🎉 Fresh Start, Fresh Reads: Friendship Edition!

Hi Friend,

Ricky here!

Happy New Year! 🎉 As we step into 2024, I wanted to share my personal reading goals for the year, especially since I'm an avid but admittedly slow reader.

A little confession: my bookshelf is filled with aspirations from the past—books I've owned for years but never read. To tackle this, I've set a rule for myself: no new book orders until I've finished the ones already on my shelf.

So, here's my reading list for 2024 mostly focused on the theme of friendship. I have yet to read them but I hope to get around to them this year. Who knows, maybe you'll beat me to some of these titles:

1. "How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make—and Keep—Friends" by Marisa G. Franco, PhD

   • Marisa Franco has been a frequent reference throughout Season 2 of Friendtimate. Her book delves into the history and importance of friendships, covering everything from cultural shifts to the psychological benefits of connection and vulnerability. I’m excited to learn more from her insights!

2. "Billy No-Mates: How I Realized Men Have a Friendship Problem" by Max Dickins

   • An excerpt from this book caught my attention last year, highlighting the decline in social capital since the 1960s. It made me rethink the social environment where my friendships thrived in the past. Like, of course I had more friends when I was in school, we were all in school! It seems obvicoues now, but that lead me to further reflect on the opportunities currently available for meaningful connections just by looking at my environment.

3. "How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community" by Mia Birdsong

   • This book was recently recommended to me and I was curious as to why it sounded so familiar. As it turns out, this book has been on my wishlist for at least three years 😅 Time to finally dive into it and discover its wisdom!

Lastly, a touch of nostalgia with a childhood favorite:

 4. "Frog and Toad" by Arnold Lobel

• A classic series that schools introduced to us for learning to read. Revisiting it now brings back fond memories. These tales of friendship are like a warm hug in book form—simple, magical, and filled with lessons about kindness and joy. Perfect for kids and the young at heart.

Here's to a year filled with enriching reads and meaningful connections! 📖✨

In the spirit of books, next up on the podcast we’re diving into the world of friendship quotes! We flip through a book filled with friendship phrases and see what lessons we can learn from them. 📖🤔

We firstly want to thank you for recommending our podcast to your friends 🤗

In the spirit of recommendations, what's that one movie, book, or podcast you can't stop raving about? We’d love to hear about it! This is also a quick and easy way to strike up a conversation with a friend you haven’t heard from in a while.