Friendship Development

"If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person." ( The World According to Mister Rogers)

Good friends and healthy friendships are crucial to women's well-being at every stage of life. But what happens when a friendship turns toxic? When a friend becomes hurtful or mistreats another? When a friend abandons another in a time of need? Here, Suzanne Degges-White and Judy Pochel Van Tieghem explore such toxic friendships and how women navigate the ups and downs as well as how broken friendships can be mended and bad friendships ended.

In Let's Take the Long Way Home, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gail Caldwell offers a powerful and moving memoir about her coming-of-age in mid-life and her extraordinary friendship with Caroline Knapp, the author of Drinking: A Love Story. Though they are more different than alike, these two fiercely private, independent women quickly relax into a friendship more profound than either of them expected. They grow increasingly inseparable until, in 2003, Caroline is diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer.

Receptionist Pam Beesly and accountant Angela Martin had very little in common when they toiled together at Scranton’s Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. But, in reality, the two bonded in their very first days on set and, over the nine seasons of the series’ run, built a friendship that transcended the show and continues to this day.

Andrew didn’t realize he might be autistic until his girlfriend, Michelle, approached him about it months into their relationship. No amount of life experience could’ve prepared Michelle for the confusion she felt while dating Andrew, as he was unlike any man she had ever dated before. The thought never dawned on her that she could fall deeply in love with a man who was autistic or that he might be unaware of this, even into his 30s.

In Desperate Woman Seeks Friends, Kristen Strong offers her two decades of experience as a regularly relocating military spouse and one decade as a settled civilian to address head on the crisis facing women today in startling numbers: an acute loneliness and isolation due to a lack of friends and community.

It’s not like she’s the only woman to ever have a baby. At 35. On her own. But Anne Lamott makes it all fresh in her now-classic account of how she and her son and numerous friends and neighbors and some strangers survived and thrived in that all-important first year. From finding out her baby is a boy (and getting used to the idea) to finding out her best friend and greatest supporter, Pam, will die of cancer (and not getting used to that idea), with a generous amount of wit and faith (but little piousness), Lamott narrates the great and small events making up a woman’s life.

"A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere," wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson in Love and Friendship, a collection of essays on relationships. "Before him, I may think aloud. I do then with my friends as I do with my books. I would have them where I can find them, but I seldom use them."

Different people with different personalities express love in different ways. In fact, there are five very specific languages of love: Words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service, quality time, and physical touch. Dr. Gary Chapman’s original best seller was first crafted with married couples in mind, but the love languages have proven themselves to be universal. The message of this audiobook is now tailored to meet the unique and real desires of single adults.

In his most vulnerable book to date, Chip Gaines opens up about his lifelong pursuit of building relationships with people from all walks of life. Chip emphasizes the importance of seeing people for who they are and not for what they can do for you, enabling you to build a strong community and a life of meaning, joy, and connection.

When Craig Cooper and Walker Hayes met, Walker was an alcoholic atheist reeling from the backlash of a failed music career. Through their unlikely friendship, Craig’s life demonstrated the love of Christ in a way that shattered Walker’s misconceptions of Christianity, ultimately leading him down the path to a dramatic conversion. The two are now close as brothers, choosing to be next-door neighbors, and ripped out the fence between their homes as a testament to the power of the gospel to break down barriers and unite people together in Christ.

Friendships are one of the most important aspects of a fulfilling life, yet making and maintaining meaningful connections can be challenging. Unlocking the Art of Making Friends: A Complete Guide to Meaningful Friendships for Adults is a practical and insightful guide designed to help you build lasting relationships, overcome social obstacles, and strengthen your existing friendships.

The Friendship Code: Building Meaningful Female Connections in the Modern World is an insightful and refreshing guide to forming, nurturing, and maintaining deep, meaningful female friendships in an age where digital interactions often replace real ones. This empowering book offers expert advice, relatable anecdotes, and actionable strategies to help women navigate the complexities of modern social dynamics. It covers everything from making new connections to overcoming conflict and strengthening bonds through life's inevitable challenges.

Jess Johnston used to feel alone in her mess. In a random burst of courage, she started sharing those insecurities and struggles out loud, and what she found shocked her. Again and again, people replied, “Me too! I thought I was the only one!” Over the past decade she’s reached hundreds of thousands of women with her messages of authenticity and refreshing realness, and this is what she’s found: Women are really, really hard on themselves, and we should stop it.

In this book, New York Times bestselling author Mark Nepo turns his attention to the value of community, offering another insightful and inspiring take on our shared human experience. You Don’t Have to Do It Alone is an earnest exploration and joyous affirmation of one of the most important aspects of being human: friendship.

When it first appeared, A Rumor of War brought home to American readers, with terrifying vividness and honesty, the devastating effects of the Vietnam War on the soldiers who fought there. And while it is a memoir of one young man's experiences and therefore deeply personal, it is also a book that speaks powerfully to today's students about the larger themes of human conscience, good and evil, and the desperate extremes men are forced to confront in any war.

Our culture today is inundated with narratives about the strength of female friendship, whether through images of girl power, BFFs, or work wives. Yet cultural historian Tiffany Watt Smith has always found her own life much messier. She has had dramatic friend breakups, friendships that felt like too much or not enough, friendships that drifted into silence, and friendships built on convenience rather than a meeting of minds. And there are older cultural scripts to contend with: the competitive rival, the jealous backstabber, the underminer, the fair-weather friend.

Written in the same comedic style as the New York Times best sellers Sparkly Green Earrings and The Antelope in the Living Room, Nobody's Cuter Than You is a laugh-out-loud look at the special bond that exists between friends and a poignant celebration of all the extraordinary people God had the good sense to bring into our lives at exactly the right moments.

Whether you are engaged and afraid you won't be able to light the spark, are newlyweds who haven't started off well, or have been married five, 10, 25 years, or more and you'd like to recapture the spark you once had, this audiobook is for you! The challenges aim to spice up the bedroom while guiding you through all three levels of sexual intimacy. As you go through these challenges with lots of laughter and enjoyment, sex will stop being a source of tension and become something fun that brings you together, just the way God intended.

For more than 30 years, Gay Hendricks has served as one of the major contributors to the fields of relationship transformation and body-mind therapies. In his updated classic, Learning to Love Yourself, Dr. Hendricks provides a honest, fresh, yet timeless, approach to handling your feelings and developing a deeply positive sense of self-worth. This book has helped tens of thousands.