FRIENDS WE KEEP THE PB

Why are women’s friendships so tricky?

During a particularly painful time in her life, Sarah Zacharias Davis learned how delightful-and wounding-women can be in friendship. She saw how some friendships end badly, others die slow deaths, and how a chance acquaintance can become that enduring friend you need.

The Friends We Keep is Sarah’s thoughtful account of her own story and the stories of other women about navigating friendship. Her revealing discoveries tackle the questions every woman asks:

- Why do we long so for women friends?
- Do we need friends like we need air or food or water?
- What causes cattiness, competition, and co-dependency in too many friendships?
- Why do some friendships last forever and others only a season?
- How do I foster friendship?
- When is it time to let a friend go, and how do I do so?

With heartfelt, intelligent writing, Sarah explores these questions and more with personal stories, cultural references and history, faith, and grace. In the process, she delivers wisdom for navigating the challenges, mysteries, and delights of friendship: why we need friendships with other women, what it means to be safe in relationship, and how to embrace what a friend has to offer, whether meager or generous.

'Friendships take years to cultivate yet can be lost in a matter of minutes. Sarah Zacharias Davis deftly explores the complex terrain of that human bond, explaining why so many of us long to be known and how important it is cultivate at least a few faithful people who will stand beside us the rest of our lives.'
-Julia Duin, religion editor for The Washington Times and author of Quitting Church: Why the Faithful are Fleeing and What to Do About It

'Sarah’s words could not come at a better time. Too many of us have allowed our female friendships to slip on the priority scale and this book is the perfect reminder of the essential, beautifully ordained connection between women. Reading and relishing her words, I recalled with rich nostalgia the formative friendships of my childhood and emerged from the pages with a fresh perspective and heightened appreciation for the special women in my life today. This book reads like the voice of a friend, intimate and true.'
-Kristin Armstrong, contributing editor for Runner’s World magazine and author of four books, including Happily Ever After: Walking with Peace and Courage Through a Year of Divorce and Work in Progress: An Unfinished Woman’s Guide to Grace

'The Friends We Keep is a true and tender testimony to the joys and struggles we women experience in our friendships with one another. As I read I found myself nodding in agreement, and sometimes tearing up in remembrance. We don’t always get it right, but we need each other-and there is deep satisfaction to be found in the relationships we forge. I loved Sarah’s book and recommend it to anyone who seeks to know (or find) her truest friends.'
-Leigh McLeroy, author of The Beautiful Ache and Treasured