I just finished reading The Girls of Ames and I can't begin to thank you enough for writing this amazing story. I grew in Story City, Iowa 10 miles north of Ames, and spent more time in Ames than I did in my own town. I also graduated in 1981 and probably was in the company of these girls at some point but never knew them personally. It was so great to reminisce about different places in Ames like Taco Time (my favorite to this day!) and remembering the tv show The Magic Window! The book started me on my own journey of memories and when I finished reading it today, I sat down and startd writing down places and activities I did with my friends in Ames. My son will be a senior at Iowa State this fall and his being there gives me an excuse to go back and revisit old haunts. The girls and their friendship have endured many happy and sad memories but what an example they have set for their own children and society in general. Thank you for the beautiful gift of this book and allowing me to get to know these girls. Thanks for the memories, ladies!

I finished reading this book, while on vacation in Minnesota. I was attracted to this because I am blessed to have 3 good friends from Iowa, as well. We call ourselves "Babes in the Woods". For 19 years, we have met at Platte River State Park outside of Omaha. One lives in Iowa, 2 of us in the Kansas City area, and 1 in Durango, Co. We, too, have shared many of lifes hills and valleys, from births, divorce, 2nd marriages, 12 step recovery, child w/cancer, caregiving and death of parents, and grandparenting. 2 of us met while in college, and the others' as young mothers. We email throughout the year, and feel our 3-4 days together in the fall is precious. We celebrate our birthdays, as 3 of us are October gals. Nothing like the history and bond of these friends.

My girls and I grew up in small rural towns in Northern California. Our high school was made up of kids that came from all the little towns that made up the county. So on our first day of high school when Erin, Lori, Melanie and I realized that we had every single class together, we figured we better be friends. We experienced the hormonal ups and downs of being a teenager together and had our share of heartbreak and triumphs. And we struggled with our identities as girls becoming women. But when Melanie’s mom passed away when were 15, I like to think that we helped raise each other.

When we graduated from high school in 1994 we all went our separate ways-went to college, started our careers or got married. But when you come from a small town, everyone still knows everything about each other and you never really lose touch. But about 5 years ago, the four of us started to reconnect on a more regular basis-largely due to the convenience of email and the internet. Over the last few years, each Monday morning, no matter where we are, one of us sends out a “Weekend Update” email sharing the events of the weekend or just the latest and greatest. Sometimes it’s a race to see who can get it out first, and sometimes our busy schedules don’t allow us to reply for a few days but we do it. And while it can seem like we are gloating, it’s mainly about the wonderful life we have and our desire to share it with each other. We make a point to see each other every few months and some of us see each other more than the other but we always commit to an annual Girls Weekend. No spouses or kids –just a long weekend away where we can be silly teenagers again, share inside jokes (Brown Chicken Brown Cow), flirt with Mr. _______(insert city name), and make new memories. We have gotten flack from other friends for not including them but this is weekend is ours. I have purchased a copy of this book for each of them and plan on giving it to them during our weekend in September.

After over 20 years of friendship the 4 of us are all very different women, but that’s what makes our relationship special and I KNOW how truly blessed I am to have them to share my life with.

literally just finished the book. LOVED IT!!! sent all of my friends an email telling them to please read the book. i have many amazing friends that are not all connected but i could relate to every page of the book. thank you for this special book and thanks to the girls from ames for sharing their story.....

Thank you for telling your story. It brought back so many memories. I have been friends with three girls who grew up with me since we were about four or five years old. (We were born in 1962, 63 and 64) Through the years we have gone to college, gotten married and now we each have three children. We have shared those happy times, as well as the death of my baby and the deaths of some of our parents. We have recently started meeting again regularly to catch up and share laughs. No matter how long it has been since we talked, it is always as if we haven't been apart. So many people are amazed (and envious I think) that we have each other. No one knows you like the girls you grew up with!

I was at a dinner "reunion" with my aunts and my grandmother "95 years young" and other members of my family when my aunt gave me the book "The Girls from Ames" I read your book in one day!loved,loved,loved it!!! I live in Boone Ia just fifteen minutes west of you and I also graduated in '81. I laughed, I cried and most of all the memories I had were just as though I was part of your group. I remember Boyd's Dairy there were 3 of them in Boone Ia. I also knew Margaret I have also went through the "Not" belonging to groups and have watched my child go through the same experience. I lost my mother due to cancer when I was 26, also lost my father in a freak farming accident almost 20 years to the day of my mothers death and my father in law to alziemers. We had also lost a beautiful grandaughter at 8 months. I can relate to you. The funny things you mention is the '75 monte carlo, My first car was a '74. " light blue" I went to the same concerts, Journey, Iowa Jams etc.. I have told everyone I know about your book Wow!!!! MEMORIES... You all have touched me and I thank you for the memories good and bad. If not for the bad we wouldnt be the strong people we are today. I have had many friends that I havn't seen in many years but I do have one friend that I have stayed in touch with since the 5th grade. I will try to contact my high school friends and tell them about your book. You really don't know how this can be a great turning point in my life. I thank each and everyone of you.
Lisa



Lisa

I picked up the book because I could relate to a 40 year friendship. My best friend Shelley and I met in July 1970 at the age of 9 in Chicago. She moved to Omaha in our sophmore year of highschool to live with her father. I then moved to Omaha to be with her at age 23. She then went travelling around the world and ended up in Ketchikan, Alaska as the only female Bush Pilot. I remained in Omaha to raise my daughter so she could be near her dad. Neither Shelley or I married. Our friendship is defined as this, we are one, we are soulmates. We know each other like the back of our hands. No matter the miles between us - it changes nothing. We can pick up the phone and pick up just like it was yesterday. If one has forgotten a shared memory or experience, the other remembers. We know when something is wrong without the other telling us, so we pick up the phone. The line of intuition between us is very strong.

The book also brought back memories of me visiting my grandparents in Fort Dodge, Iowa and then Jolley, IA. I still have family in Downs, Webster City and Clarion, Iowa as well as friends in Ocheydan. I love the State of Iowa, I love the corn fields swaying in the summer time, it's easy to get lost in thoughts on a summer night sitting under a big tree listening to the crickets and the swaying of the corn.

Thank you for your book and allowing me to revist memories of yesteryear.

Girls From Ames,
I picked up your book at Barnes and Noble this summer because I recognized the name Ames from a New Years Eve wedding I had attended there this past year. I didn't know that day what a treasure I held in my hands.
Your story is so inspiring. I do not have the same close knit group of friends your girls have. But I do have some friends I have made now that I am in college, and after reading your story I realize how important it is for these new college friendships to last. I want these friendships to be as honest, loving, supportive and fun as yours is. And I now have the confidence and dedication to work harder at these friendships when I go back in the fall.
I am the same age as Christie would be today. (In fact I was born 22 days after her). I never met Christie but her story through this book was so inspiring and encouraging. I dream to one day work in a pediatric hospital and hope that I can meet inspirational girls like Christie and help them. I know Christie would have been proud of this book and her mother's friendships because even as a stranger I was deeply touched by this unforgetable book.
Thank you for an amazing summer read!

Like many of the women who have written into this website, I was introduced to this book by one of my dear friends who happened to pick it up in Target and she immediately emailed the rest of us after reading the first few pages and told us to start reading it too. I listened and finished the book in two days. Our group shares much in common with the Girls from Ames, there are 12 of us and we have all been together as a unit since high school. Some of us grew up together starting in elementary school, having been in our hometown all our lives. Others came later and through different members of the group and we all came together sophomore year of high school at a sleep over (in the basement of my grandparents' home) and the Cary Girls were born. We aren't as far along in our journey as the Ames girls, only one year shy of our 10 year high school reunion, but we have seen 6 weddings (going on a seventh), the birth of two children and a host of heartaches and celebrations. There have been days I have wondered if the Cary Girls would make it as a group ... some of us have gone through periods of drifting away and coming back ... but we always manage to come back to eachother. Email has helped tremendously, we started group emails in college and still email on a monthly if not weekly basis. And we don't miss milestones ... bachelorette parties, weddings, baby showers, holidays, birthdays ... there is a group event at least once a year with almost all in attendance. We have smaller groups within our group and there are mini-reunions, lunches and visits among those girls too. We are all invested in eachothers' lives and families, updating constantly about siblings, work and asking for advice or just sharing funny stories and inside jokes. Reading the Girls from Ames renewed my faith that we will make it. We don't have a choice ... in fact, I don't think we could make it in life without eachother!! Four of the 6 of us that are married ended up marrying our high school sweethearts and those men know it too. I can't tell you how many times I have expressed my frustrations about one girl or another in the group to my husband and he has set me straight, " ... in five years will this matter?" And the answer is always, "No" because I know we'll be laughing about whatever "it" was that we were so mad about, if we even remember "it" at all! Kudos and thanks to Jeffrey Zaslow and all the Girls for making this book happen. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and I know there was a reason that this book fell into my hands at the time in my life that it did and I am forever grateful!

I have two groups of women friends, one called the Mambo Mamas. This special group of friends began when we were all married with very young children, in our early 30's (now in our mid 50's). We meet once a month at one of our homes, each bringing a dish to share and our joys and sorrows. We do a lot of laughing and it rejuvenates us all!
This group of friends has been so very supportive and loving, there is absolutely nothing I wouldn't do for any one of the 7 other women in this circle and they for me. There is not enough room to write the joy and appreciation I feel for each and every one of them.

The other four person group, now three, is a very close circle of friends. Three other women who I know I can truly be myself, say and reveal anything. Part of th reason we are so close is because we watched on of our four, Cyndi, die from breast cancer that had matasized to lung and brain cancer, in January 2007. She was an incredibly strong, funny and insightful woman who brought us other three closer together. When she was first diagnosed in the late 1990's she began a weekly tradition of Tea at 3 each SUnday. None of us ever miss that gathering. The 3 of us were with Cyndi when she took her last breath on earth, stroking her and telling her it was alright to let go, we were here for her daughter, Emily. I think of her every day and she is with us every week when we continue to meet on Saturday or Sunday for "Tea at 3". And now quite often joined by her daughter Emily.
Now in both groups our daughters sometimes join us all in their early to mid 20's. My daughter Connie, is chomping at the bit to read The Girls from Ames, which I just finished. She has a gorup of friends whom she has been close with since elementary school and now in their mid 20s beginning careers and marriages, they still see each other ofen. I am thrilled that she will have a group of friends that will really know who she is as a person, an individual, from almost day one.
Thank you for understanding and pointing out the power and wonderment of female friendships - it is a miracle to behold and something I am grateful for every single day.

I just happened to be browsing through the bookstore when I came across this book and it couldn't have come at a better time in my life. I am very fortunate to have found a group of 8 girls from college to be my group of ya-ya's. one I have been friends with since the first grade, the others I met while in my sorority at University of Louisville. We are at the point in which we are all starting careers, moving to different cities and getting married and it has been hard adjusting to not seeing and talking to each other on a daily basis. We just recently started a weekly email chain to be updated on each other lives weekly and to plan various trips to get together. This book was very insightful and encouraging in that we have already experienced both joy and sorrow as a group at a young age and I only hope that my group of sisters will remain as close as your group. You all are truly inspiring in the various issues you have had to deal with and I wish you all the best in all that you do!

First, let me say how much I enjoyed your book. I am a little of all of you. I, too, am a breast cancer survivor (15 yrs clean). So,I understand the healing power of female friendship in tough times, as well as the joy in good times.I have told all my friends about this personal account of the 11 of you. I have a feeling that my book will be in tatters and tear stained when it is returned to me at last. Thank you for sharing your lives with the world, and for reminding all of us about the power of friendship.

Even though my group of friends is small in comparison, we are no different from The Girls from Ames. We call ourselves "The GGT's & FFF's." Girls gone traveling and friends for (now) fifty-one years. Two of us have been friends since first grade and the other joined us in the second grade. I could identify with the whole story and like so many other posts, I laughed and I cried. When I finished the book last night, I had tears in my eyes and just laid in the bed and thought. There were even parts that I read out loud to my husband. He's a great listener when I read aloud! Thanks for sharing your story so that our story comes alive as well.

I am very interested and almost spell bound to read about the Ames girls. I have a group of 8 friends all from high school and some from grade school who have a similar story. However unlike the Ames girls we started our reunions when we were in our late 30's-early 40's. Now at age 65 we continue to value our connections even more.We have seen each other through illnesses, cancers, family deaths, children and grandchildren. We have traveled to Europe twice and plan another big trip soon. I have thoug about writing our story and now am more inspired. Friendships among women are very powerful and play a huge role in our lives. Lp6i4

Dear Ames Girls and Mr. Zaslow:

Your story is moving indeed. I just finished the book. Several weeks ago a colleague at work shared with me Mr. Zaslow's book, "The Last Lecture". Her oldest child and my youngest (both daughters) graduated from high school this month. A couple of days after completing this book (an inspiring story as well), I was at another girlfriend's home -- we often trade/share books with each other (we met through pre-school, our children similar in ages) -- and she handed me "The Girls from Ames"; already an interesting Zaslow connection!

I have many strong female friends (one I've known 50 years!). They are not all in the same group but I am touched by each and everyone. My first childhood girlfriend I've known since I was two years old and she was three (we grew up 5 houses down from each other on a cul-de-sac in northern CA -- in the Bay Area). Even though she warned against it, I married (and divorced) her favorite cousin. The marriage produced two beautiful daughters. She is still my best friend (she now lives across the country).

Two other friends (we we would be considered a "group") are from the midwest (one from IL and one from MI). My grandmother (a woman I had great respect and admiration for) was born (in 1894) and raised in West Liberty, IA -- something about those mid-western values! I have, in my posession, 4 years' worth of a diary she kept while growing up in West Liberty. She lost her mother when she was 12 and was raised mostly by her father. What wonderful adventurous stories -- someday I would like to write about her life. She was a college graduate who held a career (as head dietician) in hospitals across the midwest (OK and ID come to mind) before she married and had children.

My best friend from college (we've known each other 34 years) shares many parallels with Kelly's life. Like Kelly she is a writer and a teacher, and a passionate advocate for her students. She recently learned that she did not get tenure in a charter school where she has taught for the past two years. In a school with nearly 300 students, she recieved over 200 letters of support from students and parents. She believes she was forced out by a few narrow-minded individuals and because she has openly supported LGBT students on campus. My heart goes out to her. Like Kelly, her story will be told.

Thank you for the opportunity to share.