By Hanna Roseen, Coulee City
Galentine’s Day debuted in 2010 during a Season Two episode of ‘Parks and Recreation’ and has gained popularity since then (Merriam – Webster). It began as a way for women to celebrate their friendships with other women as a foil to Valentine’s Day, a holiday that often leaves single people feeling lonely and lacking in their lives. Even though the origins of this holiday revolved around women, men too can celebrate and strengthen the friendships in their lives. Doing so may even help counter the harmful effects of some masculinities, according to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Here are some books in our collection to help you celebrate friendship this Galentine’s Day!
Nonfiction
Big friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman Print. eAudio. eBook.
A close friendship is one of the most influential and important relationships a human life can contain, but most people don’t talk about what it really takes to stay close for the long haul. Sow and Friedman chronicle their first decade in one another’s lives. Through frank and intimate conversations, they discuss the joys and pitfalls they’ve faced. They invite you to think about how your own bonds are formed, challenged, preserved– and valued.
How To Be Loved: A Memoir of Lifesaving Friendship by Eva Hagberg Fisher. Print. eAudio.
How To Be Loved is the story of how an isolated person’s life was ripped apart only to be gently stitched back together through friendship, and the recovery–of many stripes–that came along the way. It explores the isolation so many of us feel despite living in an age of constant connectivity; how our ambitions sometimes pull us apart more than bring us together; and how a simple doughnut, delivered by a caring soul, can become the essence of what makes a life valuable. With gorgeous prose shot through with joy, pain, fear, and the secret truths inside all of us, Eva writes about the friends who taught her to grow up and open her heart–and how the relentlessness of suffering can give rise to the greatest joy.
Huddle : How Women Unlock Their Collective Power by Brooke Baldwin. Print.
News anchor Brooke Baldwin explores the phenomenon of “huddling,” when women lean on one another–in politics, Hollywood, activism, the arts, sports, and everyday friendships–to provide each other support, empowerment, inspiration, and the strength to solve problems or enact meaningful change. Whether they are facing adversity (like workplace inequity or a global pandemic) or organizing to make the world a better place, women are a highly potent resource for one another.
Share Your Stuff. I’ll Go First: 10 Questions to Take your Friendships to the Next Level by Laura Tremain. Print.
Despite our hyper-connected culture, women are lonelier than ever and often shamed for being vulnerable. With intriguing storytelling and thoughtful questions, popular blogger and podcaster Laura Tremaine presents Share Your Stuff. I’ll Go First., a guide to cultivating the authentic connection with others that only comes from sharing yourself.
How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community by Mia Birdsong. Print.
A provocative, essential guide to showing up for each other and cultivating community, from activist, community organizer and thought leader whose viral TED talk has been viewed more than 1.8 million times
Friendshipping: The Art of Finding Friends, Being Friends, and Keeping Friends by Jenn Bane. Print. eAudio.
Making friends as an adult is not easy. Keeping friends isn’t easy, either. We’re busy, we’re anxious, and too often, we’re far away. Bane and Garritano’s book is for anyone who is feeling a little lonely or lost in the challenging landscape of grown-up relationships. You’ll learn how to make the journey from acquaintance to friend with their tips and tools to make new pals and improve the quality of existing friendships.
We Need to Hang Out: A Memoir of Making Friends by Billy Baker. Print.
At the age of forty, Billy Baker discovers that he’s lost something crucial along the way: his friends. Other priorities always seemed to come first, until all his close friendships had lapsed into distant memories. When he takes an assignment to write an article about the modern loneliness epidemic, he realizes just how common it is to be a middle-aged loner: almost fifty million Americans over the age of forty-five, especially men, suffer from chronic loneliness, which the surgeon general has declared one of the nation’s “greatest pathologies,” worse than smoking, obesity, or heart disease in increasing a person’s risk for premature death. Determined to defy these odds, Baker vows to salvage his lost friendships and blaze a path for men (and women) everywhere to improve their relationships old and new.
Fiction & Poetry
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares. Print. eAudio. eBook.
During their first summer apart, four teenage girls, best friends since earliest childhood, stay in touch through a shared pair of secondhand jeans that magically adapts to each of their figures and affects their attitudes to their different summer experiences. First in a series.
The Friendship Poems of Rumi. eBook.
The Friendship Poems of Rumi is an elegantly illustrated gift book of the famous Rumi’s poems, translated by Nader Khalili, that center on the meaning of friendship and its many beautiful meanings.
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein. Print. Audio CD. eBook. eAudio.
Fellowship of the Ring. Print. Print en Espanol. Audio CD. eBook. eAudio.
The Two Towers. Print. Print en Español. Audio CD. eBook. eAudio.
The Return of the King. Print. Audio CD. eBook. eAudio.
Spell Sweeper by Lee Edward Födi. Print
Cara Moone is a wizard-but she’s basically flunked out of wizard school. Now she’s in training to be a MOP, also known as Magical Occurrence Purger, also known as it’s Cara’s job to sweep up the hazardous dust a real wizard’s spells leave behind. A real wizard, that is, like Harlee Wu, the so-called Chosen One … But when one of Harlee’s spells goes awry and leaves behind a rift in the fabric of magic itself, it’ll take more than magic to clean up the mess. A tale of enemies to friends!
The Island of Sea Women: A Novel by Lisa See. Print. Large Print. eBook. eAudio. Print en Español. eAudio en Español. Book Club Kit.
Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends that come from very different backgrounds. When they are old enough, they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective, led by Young-sook’s mother. As the girls take up their positions as baby divers, they know they are beginning a life of excitement and responsibility but also danger. Despite their love for each other, Mi-ja and Young-sook’s differences are impossible to ignore. The Island of Sea Women is an epoch set over many decades, beginning during a period of Japanese colonialism in the 1930s and 1940s, followed by World War II, the Korean War and its aftermath, through the era of cell phones and wetsuits for the women divers. Throughout this time, the residents of Jeju find themselves caught between warring empires.
Picture Books
Evelyn Del Rey is Moving Away by Meg Medina. Print. eAudio. eVideo. Print en Español. eAudio en Español.
Evelyn Del Rey is Daniela’s best friend. They do everything together and even live in twin apartments across the street from each other: Daniela with her mami and hamster, and Evelyn with her mami, papi, and cat. But not after today–not after Evelyn moves away. Until then, the girls play amid the moving boxes until it’s time to say goodbye, making promises to keep in touch, because they know that their friendship will always be special. The tenderness of Meg Medina’s beautifully written story about friendship and change is balanced by Sonia Sánchez’s colorful and vibrant depictions of the girls’ urban neighborhood.
How Do Dinosaurs Stay Friends? By Jane Yolen. Print.
A young dinosaur shows how to stay friends even after having a terrible fight with his very best friend.
How to Grow a Friend by Sara Gillingham. Print.
Friendship advice given as gardening tips
Meesha Makes Friends by Tom Percival. Print.
Meesha loves making things … But there’s one thing she finds difficult to make – friends. She doesn’t know quite what to do, what to say or when to say it, and she struggles reading and responding to social cues. But one day she discovers that she has a special talent that will help her to navigate challenging social situations and help her to make friends. A warm and affectionate look at the joys and difficulties of making and keeping friends, relating to others, and finding your place in the world. Wonderfully empowering and emotionally resonant, Tom Percival’s Big Bright Feelings series is the perfect springboard for conversations about mental and emotional health, positive self-image, building self-confidence and managing feelings.
A Friend for Henry by Jenn Bailey. Print.
Henry would like to find a friend at school, but for a boy on the autism spectrum, making friends can be difficult, as his efforts are sometimes misinterpreted, or things just go wrong–but Henry keeps trying, and in the end he finds a friend he can play with.
Strictly No Elephants by Lisa Mantchev. Print. En Español.
Today is Pet Club day. There will be cats and dogs and fish, but strictly no elephants are allowed. The Pet Club doesn’t understand that pets come in all shapes and sizes, just like friends. Now it is time for a boy and his tiny pet elephant to show them what it means to be a true friend. Strictly No Elephants has been sold around the world and is heralded as a pitch-perfect book about inclusion. Imaginative and lyrical, this sweet story captures the magic of friendship and the joy of having a pet.
It Will Be Okay : A Story of Empathy, Kindness, and Friendship by Lisa Katzenberger. Print. eBook.
Giraffe and Zebra meet every day under their favorite tree to walk to the watering hole. But today, Giraffe isn’t there! Where could he be? Zebra spots him hiding in the tree; Giraffe has seen a spider and is scared silly. Zebra patiently talks to Giraffe and does the very best thing: supports Giraffe for as long as Giraffe needs it.
Movies & Shows
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. DVD.
Four lifelong friends will be spending their summer separated for the first time. On a shopping trip, the young women find a pair of thrift-shop jeans that fits each of them perfectly and decide to use the pants as a way of keeping in touch over the months ahead. Each one of the friends will wear the jeans for a week to see what luck they bring to her before sending them on to the next. Though miles apart, the four friends still experience life, love and loss together in a summer that they will never forget.
Parks and Recreation. Season Two. DVD.
Season two of the hit mockumentary looks at the exciting world of local government. Continues to be the hysterical comedy that is a definite must-have for every fan! Contains the episode ‘Galentine’s Day’. Find the rest of the series here.
Thelma & Louise. DVD.
Thelma is an abused and neglected wife, while her friend Louise is a bitter, hard-edged waitress. The two decide to take a brief vacation to escape the drudgery of their everyday lives. Immediately, they run into trouble, as Louise shoots and kills a man who tries to rape Thelma in the parking lot of a country bar.
The First Wives Club. DVD.
Three mid-life Manhattanites have more than a longtime friendship in common. After years of helping their hubbies climb the corporate ladder of success, each has been dumped for a newer, curvier model. The trio is determined to turn their pain into gain. They come up with a cleverly devious plan to hit their exes where it really hurts–in the wallet!
The Lord of the Rings. DVDs
Join friends Sam and Frodo in an adventure. In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-Earth still it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell, by chance, into the hands of the Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. On his eleventy-first birthday, Bilbo disappeared, bequeathing to his young cousin, Frodo, the Ruling Ring, and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-Earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom.
Online Resources
Friendship Is Romance poem by Alok Menon
Call Your Girlfriend podcast by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman
A Podcast for long-distance besties everywhere.
Friendship Bracelet Tutorial via Creative Bug
English