Thank you for sharing their lives with the rest of us. I have had a best friend since age 5. We're in our 40s now. When I see her, it takes me back to age 7 when we did our first communion and back to the junior high dance. She is someone who knows me completely. I hope our girls can form life long friendships.

What a wonderful book. I am a part of a group of 7 girlfriends who for the most part have been together since Kindergarten. We are now just turning 40yrs old. The stories of the Ames girls were astounding in comparing them to my own group of friends. Tragedies and triumphs, laughter and crying. My experience is that not every woman is fortunate enough to be surrounded with lifelong friends. While there might be many groups that you will hear from, there are just as many women that do not get to experience this. My own sister, grew up in the same environment, has a similar personality to mine, yet did not grow up with a core group of female friends. Later in life we have definetely realized how important this is to us, and have rallied around each other. Our year of turning 40 years old has gotten us together in a variety of ways. Three of us are running a relay in a women's triathalon as a tribute to the group as a whole. "The Birds" were our nickname in high school....we flocked together.
We all have different personalities, but like the Ames girls there are pairs of us closer than others. About 10yrs back we instituted a girls night out for dinner once a month. Whomever can come, or is living near each other gets together. It has strengthened our bonds.
Thank you for sharing the story of the Ames girls. I hope my own daughter gets to share in true friendship, that which lasts a lifetime and knows you best.

I just finished reading The Girls from Ames, a selection of my book club, which is really a group of friends who have shared each other's lives for the past 35+ years. We meet as a book club, but we also meet as a support group for what is happening in our lives. As Angela predicted on the video from the Ames Borders store, the book did resonate with me, and I'll know how my friends reacted when we discuss it over lunch on October 3.

I am lucky enough to have married one of the boys from Marshalltown, Iowa. He is a Iowa State engineering grad and I died laughing while reading your book! When I met Pat, I told him I was from Waverly and he naturally assumed Waverly, Iowa. When I told him it was Waverly, MN he started arguing with me that there was no town like that in MN but that was where I was from. A small rural farming town that I was lucky to have grown up in. Better than the town were the 8 best friends that I have had the honor of having for 41 years! Five of us have a 3 generation friendship (our grandparents and parents were friends).

I was rolling in laughter when I read about the keg parties, the cornfields, beauty treatments, and bad beat up cars. (Most of us drove tractors~!)We have 3 teachers, one cosmotologist, one graphic artist, one sales rep, a radiology tech, one business owner,and one accounts receivable rep. All of us but one have kids.

We have had tragedy, death and laughter. They are the first people that I contact with any crisis or story. I would be truly lost without them!

We were actually egging cars in Buffalo, MN when our friend Jodi met her husband Todd in the parking lot of a grocery store where we were buying more eggs for our ventures. They now have two kids and live very close to were they met. We were 16 and they took forever to get married! All 9 of us actually made a bet that the last person to get married would get a kitty of money ($200.00). That was me. I was the last. My wonderful friends had a special presentation for me at my wedding to Marshalltown native Pat Wheeler that still makes me laugh when I think of it.

If Kelly or Marilyn would ever like to meet for coffee I would buy. Your stories sound like mine and we share many of the same experiences. I live in Eagan and it would be a great half way point from St. Paul and Faribault! My email is included, I would love to meet you!

Thank you for sharing this story -I just finished the book. I am three years older than the girls from Ames so I could relate to many of their memories. In addition to having lived in Des Moines for 16 of the past 26 years - I recognize the back-drop. I stay in touch with friends from many different stages of my life although I wasn't fortunate to be part of such a tight-knit group since childhood. I am going to see friends from high school and college this coming weekend in Wisconsin and those relationships are even more special to me after reading this book.

I just finished The Girls from Ames. I read The Last Lecture last summer, as part of my daughter's high school, "One Book One Community" summer assignment. Suffice it to say, that you should trust I will read anything you collaborate on from this point forward.

Your writing brought me close to the Ames girls in a way that I would not have imagined. There were moments when I sighed aloud; gasped due to their heart ache, smiled with their joy. I found myself thumbing back and forth through the pages, looking at their childhood pictures and comparing them to those more recent. I would sit and ponder one of their "stories", thinking about the chronology of time; comparing their experiences to my own. You, and they each, have touched my heart.

I find myself now wondering, "How are Kelly and Angela doing?" I hope they are faring well. I think about Karla watching her children pass through the stages of life that were robbed of Christie. I think about Sally, Marilyn, Jane, Jenny, Diana, Karen, and Cathy. I think about who Sheila would have become; she had so much to give and was such an interesting young woman. I want to keep track of these fabulous women :).

I am the wife of a native Iowan, about 10 years older than the "girls". My husband, daughter and I live in California. But, I now feel that much closer to my extended family who remain in Mason City, Iowa.

So I write you today to thank you for your gift of of being able to write from your heart. You have certainly touched mine.

The Girls from Iowa Falls grew up fifty miles away from the Girls from Ames, and fifteen years earlier. But there is something about growing up in Iowa that sets people apart, that instills pride of being nurtured in the heartland of America where the rich black soil and family values run deep. There is an openness between people as wide as the blue skies of the horizon..a tell-everything want-to-know-everything talk-to-anyone openness. There is a dependence on others...starting with the farmers on whom everything in Iowa depends, and in return, on those on whom the farmer depends. That rich loamy farmland produces bountiful crops...and good people...good people who come from good families and make good friends. The Girls from Iowa Falls now live in North Carolina, Las Vegas, Iowa City, and yes, Iowa Falls. And our story holds many parallels to the Girls from Ames. We still scoop the loop down Main Street, go to the Princess for a Green River, ride down River Road at night in our dreams...and cherish the girls we once were, and the women we have become. Perhaps it is because I was a Girl from Iowa Falls that I have been blessed with a multitude of deep and lasting relationships in my life. The Girls from Clarion (PA) helped me keep my sanity, raise my children, and give me perspective. And the Girls from North Carolina (my precious daughter, my sweet daughter-in-law, and my wise mother-in-law) have helped me realize the sanctity of each new day and the gifts it brings. I applaud all women everywhere and the "girls" who made them who they are today!!!

My friend of 32 years (we met when 3 in preschool) gave me this book for my 35th birthday. We are part of a 4-girl group who have been friends for about 30 years. The honesty, sincerety and connection is just as described in this book! There's something about our old friends that makes us feel we can pick up right where we left off - and, most importantly, we can always be ourselves. We "35-Year-Old Mamas" are a tried and true support system that yields lots of advice, insight and laughs. Thanks for sharing the Ames Girls story - it brings back many good memories and a true perspective of how important our original friendships can be!

I just finished reading 'The Girls from Ames" and loved every minute of it. I am part of a group of 7 women who have been friends since living on the same floor at college. We call ourselves 'the chicas' - several of the girls spent a trimester in Central American countries. After October 2009 we will have all turned 60 and are planning a trip together after Christmas. I could so relate to the many stories shared in the book - laughing until we wet our pants, crying together, losing mothers and fathers, children growing up, etc. I do have other friends from church, quilt guild, volunteering, but these are the 'real' friends who will always be there. Most of the girls live in Indiana, one in Ohio, and one in Pennsylvania. When we get together we just pick up where we left off the last time - a most comforting and loving relationship.

I didn't have the advantage of having a large group of women friends when I was younger, but I wish I did. After reading this story I understand more how the power of friendships is so essential and vital to a woman's life, more so in adulthood. Those connections that are established and nurtured so early on in life help women deal with so many facets of their lives.

I have a connection to Iowa in that I graduated from the University of Iowa in 1987, about the time some of the girls from Ames were there. I attended parties at the college in Ames and so could relate to some of the ideas presented in the book as well as the locations.

I truly enjoyed this inspirational story about these women.

This book is a gift. Thank you Jeff for putting so many wonderful lives together in such a way that their intermingledness came through so well.

I didn't have the pleasure of a group of friends from childhood but I have been gathering the best group of ladies as my "girlfriends" since college. Most of them don't know each other but they are all stars in my own solar system and each one has a connection to me that encompasses a special chapter in my life.

Thank you for thinking the treasure of friendship among women was worth writing about and done in such a way that really showed the incredible bonds that withstand the miles, time, and all that life dishes out.

I plan to purchase a copy of this book for each of my girlfriends and remind them how much they mean to me.

Laura

I heard about this book on a public radio station and knew I had to read it. We are a group of 8 who have been together , since grammer school and all graduated from high school in 1959. We all went to college and kept connected through letter writing. At our 20th high school reunion we decided that we must have our own annual reunions every year (sometimes twice a year) and have done so ever since. We have taken trips all together and been a support system for each other over the years. We have been through cancer, suicide, early death,,divorce and these remarkable women have prevailed. Our bonds are very strong and we love each other like sisters. We are from upper New York State and today live in 5 other states beside upper New York. We have shared a lifetime together, and our secrets remain within us.We have been meeting annually over 25 years, and still talk until the wee hours. We feel so fortunate for these strong bonds on long friendship.

My one friend heard about your book and recommended that we suggest to all of our husbands to purchase it for Mother's Day for us (which we all did). I am so glad she did, I just finished reading your book and it reminded me so much of the friendship with my girlfriends. We called ourselves, and sometimes still do, "The Chicks of 86." We were a group of 13 girls from Palisades Park, NJ who graduated in 1986. Ten out of the thirteen of us remain friends to this day (2 were never really "Chicks" and another strayed from the group in our 20's). Fortunately for us, all except two of us, remain living in NJ. Although we haven't had to go through many of the hardships that "The Shitsisters" endured, such as divorce (even though some of us, including myself, came close), losing a friend, losing a child (besides miscarriages) or having to see any of us go through a disease, such as cancer, our deep bond of friendship is very similar to yours. Thank you for sharing your story and given us just another thing we can bond over. I am now passing it along to my mother, who also has a similar bond with her friends from grammar school and high school.

I just finished reading the book. I mostly started the book because I too have roots in Ames. Who doesn't like to read and hear things about home?
My mom and dad went to Ames High and some of the other schools you mentioned. My dad lived near the high school and would walk to school until he got his license, then he drove even though he was only blocks away. My mom, dad, aunt, and uncles all saw Dr. McCormack. My dad has told me stories about taco time, the train tracks on Lincoln Way and other hangouts, some the same you mentioned in your story and even a few parties in the corn fields and in college I too got to experience those.
I especially loved the relationships you shared about your mothers and the mothers you have become. My mom passed away to cancer when I was three so I really feel like your book gave me some insight to her life as she was there in that time frame. If felt your book shared a bit of the juicy stuff of life in that time like a mother may tell her own child.
Best wishes to every one of you and thank you so much for sharing.

I just finished reading your book and found myself at times unable to put it down! I am blessed to have a wonderful group of 17 friends from college. We are 28 now so reading stories about your lives made me wonder what types of challenges our group will face as we grow and build our own families. We do a ladies weekend every November and I loved your idea with the maxipad slippers. Any other gift ideas you could share that you have done over the years? I am trying to think of one to use for this November to start that tradition amongst our group as well.

Thanks for sharing your stories. It was such a beautiful display of friendship.