'Text me when you get home.' After joyful nights out together, female friends say this to one another as a way of cementing their love. It's about safety but, more than that, it's about solidarity. A validation of female friendship unlike any that's ever existed before, Text Me When You Get Home is a mix of historical research, the author's own personal experience, and conversations about friendships with women across the country. Everything Schaefer uncovers reveals that these ties are making us, both as individuals and as society as a whole, stronger than ever before.

Common sense tells us that technology can either be a blessing or curse in our lives. The assertion flows easily but deceptively from us. Beneath the flowing assertion, lay many cross currents and much complexity. These complexities are named and laid out for individual and group exploration throughout the book. They provide mirrors for the reader and groups of readers to discover their own affirmations and arguments with their own digital profiles based on Jewish/humanistic religious values. The iterative analysis points back to the double-entendre in the book’s title, "text me" can be a command to engage in the famously quick communication as in receiving a text on our smart phones and "text me" can also serve as an imperative to explore the wisdom contained in Jewish texts. The synergies, gaps, creative tensions, and paradoxes living within this double use of “text me” permeate the volume. Though rooted in Jewish sources the tools of analysis can be used by Christians, Muslims, and people who describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.” Indeed, the book is an invitation to all who live in the digital age which is to say all of us. Commentaries provided by scholars of all three of the western, monotheistic faiths highlight this universal dimension.

Carter Coben is having some serious communication problems lately. First he mouthed off to a project manager at work and got fired, now his girlfriend's dumped him and trashed his cell phone. About the only place he hasn't got his wires crossed these days is at the anonymous texting app, Justchat.com. Carter thinks he might have found a real connection with “She Hearts Dogs,” but little does he know he's already quite acquainted with this cunning canine-lover . . . When Abigail Jeffries gets a random text message from a stranger saying he's been dumped, she can't help but answer it—and recommend he send his ex some flowers from her new shop. When she delivers the bouquet though, she finds out his ex was cheating on him with his best friend—the same best friend she's impersonating via text! Abby feels guilty, but she can't help responding. But what will happen when Carter finds out that Abby is not only the face behind the texts, but the reason he got fired at work and his mysterious mutt-loving pal on Justchat.com? Will they ever manage to sort out their mixed signals, mistaken identities, and misunderstandings to find real love? This madcap, modern-day You've Got Mail for the texting generation will delight romantic comedy fans. Sensuality Level: Behind Closed Doors

“Text Me has the thrills and laughs of a romantic comedy, but with an inverted message: ‘There just isn't only one love story in our lives,’ Schaefer writes. If you’re lucky, friends will be the protagonists in these multiple love stories. It’s high time that we start seeing it that way.”—NPR.org A personal and sociological examination—and ultimately a celebration—of the evolution of female friendship in pop culture and modern society For too long, women have been told that we are terrible at being friends, that we can’t help being cruel or competitive, or that we inevitably abandon each other for romantic partners. But we are rejecting those stereotypes and reclaiming the power of female friendship. In Text Me When You Get Home, journalist Kayleen Schaefer interviews more than one hundred women about their BFFs, soulmates, girl gangs, and queens while tracing this cultural shift through the lens of pop culture. Our love for each other is reflected in Abbi and Ilana, Issa and Molly, #squadgoals, the acclaim of Girls Trip and Big Little Lies, and Galentine’s Day. Schaefer also includes her own history of grappling with a world that told her to rely on men before she realized that her true source of support came from a strong tribe of women. Her personal narrative and celebration of her own relationships weaves throughout the evolution of female friendship on-screen, a serious look at how women have come to value one another and our relationships. Text Me When You Get Home is a validation that has never existed before. A thoughtful, heart-soaring, deeply reported look at how women are taking a stand for their friendships and not letting go.

Seventeen-year-old Nora Thomas carries the burden of childhood loss and trauma, navigating life shrouded in solitude. A school trip introduces her to Claire Tucker, who is everything Nora’s not. Optimistic, outgoing, self-confident. She’s a magnet to others, including the mysterious Ethan St. James, Claire’s best friend since freshman year. When Nora and Claire begin an unlikely romance in another city, Ethan, absent for weeks, suddenly reappears. A brutal murder follows in his wake and the girls soon discover that some secrets are best left unexplored.