That night Ann noticed Aminatou's shirt right away and was impressed by her level of dedication to the party theme. Her college bestie, Brittany, had made it for her. And she had the perfect thing to wear: a T-shirt that said “CHUCK+BLAIR,” the brattiest teen couple on the show. It felt a little intimidating to meet up with this already-established group, but she knew that if she was going to make new friends, she had to get out of the house and be proactive about showing up to things. row house where she lived with several roommates.Īminatou recognized a few names on the email invitation but had never met any of the other guests. Our mutual friend Dayo decided to host a viewing party, and we were both invited to watch the melodramatic scenes unfold from a semicircle of ratty couches in the old D.C.

OK, actually, it was the prom episode of Gossip Girl. In 2009, like all pop-culture obsessives, we were dedicated viewers of this trashy teen soap opera set in the world of wealthy Manhattan private schools. Like any great American love story, ours began at prom. Enjoy the first chapter of Big Friendship, about how they first met. Many readers who have had their own highs and lows with close pals through the years are likely to relate to the experiences Sow and Friedman describe in their lively joint memoir (told from a “we” perspective but sometimes referring to each other by name, in the third person). The prologue details a low point, marked by awkward silences and the authors’ frustration with each other, when they realized that “even deep, lasting friendships like ours need protection - and, sometimes, repair.” But the work also points out that a big friendship, like a big romantic relationship, requires serious maintenance if you want it to last a lifetime. That led to their podcast, Call Your Girlfriend, a weekly gabfest about pop culture (and anything else that springs to mind), and now, their new book, Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close, about the life-affirming wonderfulness of fulfilling nonromantic connections like theirs.

When Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman met as broke twentysomethings, they gleefully bonded over their joint obsession with trashy TV and soon became besties.

The big friendship book