In general I'm ok with saying you have more than one best friend but Day has made it quite clear she only has one and that she's super special. Based on the number of times I had to pause because of the tears streaming from my eyes, I think it must be. It was my best friend who, curiously unrelated to this gift, first introduced me to her thought-provoking podcast "How to Fail. Unfortunately, for me, the book is most interesting where it is least like a confessional and most like a scientific exploration of friendship.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. A generous, companionable guide to a part of life every bit as crucial – and as fraught – as romance or family. I was really excited to read this as I thought it would help me be a better friend and strengthen friendships. That gives you some idea of the sheer breadth of subject matter Day covers in the book, but it cannot convey the astonishing depth and insight of her writing, the sheer beauty of her prose, the elegance with which she expresses her passion for the subject.

Sinto que está uma boa tradução, mas acho que teria apreciado mais a leitura no seu original, uma vez que a autora é britânica e é muito difícil fazer transparecer esse tipo de humor na nossa língua. Acabei por ler em português por estar incluído no Kobo Plus (e com a mesma capa linda, OBRIGADA PORTUGAL!

Intertwined within the book are the "Friendship Tapes," various interviews with other people about their feelings in friendships. I am a recovering friendaholic too, and I found this book, which to some might seem niche or contrived, essential reading. She is a bit hung up on current identity politics eg there’s some casual hatred dropped about ‘white men’ being to blame (all men, surely! I saw Elizabeth Day at a book event recently talking about this book, which I'd previously heard of but wasn't sure if I would pick up.Day rightly points out that friendship as a subject has, for far too long, been treated as a Cinderella subject compared to romantic and even family relationships.

No matter how much we try to convince ourselves that we don’t care what others think about us, no one wants to be thought of as a total twat. What's less fascinating to me is Day's hand wringing about what text message she should send a shitty friend who she doesn't really like. If, like me, you’re older, it will help you to unravel much of the confusion, frustration and, yes, grief you may have been carrying on your shoulders for far too long. Over the course of the book, she examines topics such as the effect that the pandemic had on our friendships, why we make friends, friendships between people of very different ages, ghosting, platonic friendships between people of different genders, ‘friendship CVs’, the importance of clarity, frenemies, fertility (this chapter is a truly important piece of work in itself), the effect of big life changes and serious illness, friendship and social media, defining ‘best’ friendships and, perhaps the most unspoken subject, the grief at losing a friend. Being good at friendship, which is not quite the same as being a good friend, is a core self-belief that many of us (often women) cling to as evidence that we are, in some important way, both lovable and likable.The tendency to quote Day's conversations with friends verbatim adds more bloat to an already bloated book. My only real problem with this book (other than the fact that I didn’t think it was possible for a person to have THIS many friends), is the amount of tangents and metaphors packed into each chapter. So if you are still, as Day was at one point, determined to maintain every friendly connection you’ve ever had, it is an index not of your niceness but of your desperate need to hang on to several skips’ worth of emotional lumber.