Riot Recommendation

25 Of Your Favorite Books About Friendship

Jamie Canaves

Contributing Editor

Jamie Canavés is the Tailored Book Recommendations coordinator and Unusual Suspects mystery newsletter writer–in case you’re wondering what you do with a Liberal Arts degree. She’s never met a beach she didn’t like, always says yes to dessert, loves ‘80s nostalgia, all forms of entertainment, and can hold a conversation using only gifs. You can definitely talk books with her on Litsy and Goodreads. Depending on social media’s stability maybe also Twitter and Bluesky.

This Riot Recommendation listing your favorite books about friendship is sponsored by Flatiron Books, publishers of Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao, now in paperback.

Girls Burn Brighter cover imageAn electrifying debut novel about the extraordinary bond between two girls driven apart by circumstance but relentless in their search for one another. Shobha Rao’s Girls Burn Brighter introduces two heroines who never lose the hope that burns within.

 

 

 


Friendships are so important to us that we proudly make bracelets, wear BFF pendants, and even have funny quotes about true friends being in the jail cell next to you. We love and need our friends, and just as important to us are the friendships we feel a part of when reading. So we asked you to tell us your favorite books about friendship—new and old, all books about friendships were welcome!—and we’ve put them all in the friendliest list for you.

We asked and you answered! Here are 25 of the best books about friendship. book lists | books about friendship | friendship books | best friendships books

32 Candles by Ernessa T. Carter

The Lido by Libby Page

Circle Of Sand by Lia Fairchild

The Aubrey-Maturin novels by Patrick O’Brian

Death Prefers Blondes by Caleb Roehrig

Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson

Spin by Lamar Giles

Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson

A Beautiful Poison by Lydia Kang

Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson

NW by Zadie Smith

Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang

Private Citizens by Tony Tulathimutte

I’m Not Missing by Carrie Fountain

This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki, Jillian Tamaki

Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl

I’ll Eat When I’m Dead by Barbara Bourland

The Expatriates by Janice Y.K. Lee

Paulina & Fran by Rachel B. Glaser

The End of Everything by Megan Abbott

Up to This Pointe by Jennifer Longo

My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares