Book Review: Count on Me: Tales of Sisterhoods and Fierce Friendships

by Jasmine Colón

The desire to develop strong bonds and create fierce friendships begins at a young age.  Our same age classmates, neighbors, and the children of our parents’ friends were people who we could share our lives with and nurture a common bond.  These bonds were forged with something as simple as sharing a candy necklace or as complex as sharing deep secrets.  As we get older and enter new stages of life we continue to learn what we really want in our friends we meet people who are there to help us maneuver through new life experiences.  Our comadres, sisters, sistas, friends, or however else we refer to them are the glue that help us keep our hearts and spirits alive.  They are always the people who we can count on to be there to hold our hand in our time of need and glow with us in our time of joy.

The different stories of friendships in the collection Count on Me: Tales of Sisterhoods and Fierce Friendshipsfrom Las Comadres Para Las Americas are a joyful read. They range from memories of watching an older generation of comadres maneuver through their connections with one another, to the mentor/mentee relationships, to the physical death of a fierce friend.  All of the stories are relatable and it is easy to find yourself nodding and reminiscing through your own history as you read others retell their experience.  It is impossible to get through each chapter without texting a fierce friend with the intention of letting them know how much you love them.

My Latina Book Club read Count on Me with so much emotion and enthusiasm. We each had a story in particular that spoke the loudest and gave moments of clarity when we discovered that someone else shared a similar experience. We all spoke of our history of love and betrayal from those who we held nearest and dearest.  We shared stories on how a break up with a fierce friendship created despair and a broken heart that cannot always be healed, but becomes easier as time passes.

It was enthusiastically discussed how some of these friendships could be more important than our romantic relationships.  There was agreement and laughter on how our romantic partners know that they should never attempt to come between our sacred friendships.  Just let us be and we promise we will let you in…maybe.

Count on Me: Tales of Sisterhoods and Fierce Friendships is a triumphant collection that deserves to be shared and celebrated with all of your fierce friendships.  Bravo to all of the writers who allowed themselves to be candid with the emotional telling of their comadres.  It was a beautiful journey from cover to cover.

Jasmine Colón grew up in the Central Valley of California where she suffered through hot summers and foggy winters.  Hiding from the local elements, she was often found in her school library with her nose in multiple books.  Exchanging extreme temperatures for a more mild setting she headed off to the beaches of Santa Cruz where she earned her B.A. in Literature from U.C. Santa Cruz.  Moving on to San Jose, she found a renewed love for libraries and earned her M.L.I.S. (Master of Library and Information Science) from SJSU.  Jasmine is employed as a part-time academic librarian and adjunct instructor at two Bay Area community colleges.  She is currently trying to beat her personal best of reading 95 books in one year.