Friends Like These - Danny Wallace

~My Worldwide Quest to Find My Best Childhood Friends, Knock on Their Doors, and Ask Them to Come Out and Play ~

There are so many ways to find old friends and past classmates now. Most of them involve using the web. Which is great way to find people, but what about actually seeing them again?

Danny Wallace is 29 yrs old. He is somewhat concerned with his impending 30th birthday.

"On the brink of change? On the brink of finally, undeniably, irrefutably becoming ...a man?"

At the same time he is pondering his approaching adulthood and all that goes with it - aquistion of display cushions, buying coasters, eating at a pub that features a sausage of the week - his mother gives him a box. It's filled with old photos, letters, mementos and an address book from his childhood.

Wallace decides he must update his address book before he turns thirty. And so begins the hunt to find and reconnect with 12 friends from his youth.

"Sometimes, to be at peace with what's coming up, you have to be in touch with what's already happened."

What follows is hilarious, heartbreaking, thought provoking and thoroughly entertaining!

Wallace's writing style is wry, witty and self deprecating. He has a way with words and had me laughing out loud many, many times in the first few pages and I wasn't even into the thick of the book yet. (The headlines from the Loughborough Echo are priceless!) The tone is familiar and you feel like would like to sit down and have a pint with Danny and his mates to catch up.

I keep up with some of my childhood friends, but often wondered what happened to others. (Sally from Jellicoe Cres. - where are you?)

Friends Like These is a great memoir and hugely entertaining read that will have you asking 'whatever happened to....?

British author Wallace also penned the book Yes Man that was made into a movie starring Jim Carrey.

Read an excerpt of Friends Like These.