Nobody's Cuter than You: A Memoir about the Beauty of Friendship

Written by Melanie Shankle

Narrated by Melanie Shankle

There is nothing as precious in life as a friend who knows you and loves you in spite of yourself. Yet over the last couple of decades, we've substituted the joy of real friendship with cheap imitations. We settle for “community” on Facebook and Twitter and a series of text messages that allow us to communicate with someone without the commitment. We like each other's beautifully filtered photos on Instagram and delude ourselves into believing we have a community. But real friendship requires effort. It's showing up, laughing loud, and crying hard. It's forgiving and loving and giving the benefit of the doubt. It's making a casserole, doing a carpool pickup, and making sure she knows those cute shoes are 50 percent off. Written in the same comedic style as the New York Times bestsellers Sparkly Green Earrings and The Antelope in the Living Room, Nobody's Cuter than You is a laugh-out-loud look at the special bond that

• Language: English
• Publisher: ChristianAudio.com
• Release date: Apr 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9781633891661

Melanie Shankle

Melanie Shankle writes regularly at The Big Mama blog and is the New York Times bestselling author of four previous books, including Nobody’s Cuter than You. Melanie is a graduate of Texas A&M and loves writing, shopping at Target, checking to see what’s on sale at Anthropologie, and trying to find the lighter side in every situation. Most of all, she loves being the mother of Caroline, the wife of Perry, and the official herder of two wild dogs named Piper and Mabel. The five of them live in San Antonio, Texas.  

Reviews for Nobody's Cuter than You

[khiemstra631 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this funny, sensitive memoir of a friendship that has endured all sorts of life events. These two women connect so well with each other and also were blessed with husbands who like each other. Pithy quotes about friendship start off each chapter and are great to share with the reader's friends. A fine diversion!

[texasbooklover · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

MemoirMelanie ShankleNobody’s Cuter than You: A Memoir about the Beauty of FriendshipCarol Stream, IL: Tyndale House PublishersSoftcover, 978-1-4143-9748-1 (also available as ebook and audio)256 pages, $15.99April 7, 2015 Nobody’s Cuter than You: A Memoir about the Beauty of Friendship is San Antonio mom and blogger Melanie Shankle’s third book and third memoir. Inspired by watching her daughter navigate junior high friendships, Nobody’s Cuter considers the evolution of childhood friendships and recounts the history of the author and her best friend, Gulley. They met at Texas A&M University and have been inseparable for twenty-five years. Shankle writes with simple prose and gentle, self-deprecating humor about college, boyfriends, first jobs, husbands and the challenges of rookie moms. Nobody’s Cuter is packed with pop culture (one chapter is titled “The Chapter with More than Its Share of 80’s References.”) spanning four decades, from The Bionic Woman to Justin Timberlake, which invokes an enjoyable nostalgia for the days when we, too, played Charlie’s Angels all over the neighborhood. Or was that just me? I digress. Shankle wants us to engage in actually being there for each other, not settling for the “community” represented by Facebook and Twitter. She tells us that, “Real friendship requires effort. It’s showing up and laughing loud and crying hard” not merely “…liking one another’s beautifully filtered photos on Instagram and deluding ourselves into believing we have community.” There are two sides to every element in Nobody’s Cuter. For each wryly funny observation (“…Caroline is our only child and if we screw this up, no one will come to visit us for Christmas when we’re old.”) there is another that’s merely silly (“We don’t have a backup plan, unless you count our dogs, and everyone knows that dogs are the worst gift givers at holidays.”) For each moment when I was truly touched (as when Gulley offers to go spend the night with a distraught Caroline who is away at camp for the first time) there was a tangent which the author freely admits has nothing to do with what she was writing about. Each hard-won bit of advice (“…while it’s been said that comparison is the thief of joy, I’ll add that it can also be a destroyer of relationships.”) is followed by a cliché (“…sometimes the best lessons are the ones that hurt the most”). Shankle’s relationship with God is a major theme of Nobody’s Cuter and this also has two sides. She credits God for breaking up one of her friendships because “…there was talk of drinking and parties on the weekends…” and she “…was in no way strong enough to stand up to peer pressure…” This begs the question of why God chose to spare Shankle but not her friend. I’m calling Nobody’s Cuter “Chick Memoir.” If you’re looking for an original read that challenges you or prose that sparks your imagination then look elsewhere. If you’re looking for comfort in something light and sweet then Nobody’s Cuter might be for you.Review originally published in Lone Star Literary Life.