Friendkeeping

Julie Klam's 5 BEST EVERS

Today's guest: Julie Klam Why we love her: We first fell for her when we read her hilarious and lovable memoir (with the cutest dog you've ever seen on the cover!), You Had Me At Woof: How Dogs Taught Me the Secret of Happiness and we've devoured everything she's written since.

Her latest: Friendkeeping: A Field Guide to the People You Love, Hate and Can't Live Without Out today! (Which also happens to be Julie's bday! Happy Birthday!)

The scoop on it: With her inimitable wit and disarming warmth, Julie Klam shares with us her experiences, advice, and insight in Friendkeeping, a candid, hilarious look at some of the most meaningful and enjoyable relationships in our lives: our friendships.

After her bestselling You Had Me at Woof, about relationships with dogs, Klam now turns her attention to human relationships to great effect. She examines everything—from the curious world of online friendship to the intersection of friendship and motherhood. She even explores how to hang on to our friendships in the toughest circumstances: when schadenfreude rears its ugly head or when we don’t like our friend’s mate.
Klam relays a mix of brand-new and time-tested wisdom—she finds that longtime friends really can grow up without growing apart; that communication is key; that friendship is one of life’s great, free sources of happiness; that you’re not a friend, just a doormat, if you don’t get back what you give—and her discoveries range from amusing to deeply important.

Our thoughts: As BFF's for over 25 years, this laugh-out-loud funny and heartwarming book.

Giveaway: FIVE COPIES. Just leave a comment & be entered to win. We'll select the winners at 3pm on Sunday, October 28th.

Fun fact: Remember VH1's Pop-up Video? Julie not only wrote for that show, but earned an Emmy nomination.

Where you can read more about Julie: Twitter, Facebook and her website.

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...JULIE KLAM'S 5 BEST EVERS

1. song- Baker Street by Gerry Raferty. I was looking at my itunes the other day and thinking I've probably bought that song a million times. It reminds me of being on the floor of my brother Matt's room in our house in Katonah and we were just groovin on our coolness -- I was 11 and he was 13 so all of the coolness was invisible

2. book - I've answered this question a lot lately - it's Fraud by the great David Rakoff. There just is no voice like his, he is the funniest writer ever. The first time I met him I gushed about it and he was so genuinely touched and moved and I thought 'wow, this must not happen to him a lot.' And then I learned half the world told him that.

3. movie- Close Encounters of the Third Kind - I loved it when I was a kid and then it was the first movie I bought as an adult. I'd just watch it over and over and over and over. I used to see Richard Dreyfuss in our diner and I felt like he was an old buddy. I once saw him eating with Richard Masur. I don't know if he had friends that weren't named Richard.

4. piece of advice - If someone is paying you to do something then it's a job and you have to do it the way they want it and on time. I think my pet peeve is people who get all artiste-y about their work. People pay you and people need your product to make money. And they count on you. Don't be a jerk. I think when I first started freelancing my aunt told me, no one wants to hear you bellyache.

5. life moment -First time I held my daughter - I had given birth c-section and had pre-eclampsia and she was a premie. So she was born and they whipped into the NICU and I was sent to a recovery room. It was 22 hours before I got to see her and hold her. I was ready to rip out my cords Hulk style and go get her but someone took pity on me. I couldn't believe her existence and how much I desperately loved her.

Thanks, Julie! xoxo,

Liz & Lisa

Photo credit: Sarah Shatz