CULTURE EDITION
ELIZABETH DAY FRIENDAHOLIC September always feels like an opportunity for a new start, so this could be the perfect time of year to review your close connections. Are you, like Elizabeth Day used to do, overpromising and underdelivering on your promises of friendship, or could there be people who aren’t pulling their weight with you? Friendaholic is a fascinating nonfiction delve into the trials, tribulations and total delights of modern platonic friendship: you’ll nod along in parts and grimly recognise yourself in others. Like many of us, Elizabeth found the pandemic lockdowns of 2020 forced her to reassess what being a close friend actually meant: were her best friends the people with which she was spending the most time? Having grown up determined to be a good friend above everything else – at the cost of her own mental and physical health – Elizabeth readily admits her own addiction to connection and dives into whether her past all-or-nothing behaviour is really the best route to healthy, mutually beneficial relationships with others. The result is this book, an exploration of the science and history of friendship, interspersed with her own anecdotal evidence for how to handle platonic ghosting, dealing with toxic acquaintances and reconnecting with past besties. It’s a delightful mix of confession, criticism and carefully crafted advice, packed with interesting factoids and useful pointers on how to be a better friend – both to others, and to yourself.
PINKY PROMISE A number one Sunday Times bestseller, this is a unique look into love of a less romantic kind
DIGITAL TOOLS FOR READERS
Libby
This clever, free add-on for Chrome detects when you are on a book website (such as Goodreads or Amazon) and shows you if your local library has a copy for you to borrow instead. Libraries rule! Library Extension for Chrome
Join this excellent digital book club and you’ll not only get a superb book in the post every six weeks, as well as author events and Q&A discussions, you’ll also be helping a great charity support disaster-hit families around the world. Shelterbox Book Club
This is yet another push for this astonishingly brilliant app!
Download Libby, connect it with your Cambridgeshire Libraries account and voila – free ebooks, audiobooks and magazines delivered straight to your phone or tablet.
CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK SEPTEMBER 2024 19
Powered by FlippingBook