I subscribe to this blog and Nancy Polikoff's (the author of Beyond Marriage). Ironically, the two new articles that I received in my emailbox today fit perfectly: your column talks about the legal implications of being a close friend shut out from the hospital. Polikoff's writes that same-sex marriage and visiting a loved one in the hospital don't belong in the same sentence... Same topic, slightly different angle.

My local bookstore is carrying the Isleib book, so I'll pick it up tomorrow (since the San Francisco Public Library doesn't carry any of her books...). It sounds fascinating! I love good mysteries that make me think on many levels... Thanks for the reco!

Loved your post!

Sometimes women forget the significance of female friendships in their lives---thanks for the reminder.

See the post it inspired at: http://www.fracturedfriendships.com/blog/just-friends

Best,
Irene

Irene S. Levine, PhD

Now, -there's- a great topic!

Have you seen George Cukor's last film, "Rich and Famous"? I love that this director who got rich and famous by helming romantic comedies capped his career with a hard, human, and loving story about friendship between two women.

Not too many people agree with me that it's among his best, though. The movie is hard to find and gets a rating of 5.6/10 on imdb.

From the short novel, "Housekeeping" by Marilynne Robinson, the characters Ruth and her Aunt Sylvie - best literary female singles. I urge everyone (especially women) to read this book.

And best literary male single - Henry David Thoreau of course (he was actually a real person who made himself a great literary figure)

I am embarrassed to say that I can't think of many books offhand that highlight female friendships explicitly. So then, frustrated (I am getting my Ph.D. in English, after all!), I took a look at my bookshelf and found at least one, a memoir written by Ann Patchett about her friendship with writer Lucy Greeley, called Truth and Beauty. It won lots of acclaim and is specifically about their friendship. I have also heard that Toni Cade Bambara writes about female friendships a lot, as does Zora Neale Hurston, so those might be other "literary" authors to check out. As for other authors/scholars who value friendship, you might want to check out Adrienne Rich, bell hooks (not 100% sure this is a subject of inquiry for her), and Audre Lorde...

Over at Onely, I've written a couple of posts about this phenomenon that you (and your readers!) might find interesting: http://onely.org/2008/07/22/female-friendships-and-being-onely/ and http://onely.org/2008/07/02/un-onely-pop-songs-part-1-of-8593-measuring-...

Thanks for the post, Bella! :) L