Have you wondered why we long for women friends even when we are married to our "best friend," or why some friendships last forever and others only for a season? These and other questions posed by The Friends We Keep: A Woman's Quest for the Soul of Friendship made me stop and think about the friendships I have maintained over the years and the ones I long to recapture. As women, our friendships are very different than those our male friends have, and this book only touches the tip of the iceberg on the uniqueness of our relationships. As I read, I pondered my own friendships of the past and the present, as I'm sure you also will. Many touching vignettes where the author shared a personal story or relayed someone else's tale of friendship helped to make the book interesting and readable. I was particularly interested in how Zacharias Davis differentiated friendships in childhood from friendships in adulthood—when we are young our friendships are our lives, when we grow up, they are just a small part. One small frustration for me was the many references to friendship throughout the book that came from other books, TV, and movies. I hadn't read or seen some of them and therefore I couldn't fully relate to the point she was attempting to make by referencing them. Overall there is much valuable insight to be gained and a greater self-awareness in terms of how our friendship needs can be reached through the study of this book. A lengthy discussion at the back of the book makes this a good choice for any all-female book club.