Friendfluence: The Surprising Ways Friends Make Us Who We Are by Carlin Flora
Since I haven’t read other books (that I can remember) specifically dealing with friends and friendship before, I expected this book to really blow me away. Friends are a huge influence in our lives, almost as great as families, and greater for certain age groups.
Best things about this book are that it deals with a subject I haven’t read other books about. The writing didn’t get in the way, thoughts seemed to flow smoothly from one chapter to another. The book is easy to read, and that is not a criticism. Also, I adore the cover art.
Worst thing about this book is that I really don’t feel like I learned anything. Nor was I enormously entertained by fascinating anecdotes or examples. I love reading non fiction because I love talking about it to other people later. Friendfluence doesn’t seem to have deep enough research. It felt more like a stretched-out magazine article than a book about social science. The title misleads. Nothing surprised me, and I don’t feel as though I learned more about how friends make us who we are. In fact, there was only one page, page 217, that started to go into something that I hadn’t thought about before, the 8 different types of friends “Connectors”, “Energizers” etc. that made me sit up and feel engaged. But that was just one paragraph. Turns out it’s a synopsis of another book by Tom Rath. Maybe I should read his book instead.
There’s nothing objectionable about this book, it’s just not that informative.
