A Celebration of Female Friendship -- Just in Time for Mother's Day!

NEW YORK, April 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Most women have a best friend, that one special person in her life she can count on to keep secrets, recall memories both good and bad, and share in the most important events of her life. Now imagine having ten of them.

Just in time for Mother's Day, meet Karla, Kelly, Marilyn, Jane, Jenny, Karen, Cathy, Angela, Sally, Diana and Sheila -- eleven ordinary women with an extraordinary bond in THE GIRLS FROM AMES: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship (Gotham Books; April 6, 2010; $16.00).

In THE GIRLS FROM AMES, The Wall Street Journal's "Moving On" columnist Jeffrey Zaslow chronicles the lives of these eleven special girls -- now women in their mid-forties -- from the small town of Ames, Iowa.  Zaslow sifted through their childhood diaries, notes, and photos and talked with those who knew the women as girls and young adults.

As young women, they moved to eight different states, yet managed to maintain a friendship that would carry them through college and careers, marriages and motherhood, dating and divorce and the death of a child.

In their forty years of friendship, the bonds between these women have become stronger.  The girls have grown into independent women, living distinctive lives in different parts of the country, yet always finding a way a way to reunite each year. They are now mothers, wives, and career women, all facing challenges that will resonate with women everywhere.

Now ages 46 and 47, the "girls" share their stories, photos, and memories, taking Zaslow from the beginning of their friendship in elementary school back in 1960s Ames, Iowa to the present day -- and includes an afterword that brings readers up-to-speed on the year since the release of the hardcover. Where are the girls now? How are they doing? A touching true-life story, THE GIRLS FROM AMES is a heartwarming insight into the powerful bonds of enduring female friendships.

Be sure to check out www.girlsfromames.com for pictures, video, discussion questions and other women's stories of friendship!

SOURCE Gotham Books