Audiobook8 hours
She Matters: A Life in Friendships
Written by Susanna Sonnenberg
Narrated by Susanna Sonnenberg
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
3/5
()
About this audiobook
From the bestselling “immensely gifted” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times) author of Her Last Death comes a fearless, compulsively readable, intensely provocative book about female friendships.
THE BEST FRIEND WHO BROKE UP WITH YOU. The older girl at school you worshipped. The friend who betrayed you. The friend you betrayed. Companions in travel, in discovery, in motherhood, in grief; the mentor, the model, the rescuer, the guide, the little sister. These have been the friends in Susanna Sonnenberg’s life, women tender, dominant, and crucial.
Searing and superbly written, Sonnenberg’s She Matters: A Life in Friendships illuminates the friendships that have influenced, nourished, inspired, and haunted her—and sometimes torn her apart. Each has its own lessons that Sonnenberg seeks to understand. Her method is investigative and ruminative; her result, fearlessly observed portraits of friendships that will inspire all readers to consider the complexities of their own relationships. This electric book is testimony to the emotional bonds between women, whether shattered, shaky, or unbreakable.
THE BEST FRIEND WHO BROKE UP WITH YOU. The older girl at school you worshipped. The friend who betrayed you. The friend you betrayed. Companions in travel, in discovery, in motherhood, in grief; the mentor, the model, the rescuer, the guide, the little sister. These have been the friends in Susanna Sonnenberg’s life, women tender, dominant, and crucial.
Searing and superbly written, Sonnenberg’s She Matters: A Life in Friendships illuminates the friendships that have influenced, nourished, inspired, and haunted her—and sometimes torn her apart. Each has its own lessons that Sonnenberg seeks to understand. Her method is investigative and ruminative; her result, fearlessly observed portraits of friendships that will inspire all readers to consider the complexities of their own relationships. This electric book is testimony to the emotional bonds between women, whether shattered, shaky, or unbreakable.
Author
Susanna Sonnenberg
Susanna Sonnenberg is the author of Her Last Death. She lives in Montana with her family.
Related to She Matters
Related audiobooks
All Happy Families: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mother Daughter Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glass Eye: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unwifeable: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Only Get Letters From Jail Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHeart of Glass Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Chanel Bonfire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Happens Every Day: An All-Too-True Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm the One Who Got Away: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If I Am Missing or Dead: A Sister's Story of Love, Murder, and Liberation Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Home Is Burning: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scratched: A Memoir of Perfectionism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Year and Six Seconds: A Love Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Her Last Death: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grand: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Born to Be Public Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Upper Bohemia: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tripping the Prom Queen: The Truth About Women and Rivalry Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Consent: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bastards: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Devotion: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All Our Names Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bandit: A Daughter's Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's Messy: On Boys, Boobs, and Badass Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Any Kind of Luck at All: A memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Barbara the Slut and Other People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shooting Out the Lights: A Memoir Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Reckonings: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Personal Memoirs For You
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sociopath: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If You Would Have Told Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Night: New translation by Marion Wiesel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Woman in Me Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5While Time Remains: A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Making It So: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pageboy: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love, Pamela: A Memoir of Prose, Poetry, and Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: Built for This: The Quiet Strength of Powerlifting Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5See You on the Way Down: Catch You on the Way Back Up! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5People, Places, Things: My Human Landmarks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Counting the Cost Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wishful Drinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for She Matters
Rating: 3.142857142857143 out of 5 stars
3/5
28 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I do understand that other people have other tastes, so perhaps the following description is actually an incentive to read the book. I am not necessarily fond of books that critics exult reproduce real life (if the protagonist is similar to me), or that one recognizes oneself in. I tend to feel that if you want real life, go out and talk to your neighbors. Unless the book is insightful, profound, or eloquent, I have little use for experiencing what I am already familiar with or already know. Otherwise it is like having a compulsive talker as a seat mate. I didn't finish this book because I found it a rather tedious listing of the author's experiences in friendships. Perhaps it doesn't help that I am old enough to be the author's mother.There is one part of the book that I do wish to examine. In the beginning, Sonnenberg is having lunch with her friend, Patricia, who was her best friend for many years before moving out of town. She goes on and on about how wonderful this friendship was. Sonnenberg then decides that this would be a good time to drop on Patricia a ten-year-old, never before expressed, grudge: Patricia didn't come to see Sonnenberg's second child until a couple of weeks after he was born. I suspect that she realizes that this might not be considered a good idea, since she sounds a bit defensive. Ten years on, Patricia can't remember at the drop of a grudge why she didn't come. It apparently doesn't occur to Sonnenberg, then or now, that Patricia might have had her own problems that she didn't want to burden Sonnenberg with in the midst of her new mother excitement. It also doesn't occur to her that, particularly with modern communications, she could have easily reached out herself if she was so upset. I don't care how busy you are, you have time for a quick text or email if you have access to them and you really want contact. Apparently Sonnenberg preferred to sulk rather than clear matters up, or give it up after all these years of hoarding her ill-will.I strenuously urge readers not to take tips on friendships from this book.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was a really brave book. The author is raw and honest - I think the fewer stars reviews may be because some of it was uncomfortable. But I loved her raw honesty. Telling the truth about female friendships - bravo.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Following the author through a dizzying array of shallow friendships made me feel like a voyeur. Watching her inhabit and shed relationships felt like gazing into another woman's closet. Friends come and go, like dresses purchased on sale at the height of fashion and later abandoned when they no longer fit.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I do understand that other people have other tastes, so perhaps the following description is actually an incentive to read the book. I am not necessarily fond of books that critics exult reproduce real life (if the protagonist is similar to me), or that one recognizes oneself in. I tend to feel that if you want real life, go out and talk to your neighbors. Unless the book is insightful, profound, or eloquent, I have little use for experiencing what I am already familiar with or already know. Otherwise it is like having a compulsive talker as a seat mate. I didn't finish this book because I found it a rather tedious listing of the author's experiences in friendships. Perhaps it doesn't help that I am old enough to be the author's mother.There is one part of the book that I do wish to examine. In the beginning, Sonnenberg is having lunch with her friend, Patricia, who was her best friend for many years before moving out of town. She goes on and on about how wonderful this friendship was. Sonnenberg then decides that this would be a good time to drop on Patricia a ten-year-old, never before expressed, grudge: Patricia didn't come to see Sonnenberg's second child until a couple of weeks after he was born. I suspect that she realizes that this might not be considered a good idea, since she sounds a bit defensive. Ten years on, Patricia can't remember at the drop of a grudge why she didn't come. It apparently doesn't occur to Sonnenberg, then or now, that Patricia might have had her own problems that she didn't want to burden Sonnenberg with in the midst of her new mother excitement. It also doesn't occur to her that, particularly with modern communications, she could have easily reached out herself if she was so upset. I don't care how busy you are, you have time for a quick text or email if you have access to them and you really want contact. Apparently Sonnenberg preferred to sulk rather than clear matters up, or give it up after all these years of hoarding her ill-will.I strenuously urge readers not to take tips on friendships from this book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sonnenberg’s recollection of friendships she has shared, past and present, is blatantly honest and humorous. She uses vivid colors that saturate her canvas as she paints a picture we probably have all seen before whether we’d like to admit it or not. If you look up the word “friend” in the dictionary, it provides several definitions. Each one perfectly fitting, depending on which friend one may be referring to of course. One defines a “friend” as a member of the same nation or party. Now, personally, I consider some of my co-workers friends just because we share the same office, a nation. But, I can recall quite a few harrowing days that I know I wouldn’t dare reach out to them for advice or looking for a shoulder to cry on. Another describes “friend” as a person who is on good terms with one another, one who is not hostile. The author has told a couple of stories where she is on good terms witha friend, but she described them to be people who are almost the complete opposite of hostile. In this memoir, she goes on to explain that throughout life, we all need friends as we grow. Whether we actually want them, or have time for them, the need is still in abundance. Sometimes pals stick around for a lot longer than we expected, and some of the times they vanish before we even realize they’ve been drifting apart. Either way, Sonnenberg has penned the truth and perhaps will open readers’ eyes a little wider to recognizing that it’s more important for ourselves to be a chum, rather than depend on another.