Friends, in good times and bad, for close to four decades

Some people say you learn a lot about a person from the books they like to read. Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash

"I love the metaphor of the submarine," says Pam Devlin said over lunch at a long glass table with six others in a Santa Rosa home in the United States.

"Oh, I really liked that!" Wanda Burzycki replied.