I recently succumbed to buying a book called the The F Word by a British Blogger which purported to be about friendship.  I was horrified by it!  It was definitely not aimed at a 44 year old woman and the size of the font and weird pretend recipe to create a friendship seemed more appropriately aimed at a 13 year old.  I started monitoring the reviews of it to see if this was my problem and not only noted that it definitely was not but kept seeing this book being mentioned, in just about every negative review about The F Word.

I found Dolly’s podcast The High Low a few weeks ago and finally found something interesting and clever and funny that I could happily listen to.  So when I saw the book I bought it and, frankly, devoured it.  I would say that this wouldn’t be a book I would have thought I would read.  I’m glad I did though.  It is a beautiful book.  One morning, lying on the sofa I found myself having read a chapter that made me sob to move on to the next chapter where I was laughing so hard that I thought the neighbours might come round!  (Dolly using her flatmates phone to randomly text her phone book purporting to be said flatmate about whether she can drop her bins round was one of the funniest things I think I have read!)

Dolly sets out to educate us on what she knows about love throughout her life so far.  She gives us lists during her different decades of what she knows and these of course change as time goes by.  Dolly shares experiences through university and her working life.  She is searingly honest about how she is and how her drinking affects this.  She finds herself in some very precarious situations.

I absolutely adored this book.  I really enjoyed reading about Dolly’s relationships with lovers and friends.   Her flats sounded horrific in the main but genuinely I would have moved in tomorrow!  This is most definitely the story of friendships and how important they are, how much they can bring to your life.

I wouldn’t recommend this one for the beach unless you’re happy to either cry in front of people or laugh like a drain!  But I would recommend it entirely.  This is a book about Dolly.  Her life, her drinking, her drug taking, her poor choices but the loyalty of friends that remains despite all of that.  The advice those people try to give, the money they lend you and the food they cook you.

So the reviews I read on The F Word were quite right, Everything I know About Love is most certainly the book to read about friendship.  It doesn’t teach you about friendship but it does show you how beautiful they can be.  How tragic life is, how very little you can do to control it but how important it is that you share that with your friends.

I finished the book really appreciating how very lucky I am to have my husband as my best friend.

Definitely a book to read to make you feel blessed x