"The Girls From Ames"

Part 1: Chapters 1-5

This is the story of eleven girls that lived in a place called Ames, each has their own unique story and unique way of ending up as an "Ames Girl". It was a clique but not one they intended but of course everyone saw them that way. The story begins, with the girls getting together for their annual reunion of once a year they all come together at someone's house for a weekend, even though some miss their families it's a time for them to renew the friendships that have fizzed out over the year.

This first part focuses on Marilyn, Karla, Kelly and Shelia who even though Kelly and Karla had some bad blood they somehow come together to bunk together at these events and in a way ground each other. One being very motherly and out of place without her kids, while the other is trying to get back the 20 years of her life spent married and unhappy. Even though their lives are so different they need each other to balance themselves out, and both to find a way to continue the connection that could very easily been lost between friends over the years. Many of the girls see Karla as a whiner and Kelly as to much of a partier but they need different personality to make the group go round.

Marilyn was the one that spreads the pictures out and kept the scrapbooks of all the thinks the girls had done over the years. She continually takes pictures and keeps notes to never forget who they were, are and will become. Marilyn's father was a confident to many of the girls and to the community, only wanting the best for everyone. She always had a looming thing that she was born because of her brother's death that the family never really got over, but yet moved on...if that makes sense....She respected her Father and tried to abide by his rules and when she messed up, she was more disappointed in herself than her father ever could be which is why he normally didn't punish her. I like to think of Marilyn as the glue of the group because by taking pictures and old letters, it kept them all weaved together in a sense to show why they are and always will be friends.

Finally, Shelia suddenly died at the age of 22 a very mysterious death. She lived life and and with her Father dying at the age of 47 it hit her family hard, but her Mother kept things in line as her Father would of wanted her too. Shelia went off to college and met a man they called Bud Man, and was out drinking when somehow she fell but no one really knows if she was pushed and being the second tragedy in Mrs. Walsh's family, she didn't push it As many as the Ames girls who could afforded to come to her funeral did, but the 5 that didn't never felt closure and started questioning how she really died, only Mrs. Walsh didn't want to pry as it was over and she didn't want to open old wounds so the mystery still continues as no one really knows how Shelia dies, and the group went from 11 to 10, but Shelia will never be forgotten.

To me this a great story about friends who no matter how far or close they are, they always keep in touch. I have always said if you can meet one person who is a true friend then your life is complete. I have been Best Friends with Terri since we were 13, and even though we don't always agree or don't call everyday no matter what like the bond of the Ames girls she is one person that I'll have in my life for the rest of my life. That to me is more important than anything, someone who has seen you at your worst and best, and no matter what will do anything for you that's what true friendship is and that is what these 11 Girls always have had and always will.

Until our next section...

Happy Reading!!

Kel

The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship

For our next book...


From the coauthor of the million-copy bestseller The Last Lecture comes a moving tribute to female friendships, with the inspiring story of eleven girls and the ten women they became.

Meet the Ames Girls: eleven childhood friends who formed a special bond growing up in Ames, Iowa. As young women, they moved to eight different states, yet managed to maintain an enduring friendship that would carry them through college and careers, marriage and motherhood, dating and divorce, a child’s illness and the mysterious death of one member of their group. Capturing their remarkable story, The Girls from Ames is a testament to the deep bonds of women as they experience life’s joys and challenges -- and the power of friendship to triumph over heartbreak and unexpected tragedy.

The girls, now in their forties, have a lifetime of memories in common, some evocative of their generation and some that will resonate with any woman who has ever had a friend. Photograph by photograph, recollection by recollection, occasionally with tears and often with great laughter, their sweeping and moving story is shared by Jeffrey Zaslow, Wall Street Journal columnist, as he attempts to define the matchless bonds of female friendship. It demonstrates how close female relationships can shape every aspect of women’s lives – their sense of themselves, their choice of men, their need for validation, their relationships with their mothers, their dreams for their daughters – and reveals how such friendships thrive, rewarding those who have committed to them.

The Girls from Ames is the story of a group of ordinary women who built an extraordinary friendship. With both universal insights and deeply personal moments, it is a book that every woman will relate to and be inspired by.

About the Author
Jeffrey Zaslow is a Wall Street Journal columnist and coauthor, with Randy Pausch, of The Last Lecture, the #1 New York Times bestseller now translated into 41 languages. Zaslow attended Dr. Pausch’s famous lecture and wrote the story that sparked worldwide interest in it. The Girls From Ames also grew out of one of Zaslow’s columns

The Five People You Meet In Heaven

First off I would like to apologize to our readers. My book reviews are not as eloquent as Kelli's. We really need to urge her to write her own book!

The Five People You Meet In Heaven is an quick and easy read that makes you think about your own life while reading it. It is about the simple things that make your life what it is. Things that you would not normally even think about or the people that you meet in passing that truly touch your life or you touch theirs.

It is an interpretation of how heaven looks like through the eyes of the main character, Eddie. On the basis of five different encounters, Eddie learns the lessons of life, sacrifice, anger, love and forgiveness. The book begins with the end. After detailing the last moments of Eddie's death, the author then explains how heaven looks like through Eddie's conversations with five people he knew in life: the Blue Man, Captain, Ruby (and his father), Marguerite (who is his wife) and a little girl by the name of Tala. From each of these characters, Eddie learned something in his death what he could not have understood in life.

It is a story of closure and a story of purpose, of making sense out of the twists and injustices of life and of finding meaning in the small interactions that happen every day.

I hope that you all take a moment to read this book, it will truly change the way that you perceive your everyday lives.

Until our next read...

Adriane