a better person—listening to this book can give you practical strategies for doing it all. A happier, more successful, and more fulfilling life is within your reach, and The Big Power of Tiny Connections will show you the way.

વોટસ ફ્રેન્ડશિપ ? વી નીડ ફ્રેન્ડસ ટુ કમ્ફર્ટ અસ વ્હેન આર સેડ, એન્ડ ટુ હેવ ફન વિથ અસ વ્હેન વી આર ગ્લેડ ! ગમ-ખુશી, તડકો-છાંયડો.... એ બધુ તો કોઈ પણ માણસની જીંદગીમાં આવવાનું જ.

Eight years ago, Kathleen Hart was diagnosed with breast cancer. Further complications led to a protracted recovery and months spent in hospital, where Kathleen had to learn how to walk again. While recuperating, she came across a small whitewashed cottage for sale in Wigtown, Scotland. Driving hundreds of miles on nothing more than a few photographs and an inkling, she bought it that very same day and named it Devorgilla after the formidable 13th century Scottish princess.

Based on the column of the same name that appeared in The Toast, Hey Ladies! is a laugh-out-loud listen that follows a fictitious group of eight 20- and-30-something female friends for one year of holidays, summer house rentals, dates, brunches, breakups, and, of course, the planning of a disastrous wedding. This instantly relatable story is told entirely through emails, texts, DMs, and every other form of communication known to man.

Move over idealised BFFs, glossy gal pals and indestructible work wives. Meet the bad friends. The dangerously romantic school girls of the 1900s. The office gossips of the 1930s. The mum cliques of the 1950s. The angry activists of the 1970s. The coven – women who choose to live together in old age – of the present day. These ‘bad’ friends broke the rules about femininity they didn’t write. Their relationships were controlled, patrolled and judged too intimate, too consuming and in some cases, too powerful.

When the state of Colorado ordered its residents to shelter in place in response to the spread of coronavirus, writers Pam Houston and Amy Irvine — who had never met — began a correspondence based on their shared devotion to the rugged, windswept mountains that surround their homes, one on each side of the Continental Divide. As the numbers of infected and dead rose and the nation split dangerously over the crisis, Houston and Irvine found their letters to one another as necessary as breath.

Science fiction reflects on the paths that bring us to the present while shining a light on opportunities and dangers ahead. It's through the power of the imagination that humanity stretches into unknown worlds yet peers into the depths of the human experience. In these stories from OldEarth and Newearth worlds, every character's life speaks to a mysterious whole that we'd miss without them.

In 2018 poet and author Michael Pedersen lost a cherished friend, Scott Hutchison, soon after their collective voyage into the landscape of the Scottish Highlands. Just weeks later, Michael began to write to him. As he confronts the bewildering process of grief, what starts as a love letter to one magical, coruscating human soon becomes a paean to all the gorgeous male friendships that have transformed his life.

Growing up, Elizabeth wanted to make everyone like her. Lacking friends at school, she grew up to believe that quantity equalled quality. Having lots of friends meant you were loved, popular and safe. She was determined to become a Good Friend. And, in many ways, she did. But in adulthood she slowly realised that it was often to the detriment of her own boundaries and mental health. Then, when a global pandemic hit in 2020, she was one of thousands of people forced to reassess what friendship really meant to them—with the crisis came a dawning realisation.

In a time when so many suffer from isolation and it feels like developing authentic relationships and true belonging is harder than ever, Chris and Julie Bennett invite you into their story to discover why we were meant for togetherness and why it's worth facing any amount of hardship to keep our faith, families, and communities at the center of who we are.

Research shows that people cannot reach their full potential unless they are in healthy connection with others. Dr. Amy Banks teaches us how to rewire our brains for healthier relationships and happier, more fulfilling lives. This groundbreaking book gives listeners the tools they need to strengthen the parts of their brain that encourage connection and to heal the neural damage that disconnection can cause.