Wall Street Journal columnist Jeffrey Zaslow, co-author of The Last Lecture with the late Randy Pausch, is now looking into the world of female friendships. The Girls From Ames: A Story of Women & a Forty-Year Friendship (Gotham, 292 pp., $26), goes on sale Tuesday. Zaslow, 50, spoke with USA TODAY about the 11 women, 10 still living and in their 40s, who grew up together in Ames, Iowa, forming an extraordinary bond that has endured since childhood:
Q:This book started with just one e-mail?
A: Yes. I wrote a column about friendship and I heard from hundreds of women about their friendships. Jenny (one of the girls from Ames) was one of them. I was touched by her story, so I followed up with her...