The Friendship Cure

Reconnecting in the Modern World

By: Kate Leaver

Narrated by: Candice Moll

Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

The compelling, fresh, and thought-provoking exploration of friendship - what it is, how to keep it, and why we need it more than ever before

Our best friends, Twitter followers, gal-pals, bromances, Facebook friends, and long distance buddies define us in ways we rarely openly acknowledge. But as a society, we are simultaneously terrified of being alone and already desperately lonely. We move through life in packs and friendship circles and yet, in the most interconnected age, we are stuck in the greatest loneliness epidemic of our time. It's killing us, making us miserable and causing a public health crisis. Increasingly, we don’t just die alone; we die because we are alone. What if meaningful friendships are the solution?

Journalist Kate Leaver believes that friendship is the essential cure for the modern malaise of solitude, ill health, and anxiety and that, if we only treated camaraderie as a social priority, it could affect everything from our physical health and emotional well being. Her much-anticipated manifesto, The Friendship Cure, looks at what friendship means, how it can survive, why we need it, and what we can do to get the most from it. Why do some friendships last a lifetime, while others are only temporary? How do you “break up” with a toxic friend? How do you make friends as an adult? Can men and women really be platonic? What are the curative qualities of friendship, and how we can deploy friendship to actually live longer, better lives?

From behavioral scientists to besties, Kate draws upon the extraordinary research from academics, scientists, and psychotherapists, and stories from friends of friends, strangers from the Internet, and her “squad” to get to the bottom of these and other facets of friendship. For fans of Susan Cain’s Quiet and Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic, The Friendship Cure is a fascinating blend of accessible “smart thinking,” investigative journalism, pop culture, and memoir for anyone trying to navigate this lonely world, written with the wit, charm, and bite of a fresh voice.

©2018 Kate Leaver (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved

Often loses its focus

There were many chapters of the book that seemed to be more tangent than something directly in line with the title theme. It created a sense of the book being much longer than needed, and that maybe this content would have been better suited instead for a long, in-depth article or essay.

Hygge is Danish

Author lost me at "Swedish" hygge. Beginning of chapter 2 didn't promise much more. Maybe I should give it one more go but right now I'm not so up to that.

Beautiful and informative.

Kate Leaver presented the information in a easy to digest and positive light, both research and personal experiences.
Candice was the perfect choice to read the audio.
I feel I have a greater understanding behind friendship, and unlike sausage, I leave fascinated and joyful now having a better understanding of friendships and how they are made.
By the end of the audio book, I wanted nothing more than to sit at a cafe with the author and narrator and hear more!
A wonderful read, that has added light and joy in the small part of this world I wander around in.

Does not deliver on the promise

Struggled to finish. The description of the book does not match the book's actual content