Looking for a Good Read? These 5 Memoirs Will Inspire You
There are a lot of ways to get tips on how to improve your friendships, and one of them is by reading. You can benefit from the wisdom and insight others have found and shared in their memoirs just as much as you can through a self-help book.Â
Memoirs give you a completely different perspective. Instead of advice-driven, they are written from the point of experience. That alone can leave an impact on how you deal with the relationships in your own life.
Here are five memoirs that teach us about various aspects of friendship.
This book was so smart and funny that I couldn't put it down. When I finished, I realized there were several great lessons about friendship and life. One of the things I took away from this book was Fey's genuine affection and appreciation for friend Amy Poehler. The two always look like they're having a blast, no matter if they're doing a skit, "auctioning off" their friendship for charity, or hosting the Golden Globe awards.
But there was also quite a bit of admiration that came through in the book as well. They weren't just friends who goofed around and were smart and funny, but they were two women with enormous respect for each other.
I found this refreshing because I think women can be hard on each other in friendship sometimes, and also because when you're in the same business (and sometimes going after similar jobs) it can make the relationship a very competitive one. But I didn't get that sense from this book, and instead was entertained and inspired by the way Fey talks about her life and her friendships. She'd certainly be a top pick for our celebrity friend wish list.More »
Fans of the Real Housewives and reality TV in general will enjoy Andy Cohen's Most Talkative. One thing I really liked was how he valued his friendships. He had several friends he met in high school, then college, then in the working world, and managed to hang on to them all. I think his ability to deal with the way friendships change as we get older is a lesson for us all.
What's more, his friendships helped him come out and be honest about his life. I appreciated how he turned to each friend individually and gave them "the news" of his sexuality, while at the same time helped them understand. In turn, they were able to give him the confidence to be himself.More »
Angela's Ashes, and the two books that followed ('Tis and Teacher Man) are three of the most poetic memoirs you will ever read. There are life lessons that reach far into your heart, especially in Angela's Ashes, where we learn that poverty cannot take a person's sense of humor or ability to look at the world with hopeful eyes.
One of the biggest lessons I took from Angela's Ashes was that you couldn't quite characterize someone in the book as good or bad. A person you thought was just mean would turn around and help Frank and his family out when you least expected it.
This lesson translates to friendship as well. How often do we label people when we first met them? We might miss out on some good friendships simply because we assume things about a person. In order to really make a connection, we need to get beyond rumors and gossip and first impressions to really understand what someone is about before we can decide if they are "friend material."More »
I was riveted by Carole Radziwill's memoir from the very first page. Imagine the concept: your husband of just five years is dying, and you're managing to cope and find strength in part from your friend, who goes with you to the hospital and makes sure you're taking care of yourself as well as the man you love.
But then, the unthinkable. Your friend and her husband die tragically just three weeks before your husband. In an instant, you're all alone. This is the story behind Radziwill's book What Remains, and her friendship with Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and marriage to Anthony Radziwill, who was cousin to JFK, Jr.
Perhaps the biggest thing I took from this book were the kind gestures from Bessette-Kennedy. Things like tying her scarf around Radziwill before she left, saying it was cold and she should keep warm. Or hanging a picture of her dog Friday in Anthony Radziwill's hospital room just to cheer the place up. These were small things, and yet they made an impact. This is exactly what each of us need to do as friends. It isn't hard to add kindness to a friend's life. Just the smallest of gestures can mean everything if they are heartfelt and done with our friend's best interest in mind.More »
While Joan Didion's book The Year of Magical Thinking centers on family and the death of her husband (author John Gregory Dunne), it also called up thoughts of how friends can help us through the darkest of days. The title of the book says it all, as Didion admits that for a year she seemed to drift through life, just trying to make sense of it all and move on, all the while not quite dealing with reality in the same way as before.
As the book opened, Dunne had died of a heart attack just as he and Didion came to grips with the fact that their daughter, Quintana, was in a coma. Quintana would die less than two years later.
How did Didion get through it? How would you? For me this book reinforced the importance of friends in our life and how they are able to get us through things simply by checking in on us, inviting us over for dinner, talking about our grief, and letting us know they are there for us.Buy from Amazon »
Personal Stories About Friendship From These 5 Memoirs
Memoirs give you a completely different perspective. Instead of advice-driven, they are written from the point of experience. That alone can leave an impact on how you deal with the relationships in your own life.
Here are five memoirs that teach us about various aspects of friendship.
Bossypants by Tina Fey
This book was so smart and funny that I couldn't put it down. When I finished, I realized there were several great lessons about friendship and life. One of the things I took away from this book was Fey's genuine affection and appreciation for friend Amy Poehler. The two always look like they're having a blast, no matter if they're doing a skit, "auctioning off" their friendship for charity, or hosting the Golden Globe awards.
But there was also quite a bit of admiration that came through in the book as well. They weren't just friends who goofed around and were smart and funny, but they were two women with enormous respect for each other.
I found this refreshing because I think women can be hard on each other in friendship sometimes, and also because when you're in the same business (and sometimes going after similar jobs) it can make the relationship a very competitive one. But I didn't get that sense from this book, and instead was entertained and inspired by the way Fey talks about her life and her friendships. She'd certainly be a top pick for our celebrity friend wish list.More »
Most Talkative by Andy Cohen
Fans of the Real Housewives and reality TV in general will enjoy Andy Cohen's Most Talkative. One thing I really liked was how he valued his friendships. He had several friends he met in high school, then college, then in the working world, and managed to hang on to them all. I think his ability to deal with the way friendships change as we get older is a lesson for us all.
What's more, his friendships helped him come out and be honest about his life. I appreciated how he turned to each friend individually and gave them "the news" of his sexuality, while at the same time helped them understand. In turn, they were able to give him the confidence to be himself.More »
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
Angela's Ashes, and the two books that followed ('Tis and Teacher Man) are three of the most poetic memoirs you will ever read. There are life lessons that reach far into your heart, especially in Angela's Ashes, where we learn that poverty cannot take a person's sense of humor or ability to look at the world with hopeful eyes.
One of the biggest lessons I took from Angela's Ashes was that you couldn't quite characterize someone in the book as good or bad. A person you thought was just mean would turn around and help Frank and his family out when you least expected it.
This lesson translates to friendship as well. How often do we label people when we first met them? We might miss out on some good friendships simply because we assume things about a person. In order to really make a connection, we need to get beyond rumors and gossip and first impressions to really understand what someone is about before we can decide if they are "friend material."More »
What Remains by Carole Radziwill
I was riveted by Carole Radziwill's memoir from the very first page. Imagine the concept: your husband of just five years is dying, and you're managing to cope and find strength in part from your friend, who goes with you to the hospital and makes sure you're taking care of yourself as well as the man you love.
But then, the unthinkable. Your friend and her husband die tragically just three weeks before your husband. In an instant, you're all alone. This is the story behind Radziwill's book What Remains, and her friendship with Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and marriage to Anthony Radziwill, who was cousin to JFK, Jr.
Perhaps the biggest thing I took from this book were the kind gestures from Bessette-Kennedy. Things like tying her scarf around Radziwill before she left, saying it was cold and she should keep warm. Or hanging a picture of her dog Friday in Anthony Radziwill's hospital room just to cheer the place up. These were small things, and yet they made an impact. This is exactly what each of us need to do as friends. It isn't hard to add kindness to a friend's life. Just the smallest of gestures can mean everything if they are heartfelt and done with our friend's best interest in mind.More »
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
While Joan Didion's book The Year of Magical Thinking centers on family and the death of her husband (author John Gregory Dunne), it also called up thoughts of how friends can help us through the darkest of days. The title of the book says it all, as Didion admits that for a year she seemed to drift through life, just trying to make sense of it all and move on, all the while not quite dealing with reality in the same way as before.
As the book opened, Dunne had died of a heart attack just as he and Didion came to grips with the fact that their daughter, Quintana, was in a coma. Quintana would die less than two years later.
How did Didion get through it? How would you? For me this book reinforced the importance of friends in our life and how they are able to get us through things simply by checking in on us, inviting us over for dinner, talking about our grief, and letting us know they are there for us.Buy from Amazon »