Friendships for Grownups

I hesitated to read this book, simply because I wondered if a "loner," such as myself would find anything of value or worth in it.

Never could I have dreamed the floodgates this book would open. I suppose that since she wrote the book, and Thomas Nelson published it, there are other women "out there" that can relate to the struggle Lisa has had in finding and maintaining friendships with women. For me, though, for much of the book, I found myself wondering if she was writing about my life and my experiences. There were times when the words seem to come off of the page and slap me in the face -- it was that directly confrontational with events and episodes of my life.

As a result, it is difficult for me to give an objective review of this book. If you are a woman such as myself who tends to build steel enforced brick walls around your heart, then, yes, this book may very well help you to find a way around that and encourage you to be vulnerable with those you want to be close to.

If you are fairly confident in the friendships you have established and are maintaining, it may not be as much a help to you, per se, but it may help you to understand why there are those of us out there that don't warm up to you instantly, and why we seem to withdraw emotionally.

For men? Not sure on that one. The title of the book is "Friendship for Grownups" but I'm not sure a lot of men would relate to much of what she says. A better title might be "Friendships for Women," but I could be mistaken.

At the end are some good discussion questions and "what's next" type of advice. For me, it was a bit soon to do some of her suggestions, but I can see it being useful in a group study.

Overall, I'm very grateful for this book, and will probably be revisiting it in smaller chunks in the future.

(Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”)