Life Is Friends

How can it be that you receive dozens of personal e-mails or texts every day but have nothing to do come Saturday night? Or that you're constantly juggling a jam-packed schedule while always feeling that something essential is missing? Who the heck took the social out of your social life?

Jeanne Martinet, the celebrated author of The Art of Mingling, solves these mysteries and more in Life Is Friends. With an attitude that's savvy, sympathetic, and down-to-earth, Martinet gives you the game plan for relearning the lost art of socializing. Forget texting, IMing, Facebook, and Internet "relationships." When it comes to building real friendships, she says, there's simply no substitute for live, in-person hospitality.

Martinet offers a full gamut of strategies and techniques for socializing, from making that first connection with someone to maintaining a long-term relationship. And she focuses on entertaining—whether it's a dinner party or an informal get-together, a cocktail party or a monthly card game—because sharing one's home and lifestyle is the most important element in nurturing friendships.

Brimming with generous amounts of wit, all-too-true stories, and advice that's both pithy and practical, Life Is Friends gets us back on the path to social success and satisfaction. So read what Martinet has to say. And then, go ahead: Invite people over.