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Last month, I was on a long-awaited FaceTime catch-up with my friends Mary and Laura. We\u2019re all writers and<\/em> parents of small children, so we spend a lot of time gossiping about our kids and the books we\u2019re reading. Mary was ready to discuss Lena Dunham\u2019s, Famesick<\/a>, but Laura and I hadn\u2019t gotten to it yet. I tossed off a casual gripe about not being able to sit through another<\/em> conversation about Strangers<\/a>, which I also had not read.<\/p>\n At this point, my friends\u2019 faces froze, and not because of the internet. \u201cWait. You haven\u2019t read Strangers<\/em> yet?\u201d This, it seemed was a bridge too far. Apparently, no amount of work or children would excuse me from reading the mandatory memoir of 2026.<\/p>\n Inspired by them (and totally<\/em> embarrassed), I started the book the next morning, and within 12 hours, I was peer-pressuring others to read it. For the record, I found it a breathtaking read, but that\u2019s not the reason. Some books you need a buddy for. Sometimes you push a book into a friend\u2019s hands because it\u2019s got medicine you know they need. Some books you share because it says something you can\u2019t. And some books you need someone else to read just so you can see the look on their face when they get to that<\/em> part. I can\u2019t be the only married woman who handed Strangers<\/em> to their spouse and essentially stood there with her arms folded. \u201cI\u2019ll wait!\u201d<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t always play out like you\u2019d hoped. I once turned on a David Sedaris audiobook<\/a> \u2014 one of those this-is-who-I-am books \u2014 while on a four-hour drive with my aunt. She shrugged. \u201cNot my thing.\u201d Other times, the assignment doesn\u2019t stick. I chased my husband around with Homegoing<\/a> for months, ignoring his pitiful cries of, \u201cI\u2019m just not that into fiction!\u201d (\u201cBut it\u2019s HISTORICAL fiction!\u201d) My grandfather gave me the Ron Chernow biography of Alexander Hamilton<\/a> on three different Christmases, and I never learned a thing about the man until Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote a musical.<\/p>\n But when it works, what a thrill. One summer, I assigned my friend Ellie my favorite Stephen King novel<\/a>, and she read it in two days, texting me about the parts that kept her up until the wee hours \u2014 which were the same parts that had kept me up all night \u2014\u00a0and suddenly, there was a new layer to our friendship. Another friend read Mia Farrow\u2019s memoir, What Falls Away<\/a>, after I begged<\/em> her to when we were in our early twenties. I don\u2019t recall the details, but we somehow wound up in a full-on crying fight over it? All I know is we\u2019re still best friends and we still don\u2019t talk about that book; and in a bizarre, inexplicable way, it\u2019s one of the tightest knots in our friendship.<\/p>\n This week, my group chat is reading Yesteryear<\/a> \u2014\u00a0another zeitgeisty book that we each only picked up because we, as a group, declared it mandatory summer reading. There\u2019s something very different about capitulating to peer pressure from your actual, beloved peers. It\u2019s infinitely more fun than picking up a book because the rest of the world says you should. We haven\u2019t talked about it yet \u2014 we\u2019re waiting until everyone\u2019s finished \u2014 but I know that when we do, it\u2019ll be a good time. Or a really, really bad one. Either way, I can\u2019t wait.<\/p>\n So, what books<\/a> have you forced upon your loved ones? I would love to hear!<\/strong><\/p>\n P.S. A darkly funny book we loved<\/a>, and five things we noticed at a NYC bookstore<\/a>.<\/p>\n (Photo by Michela Ravasio\/Stocksy.)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cupofjo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/books-friends-2.jpeg\")
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