Fascinating for the minutiae it uncovers, the figures whose correspondence sparks biographical curiosity, and not least its insistence on the world-shifting power of female friendship, The Social Sex is a paean to companionship. Share it with a bosom friend.

Marilyn Yalom is a former professor of French and a senior scholar at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University. She is the author of widely acclaimed books such as A History of the Breast, A History of the Wife, Birth of the Chess Queen, and most recently, How the French Invented Love. She lives in Palo Alto, California, with her husband, psychiatrist and author Irvin D. Yalom.

Theresa Donovan Brown is an award-winning author of both fiction and nonfiction.