I don't think I fully understood what the true meaning of having a "best friend" was until after reading this book. It gives such insight into what it means to be and to have a Best Friend. It explores the concepts of unconditional love and true acceptance of the people we call our Best Friends. This would be a great book to give to the person in your life that holds the honor of being your Best Friend.

This is a great keep sake to share with your Best Friend or as a table top book to add to your collection. The saying and verses are touching and the stories are reminders of what friendship is like or should be like! I bought this for each of best friends and they cherish it more than anything.

I have read all three books cover to cover. In addition to being nice books to look at, they tell compelling stories. By the time I finished, I was misty-eyed and feeling like I needed to reconnect to the friends I've had for the past 10-15 years. Even though the same phrase was repeated throughout the book,"My friend is one who I can be real with; someone I've told things I've never anyone else before." in each case, it feels fresh and new due to the unique circumstances each friend met. I was glad to see men, people with disabilities, Asians, blacks and hispanics, teenagers, and young children just starting to learn about friendship. It's really an inclusive book and I hope they do another trilogy: Fathers and Sons, Brothers, Couples.

An interesting tale of Larry Lavin. A dentist with a career ahead of him. The Lure of money led to him dabble in the "Candy" of the 1980's. Intriguing was how he hid so close to the authorities as a fugitive. Good reading. Perhaps he was pursuing what many of taught is the American Dream....well worth the read.

I loved this book that my sister gave me for Christmas. She added her own thoughts and a picture on the last page. I was so extremely moved and the stories and photos are representative of sisters everywhere. Daughters and Mothers is also a fantastic book. I saw one of the authors and bought one for my daughter who is 15 yrs old. I had her sign it to both of us. Very sweet!

I purchased this book as a holiday gift for my child's teacher. She has a close but intense relationship with her mother, and I thought she would enjoy the topic. Now, I have my fingers crossed and am holding my breath a bit. The black and white photography is beautifully compelling. At times, it is excruciatingly sad (for example, the photo of a woman who has lost her daughter to a drunk driver sits alone in her child's room, another of a daughter hugging her mom's gravestone.)

The accompanying short profiles/ stories are tersely, crisply written. They can be truly uplifting, like one very personal tale, which recounts a woman's battle with breast cancer and how she later overcomes her shame in her daughters seeing her post-surgery breasts. Another tale tells of a daughter who has cared for her ailing mother at home for decades, changing diapers and preparing pureed food. Virtually all of the relationships, however, reveal palpable strains of deep-seated anger, regret or misunderstanding. Many of the women have suffered intensely; many have healed from their own bad marriages and divorces.

For a young woman like myself who now has a small daughter and who recently lost a mother, the book was absorbing though it strangely lacked hope. My favorite profile was of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; she seems like a type A mom but happy with her family and the personal and career choices she has made. Her daughter teases her mother, but seems secretly grateful for the upbringing she received. You sense that they appreciate each other, despite differences.

If you are considering this book for a friend, it would probably be most appreciated by someone who has survived many ups and downs with her mom. Those mother and daughter pairs who pal around together and who consider themselves good friends may be strangely put off by the tragedy and simmering warfare in between many of the pictures.

This book is special to me because my Great Grandmother and her daughters (as well as my grandmother who raised me) are in the book. My "Granny" will be 100 years old in 1999 and has been an inspiration to us all. I've often thought her story should be told and while this is a very short version among many I was pleased with the gentle way they captured her essence.

Those cover girls look familiar... ah yes, they are both tour guides at Trinity College. I heard they were in a a doublemint ad recently, so I guess they're pretty typecast. If you ask me, I think they ate a little to much hay growing up.

Who would have thought that the girls of Cliff's dreams would someday take the modeling plunge. Thank god for split embryos.

Boomer