"The Girls From Ames" Review

I just finished The Girls From Ames from Jeffrey Zaslow. This book is a true account of 11 women who grew up in small town Ames, Iowa and are now in their 40's. They have remained friends since childhood. I liked this book, but it was kind of dull and boring at times, and I was slightly disappointed by it because there was quite a buzz about it, (I believe it was on the bestseller list for a bit too) and it was not as good as I'd hoped.

Like I said, I did think it was a nice story. It interested me because I too have a very tight knit group of friends and I love those people very much, although it is a MUCH smaller group than the 11 women in this story. The kind of lifelong friendship portrayed in this book is a very unique and rare one so it was nice to see their story chronicled. I know that's how it will be with my three best friends as well (Taylor - who is my unbiological sister and closest person to me, Chris - who completely understands me and my awkward humor, and Stephanie - my oldest friend since third grade!) so I enjoyed reading their story.

The women have gone through a lot over the years including the death of one of the 11, illnesses, family deaths, divorce, raising children (22 combined for all of them), fights, and many other things that have created so many memories for them.

The thing I didn't like much about the book was that it jumped around so much that it was really hard to get to "know" many of the girls. It really focused a great deal on a couple of them, but a lot of them were not featured quite as much. I just didn't feel as though I could connect with the people in the story, and as a result, could not care much about them. I think it's really important in books, whether it be fiction or non-fiction, that you care about the people or characters in the book. The book also was not really in chronological order, and jumped from story to story too much.

If you are looking to read a nice story about friends, this could be a good book to read. Like I said, I did it enjoy it for the most part, but it was just not what I had hoped for.

I also wanted to say thanks to Kathryn Casey, the author of the previous book I reviewed, for checking out my blog last week! It was very exciting for me to have an author read my blog and she said she loved my review. So check some of her books out - she's great!

Currently Reading: Roadside Crosses by Jeffrey Deaver who is awesome! He writes really suspensful thrillers/mystery stories. His books are very exciting!