Why do some friendships last a lifetime, while others fade away? How do you break up with a friend? How many 'best' friends should we be aiming for? From the time we start school, we are fed a diet of 'Best Friends Forever' - the idea that you should have a female soulmate to whom you tell all your secrets and who always has your back. It's the stuff of Hollywood films, but for most of us it isn't achievable. We spend years striving for a vision of female friendship that isn't realistic instead of searching for what suits us best or appreciating what we've already got. BFF? is an agenda-setting, personal and humorous book that pulls back the cover on the most underappreciated relationships in our lives to interrogate what modern friendship means, why we need it and what we can do to get the most from it. Featuring interviews with brilliant women, including Emma Barnett, Pandora Sykes, Nimco Ali and Jilly Cooper - as well as the intimate friendship stories of women from all walks of life - Claire Cohen argues that, unlike romance, friendship is much harder to pin down and. And it shows how often our friendships are taken for granted. An antidote to the idea that every woman must belong to a perfect girl gang, this book is a warm and reassuring guide to help women deepen their female friendships in ways that are meaningful and enduring. _________________________________ 'It took me until my thirties to feel truly secure in my friendships - my female ones in particular. I truly believe that if I'd had a book like this when I was younger, it would have fallen into place sooner. That I'd have been happier, more trusting and able to deal with any bumps in the road. That's why I want us all to start telling the truth about female friendship. Because if I - raised in a house full of women, the product of two all-girls schools and the women's editor of a national newspaper - found it hard to trust, open up and had convinced myself that female friends 'weren't for me', then you might not have it worked out either.'

When Rachel Bertsche first moves to Chicago, she’s thrilled to finally share a zip code, let alone an apartment, with her boyfriend. But shortly after getting married, Bertsche realizes that her new life is missing one thing: friends. Sure, she has plenty of BFFs—in New York and San Francisco and Boston and Washington, D.C. Still, in her adopted hometown, there’s no one to call at the last minute for girl talk over brunch or a reality-TV marathon over a bottle of wine. Taking matters into her own hands, Bertsche develops a plan: She’ll go on fifty-two friend-dates, one per week for a year, in hopes of meeting her new Best Friend Forever. In her thought-provoking, uproarious memoir, Bertsche blends the story of her girl-dates (whom she meets everywhere from improv class to friend rental websites) with the latest social research to examine how difficult—and hilariously awkward—it is to make new friends as an adult. In a time when women will happily announce they need a man but are embarrassed to admit they need a BFF, Bertsche uncovers the reality that no matter how great your love life is, you’ve gotta have friends.

In the modern world of complicated love relationships, life turns around for a young, meek, shy Jatt boy residing in the Jatt village of south Delhi when he accidentally meets a posh, sophisticated south Delhi girl in a bizarre accident and how love strikes... But there is one hell of an obstacle that this Jatt boy has to endure... and the obstacle is no one else but the girl’s BFF, who is a sensible, smart, sleek, south Delhi guy and he would leave no stone unturned just to check if the Jatt boy is eligible for his BFF. Here the battle lines are etched as the Jatt boy has to prove his worth not only to the girl he is madly in love with, but also to the girl’s guy BFF. A fun whacky drama ensures between BFF and BAE. Who will the girl choose?? Will it be her BFF or will it be her BAE?

A compassionate, practical, and science-based guide to finding friends for life Psychiatrist Paul Dobransky, author of The Secret Psychology of How We Fall in Love, once again looks to the brain, this time to examine the full range of female friendships. A recent study has shown that women have fewer friends than they used to. In the years after college and before children (and even after that), many women find that they have fewer friends, and new ones are harder to make. Taking his three-parts-of-the-brain theory, Dr. Dobransky breaks down the primal codes of friendship that many women aren’t even aware of and gives scientifically grounded advice for understanding how to be a better friend and how to cultivate new friendships. Women of all ages who are searching for deeper relationships or are trying to break free of a toxic friendship will find help and hope in this enlightening and prescriptive exploration of how the brain makes friends.

For fans of The Happiness Project and The Year of Living Biblically comes a pointed look at our fascination with celebrities, as one woman strives to remake herself in the image of her favorite stars. What woman hasn’t seen pictures of Jennifer Aniston, Gwyneth Paltrow, or Beyoncé and wished she had their clothes, their abs, their seemingly flawless lives? For Rachel Bertsche, these celebrities are the epitome of perfection—self-assured and effortlessly cool. Yet lately, between juggling her career, her marriage, and her dream of becoming a mother, Bertsche feels anything but put together. In Jennifer, Gwyneth & Me, Bertsche embarks on a quest to emulate her Hollywood role models—while sticking to a budget—to see if they really hold the keys to happiness. While trying to unlock the stars’ secrets, from Sarah Jessica Parker’s wardrobe to Julia Roberts’s sense of calm to—maybe one day—Jessica Alba’s chic pregnancy, Bertsche learns valuable lessons. A toned body doesn’t come easy or cheap, avoiding social media can do wonders for your peace of mind, and confidence is the key to pulling off any outfit. But can she immerse herself in the A-list lifestyle and still stay true to herself? And will her pursuit of perfection really lead to happiness? Praise for Jennifer, Gwyneth & Me “If you’ve ever had a celebrity girl crush, stick Jennifer, Gwyneth & Me in your beach bag. Bertsche is your people.”—Associated Press “[A] super-fun social experiment.”—PureWow “Bertsche ups the ante. . . . The well-researched information on celebrity culture provides food for thought.”—Booklist “What makes Jennifer, Gwyneth & Me work is Bertsche’s honesty. . . . [She] is funny, creative and, more importantly, manages to stay sane.”—Boston Herald “An entertaining memoir about a woman’s attempt to model her life on those of stars.”—Tampa Bay Times “A worthy narrative.”—The Boston Globe “Bertsche blends elements reminiscent of Julie & Julia and The Happiness Project in this ‘self-improvement journey.’ . . . The process not only provides Bertsche with fruitful writing fodder but also prompts readers to examine their outlook on perfection, self-acceptance, and aspiring to be one’s very best self.”—Publishers Weekly Praise for Rachel Bertsche’s MWF Seeking BFF “Written with verve, insight, and humor . . . Bertsche writes cleverly, but not glibly, about the challenges young women face today.”—Chicago Tribune “[A] charming, funny chronicle.”—People

Somewhere in between the glossy, impossibly perfect, laughably romantic fantasy world of a mushy romance novel and the reality of life lies the path to true happiness. But finding the entrance ramp to that elusive path can be an adventure in itself. Whether youre happily single, socially satisfied, or on the prowl for your next great love story, this fun, sassy, and very real guide will keep that journey in perspective. Being in a relationship shouldnt be such hard work. This fun, flirty, and unabashedly sassy approach will inspire you to embrace the ultimate pleasures of being alive, while laughing at lifes many absurdities. Who says that you cant be happy on your own? We can be happily connected or we can just be happy. With humor and no small dose of reality, author Pamela P. Mercer shares tips on improving communication and compassion within your relationships, present and future. You dont have to settleand you shouldnt expect your partner to either. We Are Not Angry Women, Were Just Tired! shows what happens when one tired woman decides to spread the tough loveand shares how you can avoid the many relationship-killing traps out there in the world of love, sex, and the pursuit of happiness.

Helps women break through the tired and hurtful stereotypes of aging to better reflect who they are, how they live, and what they want as they age. Who hasn’t heard the stereotypes about women of a "certain age?” That’s the age when women become invisible, irrelevant, undesirable, asexual, unhinged, dried-up, hormonal messes. It’s when women quickly slide into fragility and become forgetful, passive, weak, feeble, debilitated, disabled, dependent, and depressed. Or so the story goes. Not only are those outdated narratives sexist and ageist, they are also damaging to women’s physical, emotional, financial, romantic, and sexual health. It’s time to change them. In Not Too Old for That, Vicki Larson helps change the narrative about being a woman at midlife and older. She questions what we’ve been told aging would be like and encourages us to instead ask ourselves, what do we want it to be like, and how can we get there? The key is to be curious, open-minded, and intentional about the ways we are becoming our future selves.We have an opportunity to create new narratives of aging as a woman, ones that value women at all stages of life, not just youth, and it starts with us. Once the stereotypes that have held women back are broken down, women can move past them and rather than feel helpless as the years add up, they can discover and tap into just how much agency they have. Not only will this book help to create a less-ageist, less-sexist, more-inclusive future, it will release our daughters and all young women from a similar future.

A mom's guide to creating vibrant friendships with other women that feed both their creativity and sense of purpose in the larger world.

'Fascinating...In essence, the number and quality of our friendships may have a bigger influence on our happiness, health and mortality risk than anything else in life save for giving up smoking' Guardian, Book of the Day Friends matter to us, and they matter more than we think. The single most surprising fact to emerge out of the medical literature over the last decade or so has been that the number and quality of the friendships we have has a bigger influence on our happiness, health and even mortality risk than anything else except giving up smoking. Robin Dunbar is the world-renowned psychologist and author who famously discovered Dunbar's number: how our capacity for friendship is limited to around 150 people. In Friends, he looks at friendship in the round, at the way different types of friendship and family relationships intersect, or at the complex of psychological and behavioural mechanisms that underpin friendships and make them possible - and just how complicated the business of making and keeping friends actually is. Mixing insights from scientific research with first person experiences and culture, Friends explores and integrates knowledge from disciplines ranging from psychology and anthropology to neuroscience and genetics in a single magical weave that allows us to peer into the incredible complexity of the social world in which we are all so deeply embedded. Working at the coalface of the subject at both research and personal levels, Robin Dunbar has written the definitive book on how and why we are friends.