Galentine's Day: A Reading List To Fall In Friend-Love

by Damla

Valentine’s Day is fast-approaching, and bringing with it a flood of couples, heart-shaped displays, roses, and romantic gestures galore. Which is great, because love should be celebrated.

But not all love is romantic, of course. Platonic love and friendship based on support, connection, and intimacy are just as worthy to be celebrated and appreciated, as they also play an integral part of our lives.

Which is where Galentine’s Day comes in. If you haven’t heard before, Galentine’s Day is an unofficial holiday that honors platonic love and female friendships (although the day is typically celebrated between women, it also has a more inclusive version called Palentine’s Day that encompasses any type of friendship regardless of gender). Celebrated on the 13th of February, the day is an opportunity for friends to spend time together and celebrate their sisterhood bond in any way special to them.

I had first heard of this concept on the TV show Parks and Rec (where it was invented by the show’s writers!), and immediately was on board. Just give me any opportunity to appreciate my girlfriends, and I’m THERE. And since its conception, it has been lovely to see Galentine’s Day become a global trend among women.

And while there are many ways of celebrating this special day, may we suggest one more: books! (Was anyone surprised that this was where we were going?)

So take inspiration from our selection of books that center female friendships in both fiction and nonfiction format, and share your favorites with the “poetic and noble mermaid” girlfriends in your life. After all, friends that read together stay together.

Nonfiction

Bffs: The Radical Potential of Female Friendship – Anahit Behrooz

BFFs examines female friendship as a site of radical intimacy, as told through the cultural touchstones around us. From Elena Ferrante to Booksmart, Little Women to Insecure, and beyond, the book considers how female friendships can offer a more expansive and emancipatory understanding of female intimacy.

Witches: What Women Do Together – Sam George-Allen

Covens. Girl bands. Ballet troupes. Convents. In all times and places, girls and women have come together in communities of vocation, of necessity, of support. And wherever women gather, magic happens.
In this deeply personal exploration of what women make together, Sam George-Allen delves into workplaces, industries and social groups to dismantle the cultural myth of female isolation and uncover the inherent revolutionary potential of these groups.

You’re the Only One I Can Tell: Inside the Language of Women’s Friendships – Deborah Tannen

Best friend, old friend, good friend, bff, college roommate, neighbor, workplace confidante: Women’s friendships are a lifeline in times of trouble and a support system for daily life. A friend can be like a sister, daughter, mother, mentor, therapist, or confessor–or she can be all of these at once. She’s seen you at your worst and celebrates you at your best. Figuring out what it means to be friends is, in the end, no less than figuring out how we connect to other people.

Fiction

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot – Marianne Cronin

Though the 17-year-old Lenni Pettersson has been told she’s dying, she still has plenty of living to do. Joining the hospital’s arts and crafts class, she meets the magnificent Margot, an 83-year-old, purple-pajama-wearing, fruitcake-eating rebel, who transforms Lenni in ways she never imagined. As their friendship blooms, a world of stories opens for these unlikely companions who, between them, have been alive for one hundred years. Though their days are dwindling, both are determined to leave their mark on the world.

The Book Club for Troublesome Women – Marie Bostwick

Four dissatisfied sixties-era housewives form a book club turned sisterhood that will hold fast amid the turmoil of a rapidly changing world and alter the course of each of their lives. Is it really a book that alters the lives of these four very different women? Or is it the bond of sisterhood that helps them find courage to confront the past, navigate turmoil in a rapidly changing world, and see themselves in a new and limitless light?

Galentine’s Day – Rebecca Anderson

2013. Alicia, Marnie and Hannah have a sleepover on Galentine’s Day for the first time. Tomorrow, they’ll go their separate ways, to university, to a job, to a different country. But they promise that every year, they’ll have their annual sleepover.
2026. After thirteen years of faithful attendance at their annual sleepover, only two women are attending this year. Their friendship has seen partying, breakdowns, marriages, kids, divorces, and everything in between, but are their best Galentine’s Days now behind them?

Another Brooklyn – Jacqueline Woodson

Running into a long-ago friend sets memory from the 1970s in motion for August, transporting her to a time and a place where friendship was everything – until it wasn’t. Another Brooklyn heartbreakingly illuminates the formative time when childhood gives way to adulthood – the promise and peril of growing up – and exquisitely renders a powerful, indelible, and fleeting friendship that united four young lives.

My Brilliant Friend – Elena Ferrante

The story of Elena and Lila begins in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples. Growing up on these tough streets the two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else, as their friendship, beautifully and meticulously rendered, becomes a not-always-perfect shelter from hardship. A memorable portrait of two women, My Brilliant Friend is also the story of a nation. Through the lives of Elena and Lila, Ferrante gives her readers the story of a city and a country undergoing momentous change.

And some more great titles about memorable female friendships here:

Nonfiction

Fiction

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Galentine’s Day: A Reading List To Fall In Friend-Love

Nonfiction

Fiction

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