Big Friendship : How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow & Ann Friedman

A close friendship is one of the most important things in someone's life. Anyone will tell you that. But what they don't tell you is how to maintain that friendship and sustain it for the long haul. In Big Friendship, Aminatou Sow & Ann Friedman chronicle their first decade of friendship together. As host of the podcast , Call Your Girlfriend, they're known for their frank and honest conversations about friendship. This book is a testament to most underrated and underappreciated relationship in society. Big Friendship invites you to think about how your own bonds are formed, challenged, and preserved. It is a call to think about the value that close friendships hold in each and every one of our lives. A call to actively choose them. And to even fight for them.

I have had this book on my to read list since it came out a year ago! Life has been crazy and I accidently kept passing it up. I was fascinated about a book about friendship. I completely agree that it is society's most underrated relationship. Everywhere we look romantic relationships are put on a pedestal. While romantic relationships are extremely important, platonic relationships/friendships mean so much. Friendships have changed my life for the better. Deep friendships I will say have gotten me through some hard moments in my life. Reading this book reinforced the ideas that I have that a meaningful life cannot be lived without deep friendships.

The second half of this book was about reconnection between the two friends once they had drifted apart. This was easily my favorite part of the book. It truly opened my eyes to how little we as a society talk about what happens when people drift in a friendship. We assume if people drift apart in a friendship, it's time to close the door on that friendship. I loved how Anna and Aminatou decided against that. They knew this decade long friendship had hit some bumps but it was still a relationship worth fighting for. They put in the work to heal and fight for something they saw as worth it. It made me think of my own friendships and how I'm willing to fight for them when things get hard.

Big Friendship was a short but enlightening read. I actually finished it in two nights! I will say it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. I was thinking it would be more of a self help or introspective read. But it was more of a inside look into Anna and Aminatou's friendship. That insight was helpful because it made me think of my own friendships. What I think about them, how they've changed my life, and how to fight for them. I would rate this book a 3.5 out of 5. While it wasn't what I thought it would be, it made me look at my own friendships in a way I hadn't before.