Life is a little more bearable with friends. Good friends will lift us up when we’re feeling down. They will give us sound advice or a round of scolding, depending on what’s needed. They, in many ways, make us who we are. Having just celebrated friendship day (July 30), I’m going to give my closest friends a book that celebrates the bond that we have. I might also sneak in a reread. Here are my top five picks.  

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

This is an unforgettable story of the unlikely and tragic friendship between a rich boy and the son of his father’s servant. Not just friendship but also love, betrayal and redemption. Trigger warning though, it’s a bit violent at times and the story is disturbing. But it’s a hauntingly good and conscience-nudging story about the good and the bad that humans are capable of, and the lengths we go to for our dearest friends.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

A book about four college friends as they navigate life in New York, A Little Life will break your heart. You will cry ugly tears but it will be worth it. Four friends Jude, Willem, Malcolm, and JB, help one another through the highs and lows of success, addiction, trauma and grief. You’ll see yourself and your friends in the characters, and thus it feels extremely cathartic. It’s a thick book but rest assured you will breeze through it as you won’t want to put it down.

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

Set in small-town 1930’s Kentucky, the book is based on the real-life Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky, or the Horseback Librarian program as it was called then. The program delivered books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s traveling library and ran from 1935 to 1943, making books accessible to over 100,000 rural inhabitants. The story is tender and heartbreaking and celebrates the power of books and female friendships.

Marley and Me by John Grogan

This is based on a true story about a dog named Marley, a yellow Labrador, who was, according to Grogan, the naughtiest dog in the world. Marley is hyperactive and destructive. That causes many problems for the family. The book is about how they learn to adapt to him and their grief after Marley’s death. His antics will make you laugh, cry, and hug your own pet a little harder. Marley and Me celebrates the bond we share with our four-legged friends and reminds us to be gentler with them.

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Amy Tan writes good books with complex relationships. You couldn’t go wrong with any of her works but The Joy Luck Club tops my list of favorites. It’s a story about four Chinese women who are new to the city of San Francisco. They are homesick but they find comfort in one another. The book also explores the bond between mothers and daughters and the friendship that people of different generations can share.