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- Kate B.
- Wednesday, December 28, 2022
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Back in the day when I was a Girl Scout, we used to sing a song with this refrain: “make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other gold.” At the time I didn’t think too much about the words, but these many years later I realize the message the Girls Scouts were trying to impart to me – both new and long-standing friendships have value and add to our lives.
In January I’m always inspired to recommit myself to goals for improving my quality of life. Often one of my goals is about strengthening my current friendships and making new friends. Both of which, honestly, are a little intimidating. I want both breadth and depth to my circle of friends. Yet, the actions I think about doing to be a better friend, might not actually be what my friends want or need. And making new friends as an adult – eek, that’s just downright scary.
Looking to grow your relationships? Check out one of these books for some insight, words of wisdom, and next steps.
Find Your People
Building Deep Community in a Lonely World
Published in 2022
"The New York Times bestselling author of Get Out of Your Head offers practical solutions for creating true community in a world that's both more connected and more isolating than ever before"-- Provided by publisher.
All My Friends Have Issues
Building Remarkable Relationships with Imperfect People (like Me)
Published in 2019
Amanda Anderson provides the wise and witty answers, giving practical advice and sharing personal stories to guide us toward the kinds of friendships we long for. Blending faith-based insights and psychological truths, All My Friends Have Issues is a liberating guide to finding and becoming an authentic and encouraging friend.
We Need to Hang out
A Memoir of Making Friends
Published in 2021
At the age of forty, Billy Baker discovers that he's lost something crucial along the way: his friends. Other priorities always seemed to come first, until all his close friendships had lapsed into distant memories. When he takes an assignment to write an article about the modern loneliness epidemic, he realizes just how common it is to be a middle-aged loner: almost fifty million Americans over the age of forty-five, especially men, suffer from chronic loneliness, which the surgeon general has declared one of the nation's "greatest pathologies," worse than smoking, obesity, or heart disease in increasing a person's risk for premature death. Determined to defy these odds, Baker vows to salvage his lost friendships and blaze a path for men (and women) everywhere to improve their relationships old and new.
Plays Well with Others
The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Relationships is (mostly) Wrong
Published in 2022
"From the author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Barking Up the Wrong Tree comes a cure-all for our increasing emotional distance and loneliness--a smart, surprising, and thoroughly entertaining guide to help build better friendships, reignite love, and get closer to others, whether you're an extrovert or introvert, socially adept or socially anxious. Can you judge a book by its cover? Is a friend in need truly a friend indeed? Does love conquer all? Is no man an island? In Plays Well with Others, Eric Barker dives into these age-old maxims drawing on science to reveal the truth beyond the conventional wisdom about human relationships. Combining his compelling storytelling and humor, Barker explains what hostage negotiation techniques and marital arguments have in common, how an expert con-man lied his way into a twenty-year professional soccer career, and why those holding views diametrically opposed to our own actually have the potential to become our closest, most trusted friends. Inside you will learn: The two things essential to making friends - and what Dale Carnegie got wrong. What creates love, reignites love, and sustains love. (There's no Build-A-Bear store for a happy marriage but this is close.) The ethical and effective way to get your partner to change. How social media can actually improve relationships. The antidote to loneliness and why what we usually hear doesn't work. And so much more. The book is packed with high-five-worthy stories about the greatest female detective to ever live, the most successful liar to ever open his mouth, genius horses, thieving hermits, the perils of perfect memories, and placebos. Leveraging the best evidence available--free of platitudes or magical thinking--Barker analyzes multiple sides of an issue before rendering his verdict. What he's uncovered is surprising, counterintuitive, and timely--and will change the way you interact in the world and with those around you just when you need it most."--Publisher's website.
Platonic
How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make--and Keep--friends
Published in 2022
"Is understanding the science of attachment the key to building lasting friendships and finding "your people" in an ever-more-fragmented world?"-- Provided by publisher.
A Tribe Called Bliss
Break Through Superficial Friendships, Create Real Connections, Reach Your Highest Potential
Published in 2018
Offers advice for women to nurture and grow a meaningful and engaged social circle, and explores how doing so can provide the support needed for the development of their potential.
Friendkeeping
A Field Guide to the People You Love, Hate, and Can't Live Without
Published in 2012
In this book the author examines friendship in all its modern varieties, both online and in person, and explores how to keep friends in the face of intimidating odds including disliking a spouse or being happy in their misfortunes.
Life is Friends
A Complete Guide to the Lost Art of Connecting in Person
Published in 2009
Offers a full gamut of strategies and techniques for socializing, from making that first connection with someone to maintaining a long-term relationship.
The Colors of Culture
The Beauty of Diverse Friendships
Published in 2020
"How diverse are your friendships? In a time when cultural divides are expanding, we can learn to see every human from God's perspective instead of through the lenses of prejudice and bias. Through vivid stories from several countries, MelindaJoy Mingo models reaching across cultures, showing the beauty of diverse friendships"-- Provided by publisher.
Big Friendship
How We Keep Each Other Close
Published in 2020
"Two of the nation's leading feminists and hosts of the hit podcast "Call Your Girlfriend" make the bold and compelling argument that a close friendship is the most influential and important relationship a human life can contain-helping you improve as a person and in your relationships with others"-- Provided by publisher.