It would be difficult to imagine two friends more well-matched, more made for one another, as Gail Caldwell and Caroline Knapp. When the two met, both were writers, athletes, and dog lovers. Both were recovering alcoholics, and both were entering middle age, quite contentedly single. Caldwell writes, "Finding Caroline was like placing a personal ad for an imaginary friend, then having her show up at your door funnier and better than you had conceived." And then, in 2002, Caroline died, just seven weeks after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

Caldwell's beautiful memoir of friendship and loss is deeply personal, yet immediately, intensely recognizable to anyone who's ever had a dear friend, or anyone who's ever lost someone they loved. Readers might also enjoy Ann Patchett's Truth & Beauty and Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking.