Together we read.
Natalie Brown recommends three books that celebrate the company we keep — but also make good company for a quiet afternoon.
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Everything I Know About Love.
by Dolly Alderton
Writer and co-host of news and pop culture podcast The High Low.
Without giving too much away…
While it is a book about bad dates, in spite of the title it’s more an ode to female friendship than it is a guide to romantic love. Each chapter reads like the late-night conversations with your best girlfriends that you never want to end.
Why I loved it…
It really opened my eyes to the fact that the loves of your life don’t always have to be romantic partners — it can be family, it can be friends, but most importantly, it can also be yourself.
My favourite line:
“Farly squeezed my hand underneath the table twice, fast and hard. I knew what it meant. A universal, silent Morse code for I’m here, I love you. At that moment I realised that everything had changed: we had transitioned. We had chosen each other. We were family.”
“There isn’t a pebble on the beach of my history that she has left unturned. She knows where to find everything in me and I know where all her stuff is too. She is, in short, my best friend.”
~ Dolly Alderton
“
Conversations with Friends.
by Sally Rooney
Author
Without giving too much away…
It’s a great portrait of two young women — cool-headed, observant Frances and beautiful, self-possessed Bobbi — as they navigate the messy edges of female friendship and figure out how to be adults.
Why I loved it…
What makes Rooney’s books so captivating and impossible to put down is the way she crafts characters and dialogue — at times, the conversations in her book can seem so real that you almost feel like you’re eavesdropping on something you shouldn’t be.
My favourite line:
“After school we used to lie in her room listening to music and talking about why we liked each other. These were long and intense conversations, and felt so momentous to me that I secretly transcribed parts of them from memory in the evenings.”
“When Bobbi talked about me it felt like seeing myself in a mirror for the first time.”
~ Sally Rooney
“
The Sisterhood:
A Love Letter to the Women Who Have Shaped Me.
by Daisy Buchanan
Writer and host of literary podcast You’re Booked.
Without giving too much away…
Tender, funny and unflinchingly honest, Daisy examines the components of her relationship with her five younger sisters, and how magic happens when women come together.
Why I loved it…
As the middle child of three girls, it prompted smiles of recognition from me — and will for anyone else who has ever fought over a hairbrush. Her accounts of her relationships with her own sisters glitter with wit and heart and wisdom.
My favourite line:
“You can love some with your heart, while being annoyed and infuriated with the others as long as you remember that you’re playing for a team. You can all believe in different things, as long as you believe in each other.”
“I believe that embracing sisterhood is about finding peace among women.”
~ Daisy Buchanan