Joy For Beginners by Erica Bauermeister

My latest - actually a latest listen, rather than a recent read - is Joy For Beginners.  Again, it's always a crap shoot when I get a book to listen to because the reader can ruin it all but alas, this one was a winner. 

Synopsis:
At an intimate, festive dinner party in Seattle, six women gather to celebrate their friend Kate's recovery from cancer. Having survived such a thing has kicked Kate into gear to make the rest of her life exciting and not humdrum.  Kate strikes a bargain with her friends: In order to celebrate her new lease on life, she'll do the one thing that's always terrified her: white-water rafting. But if she goes, all of them will also do something they always swore they'd never do-and Kate is going to choose their adventures.

Each chapter focuses on a different friend in a different voice living a much different life than her compadres.  Each woman is so different from the next which makes it such a "real" book since the women I know and am friends with are often the complete opposite of me.  This book reminds you that it isn't the similarities which draw and hold a friendship together but the differences that bring to the table. 

I really, really liked this book and it was a really easy listen...light although there were times the subject matter was heavy.  I would imagine it would be a really easy read as well.