L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables longed for friendship with a "kindred spirit to whom I can confide my inmost soul." It's the type of rare connection that ought to be cherished once discovered, and it's one that novelist Lynn Cullen depicts tenderly between photographer Eve Arnold and actress Marilyn Monroe in When We Were Brilliant.
Professors Christian Wiman and Miroslav Volf cultivate a similarly profound bond through the vigorous debate they present in Glimmerings: Letters on Faith Between a Poet and a Theologian. After all, negotiating differences is key to any friendship, especially when cohabitating, as Kim Hana and Hwang Sunwoo learn in their winsome memoir Two Women Living Together. But it's also worth it, because, as the Anne Shirley-obsessed narrator of Virginia Kantra's novel Anne of a Different Island says: "All the likes and comments and shares in the world are no substitute for a good book. Or a true friend."