Tasnia Shahrin
Every relationship is important, and so is friendship. Friendship requires great commitment. And in this one day that is dedicated to celebrating friendship, all we want to do is go out and see our loved ones. We desire spending some time with them, spoiling them with presents, and keeping the old tradition of making friendship bracelets alive. However, with this ongoing pandemic, we have to bury almost all the above wishes and prioritise ours as well as our friends’ safety first.
Hence, this list provides you with a number of books that you can read to keep up with the spirit of friendship day even during the lockdown. And if you like any of them, then why don’t suggest it to a friend too? (Hint: No gift is more awesome than the perfect book recommendation).
Dress Codes for Small Towns by Courtney C. Stevens
Billie McCafferty is a brave girl, indeed. In her small town, she is the preacher’s daughter, but not the typical one. Instead she is more tomboyish and hangs out with a crew of boys and one girl which she calls the “Lost Boys”, and their friendship as a whole is called the Hexagon. Together, they cause mischief. Together, they can do anything—even fall in love.
This refreshingly wholesome take is full of best intentions, featuring six people who really do just want each other to be happy. If you want a book that will only make you feel positively, and nostalgic about the friends you had when you were in high school, this is the one.
The Ensemble by Aja Gabel
This lovely debut novel follows four musicians from graduate school through their lives in the Van Ness String Quartet. The narrative is the quartet’s story as a whole, but also each individual story of Jana, Henry, Daniel, and Brit. The book is divided into four sections and each section is headed with three famous works of classical music for strings. The whole plot is driven by their emotions and struggles to keep up with the relationship dynamic. It portrays a realistic picture of their friendship—making it a must-read.
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
This book is a fast-paced novel about a black woman who is enlisted by the CIA to go undercover in an African nation titling toward communism. Thus, given the situation, she falls into a big predicament and the person she trusts with her life—and more importantly, the lives of her children—is her childhood friend, a man who has had a hard life and made bad choices. Despite all of that, he proved to be one of the few people she can actually count on when things turn lethal. Thus, this book shows how important trust is in a friendship and if kept properly, trust can strengthen a faded bond in no time.
Invincible Summer by Alice Adams
In this novel, four friends meet in college in London and graduate in 1997, into an exhilarating world on the brink of the new millennium. As their dizzying twenties evaporate into their thirties, the once close-knit friends, now scattered and struggling to navigate thwarted dreams, lost jobs, and broken hearts, find themselves drawn together once again in stunning and unexpected ways.
Sula by Toni Morrison
In Sula, Morrison wrote about two black women who not only have to deal with sexism and racism, but with the harm they can inflict on each other—and she wanted to show how much these women could hurt each other. When the novel was published, it broke new ground by depicting the darker side of these female relationships. After Sula, more black writers used women’s friendship to tell their stories.
Happy Friendship Day! And happy reading, too!
The writer is a part of the TDA Editorial Team.