I love that this book exists. I love that it treats friendship as importantly as any other kind of relationship, especially in a culture where friendship is more often than not made to seem inherently ephemeral or disposable or a pit stop to marriage and children. I love that this books breaks down components of friendship and treats them seriously and thinks about how to build up on them. It challenges readers to examine their own friendships. I love the way the two authors discuss race so frankly; this was the most enlightening and engaging chapter for me. I love the authors' honesty, humor, vulnerability and insights. I love Shine Theory. This book is such a fantastic way to (re)connect with friends, build new relationships, strengthen existing ones and grow together. It's a conversation starter and changer, and it's great reading for anyone, but I think especially for anyone in their 20's.

Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman are best known as the podcasters behind the very popular podcast <I>Call Your Girlfriend</I> which chronicles their relationship, current events, and opinions. Their friendship really comes through there, and so a book about friendship by these two totally makes sense! <I>Big Friendship</I> is a history of their BIG friendship in the context of the importance of friendships and the data behind that. While there are many books on romantic relationships, there is not a lot out there about friendships, and these can often fall to the wayside as we age and prioritize things such as families, work, health (the "four burner" context from David Sedaris that they cite). At first, Aminatou and Ann's friendship is pretty instant and incredibly close. At that point they live in the same city and are introduced by a mutual friend, and fall hard for each other. As the book begins though, and throughout, they discuss the amount of work that needs to be put into friendships, and they too have been strained and have had to work through their friendship, as it is important to them. They also discuss the origin of "Shine Theory", which has since been taken up by many others, where one helps a friend be their best, and relying on that friend to reciprocate. They write about how friendship is <b>work</b> and can require a lot of stretching on by both people. Really nice mix of examples of a close friendship with its ups and downs and reiterating the importance of nurturing those important relationships in our lives.

I was eager to read this because I have been a fan of Call Your Girlfriend for awhile. The podcast is great and Amina and Ann’s chemistry on air is fantastic. I can’t say what I expected of this book. I did enjoy it but there were parts that I found a little slow.

This book was just as amazing as I'd hoped. I've listened to Sow and Friedman's podcast for years, and their book was such a fantastic companion to what I know about them. It's one of the most thoughtful and exciting and helpful books I've ever read about friendship. I fully intend to buy it for MANY people in my life.

As a fan of the amazing podcast, “Call Your Girlfriend”, the fact that this book exists makes me happy. Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman, the creators of Shine Theory, have built a business based off of their long distance friendship, and candid, intimate conversations. In this book, they tackle the highs and lows of friendship, using their decade long friendship as the backbone of the book. This one is out in July!

I have never seen friendship written about in this way before: about how much work and effort goes into maintaining a true, deep friendship, which is just as much as a romantic one. If the stay-at-home orders haven’t already made you reflective about the relationships you have and value, after reading this funny and informative book, it will make you want to call your bestie.

If this book doesn't make you want to get up and call your best friend immediately, I don't know what will.

Seeing as I've been an avid reader, follower, and listener of Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman's work for over half a decade, I'll admit that I was already predisposed to really love this Big Friendship. Even if you've never heard of them or have maybe been on the fringes of their writing or podcasting, you're in for a treat.

Big Friendship tackles our cultural issues with giving platonic relationships the care and attention they deserve, both on a personal and an intellectual level. There's plenty of research and discussion around family dynamics and romantic relationships, but so often friendships get shunted off to the side when it comes to individual and societal introspection. Sow and Friedman tell the story of their own intense Big Friendship™ while masterfully weaving in larger conversations of how our friendships come together and fall apart, taking on everything from the unique struggles of interracial friendships to how friend breakups can often feel more devastating than romantic ones. There's also just a familiar ease to their writing that makes this an easy read.

While Big Friendship definitely stands on its own, I think a little extra context to Sow and Friedman can help you get the most out of this book and fall in love with their work; I recommend going down a slight rabbit hole and reading their popular article on Shine Theory and listening to an episode or two of their Call Your Girlfriend podcast. Again, it's not 100% necessary, but it does help in appreciating just how deep their Big Friendship goes and how poignant their thoughts are.

I have been an avid and dedicated listener of Call Your Girlfriend for several years - I couldn't wait to get my hands on Aminatou and Ann's book. "Big Friendship" addresses the challenges and triumphs and friendships drawing upon their own experiences, as well as integrating some social science research from scholars who have made cameos on the show. My big concern before opening "Big Friendship" was the authors' ability to produce new content that wouldn't be a written summary of the podcast. For the most part, they succeeded. I enjoyed the anecdotes and confessional writing style. They have clearly fleshed out the concept of big friendship and I could see it being absorbed into the vernacular in the same way as shine theory.

Unfortunately, the book fell short in its ability to blend Ann and Aminatou's two voices. They made a big deal of having truly written this book together, and while the effort is commendable, the delivery is clunky and awkward. They both write about themselves in the third person, which comes across as strange and infuses a kind of omnipresent narrator into the text. It's clear when Aminatou is writing about herself, so why use the third person? It frustrated the whole reading experience for me. I kept stopping to think "this is so weird." Because I am a devoted consumer of their content, it's something I can overlook, but I think it will be a real stumbling block for readers who are just now being introduced to A+A.

Overall, a decent book that will appeal to fans of CYG but might have a harder time finding an audience for non-listeners of the pod.