I found it amazing that such a large group of women could be friends for so long. Overall the book was a good read.

I enjoyed the book and the stories the friends shared. I often found myself thinking back to my high school days and the special memories I have. I, too, have friends that know me and have memories only we can share. It was a beautiful tribute to friendship.

At no time did I feel this was an example of a quality friendship. It came across more as a crutch for the individual girls involved.

no plot. slow and confusing at times. interesting at times. I do not recommend it for a book club read.

I felt this book lacked the depth it could have if it were written better. There were times when I really enjoyed the book, and times when was bored senselss.

It was boring and pointless. There was nothing remarkable about this group of friends. I couldn't wait to get through the book and end the misery.

Don't waste your time reading this book. I think these women have a remarkable friendship, but the book does a poor job of showcasing it. It was desperate; trying to create drama where there was none. The writing was simplistic at best, and at times it felt as if the story was dragged out to meet a required word count. I hated reading it.

More of a documentary, this book is poorly written but based on a great idea.

Book was slow and didn't really have a point, other than to follow the lives of the women who remained friends for years.

This book was not my cup of tea...it has so many women in the friendship I found myself bouncing back and forth from the beginning to the end trying to identify each woman in the group.

It was not relaxing for me to read as I am the same age as the women in the book and am now living through much of the same experiences in my life. It was not a "get away" to relax, it was more of the things I have been through in my own life.

I think I would have been able to appreciate it a little more had it been written from by a woman, allowing more feeling and heart in the storytelling aspect.

I liked this book, but wouldn't rave about it. It's certainly interesting how these women remained friends through 40+ years, but I think a lot had to do with the small town they grew up in. I also think that if they'd all lived closer together and saw each other all the time, that the success of the friendship may not have been there for the entire group. Ultimately I'd recommend it because it has a "feel-good" quality and each person could gain something different from it based on what they're personally going through when they read it.

I read this in an afternoon but there's just not much to it. Eleven women and 40 years of "friendship" will amount to the usual: deaths of parents, marriages, divorces, childbirth, loss. It's life in the microcosm of Ames' women. It really is the story of mean, popular high school girls and how they turn out. Some are okay... a few appear to be struggling. Yep, that's life. Up and down. What would you discuss at a book club? The only thing I can think of would be our own enduring friendships.

Although I was able to connect with the background of some of these girls, the book was hard to get through and all the girls lives together were confusing. The statistics that were thrown in also made the story less interesting. Not a great pick for book club.

I really really tried to like this one because I was fascinated with the possibility of having a 40 year friendship. Unfortunately, I never could get into it and gave up about 1/2 way through which is something I never do. Most of the girls in our club liked it though so it may have been just my state of mind but I still just didn't like it.

reads like a channel 13 PBS documentary. Should never have been written by a man. Lacks feelings.

Certainly a chick book. The study of female relationships was very insightful and getting to know the characters was both exciting and daunting. Worth the time if you don't have another must read by your side, otherwise, you may want to look for something better.

I found the history of these girls, now women from Ames, a wonderful insight into women's friendships...how they bond, how friendships change and deepen over time, and especially the different qualities each woman brings to the women of Ames to make their friendship so interesting.

It was difficult to keep all 11 girls straight & remember details about them all. The book was slow at parts, but very interesting & well written especially considering a man wrote it! :)

Our book club enjoyed this book but when we got together to discuss it, one of our friends ended up going to the emergency room so we went there instead. We may not have been able to discuss the book but we did get to live it.

Our group pretty much agreed that we liked the book, but didn't love it. I was expecting a beautiful story of women's friendship, from the perspective of a man, with maybe a little insight. But it turned out to be a collection of memories, which were great short stories. The author was able to attend one of the reunions and was able to review letters and other items the girls loaned him for his research. There was no chronological order and some girls got more page time than others. Overall, it was a good book and prompted a lot of discussion at our meeting.

Our group typically reads fiction, but this was a good non-fiction about a group of girls who grew up together and, for the most part, have stayed together.

More than half of our book club members did not finish this book. Overall we rated it 1.5 out of 5.0. We found it boring & written without emotion. It does not follow a story line and with so many girls it was hard to follow. All were looking forward to this book and topic and we were all very disappointed