Let's Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell

This is a very good book about the friendship between Gail Caldwell and her friend, Caroline Knapp.  Gail is a runner and Caroline is a rower.  They teach each other their sports and are able to both participate in each others' activities.  They met over their dogs and are both writers.  They do a lot of soul searching while taking their dogs for walks and become quasi-psychiatrists for each other.  Gail drinks too much and Caroline smokes too much and she is also a bulliemic so they council each other and help straighten out their lives. 

In the midst of this tremendous friendship, Caroline finds out that she had terminal lung cancer.  The second part of the book is about Caroline's illness and the efforts of her partner and Gail to make her comfortable.  At the same time, Caroline finds a way to comfort Gail.  This is a story of a wonderful friendship.  Everyone should have someone like these two ladies had.