Better You, Better Friends: A Whole New Approach to Friendship

In this uneven debut, TV producer Shaw mines her personal history to offer a simple guide on how readers can better navigate finding friends and maintaining friendships. She organizes friendships into categories—essentials, collaborators, associates, mentors/mentees—and addresses how to manage expectations and boundaries within each. Unwanted feelings that can arise in a friendship, such as jealousy and envy (“primitive survival mechanisms that are often no longer relevant to our physical well-being”), are explored, and to help deepen and maintain existing friendships, Shaw advises paying attention and asking follow-up questions. The easy-to-follow guidance will be of particular use to those who are unhappy within their friendships but can’t quite figure out why. Though there are references to some scholarly works, the author’s personal dramas are the foundation for the bulk of the advice, and many tedious anecdotes slow things down. Readers looking to improve friendships would be better served by Jenn Bane and Trin Garritano’s Friendshipping. (Sept.)