friends asked what the best book on the middlegame was.

I'm not sure what the best one is, but

here are a few that probably deserve consideration:

The Art of the Middle Game by Kotov and Keres is a good book. Kotov has an excellent
description of how to conduct an attack when the two players have castled on opposite sides.

I'm reading Tisdall's Improve Your Chess Now at the moment. The first chapter offers some
interesting suggestions on calculating variations. He recommends trying to work out a strong line
first, and only switching to drawing up a list of candidate moves when the line you have chosen
doesn't work. He also suggests that when you are about to make a move committing yourself to
a sharp attack, you should examine weak defenses first because if the attack doesn't work even
then, it should be discarded. When on the defensive though, he suggests working from what
appears to be the strongest candidate down to less plausible ones. Another point he makes is
that examining one variation can often give you ideas that can be tried out in a different line.
That whole chapter is very interesting and thought-provoking. I wish he'd expanded on it more.
Later chapters are on using blindfold chess to train for OTB play and the how the position affects
the value of the pieces.

John Nunn's Secrets of Practical Chess and Andy Soltis' How to Choose A Chess Move also offer
some interesting elaborations on Kotov's tree of variations.

Aron Nimzowitsch. My System. - OK, so GM Magnus Kingdom doesn't like it. Even so, it covers a
wide range of key topics: the two bishops, passed pawns, the seventh rank, pawn chains,
doubled pawns, isolated pawns, attacking your opponent's pawn centre, etc. Quite clearly a
classic and one of the most influential books on the middlegame.

Jeremy Silman. How to Reassess Your Chess. - Often recommended by North American chess
trainers for intermediate players. Silman examines various imbalances (e.g. bishop vs knight)
and what impact these have on planning.

John Watson. Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy. - Watson takes Nimzowitsch as a starting point,
and argues that modern GMs try to exploit the specific peculiarities of each position even if it
means ignoring general positional rules.
Vladimir Vukovic. The Art of Attack in Chess. - Vukovic tries to figure out under what conditions
certain king hunt sacrifices will work.

Jose Raul Capablanca. Chess Fundamentals. - Explores clear moves for building up an advantage
that can be exploited in the endgame.

Eugene Znosko-Borovsky. The Middlegame in Chess. - A lightweight book but fun to read.

Andrew Soltis. Pawn Structure Chess. - Tries to build a framework for deciding how to proceed
based on the type of pawn structure.

Alexander Kotov. Think Like A Grandmaster. - Probably the first book to describe the ways in
which grandmasters build up a tree of variations and evaluate the resulting positions to decide
which move is best.

Emanuel Lasker. Lasker's Manual of Chess. - Obviously very old now, but it contains an excellent
summary of Steinitz's ideas on the accumulation of small advantages, the necessity of attacking
when you have the advantage and how to determine where to attack.

David Bronstein. Zurich International Chess Tournament 1953. - A games collection rather than
an instructional book, but Bronstein offers plenty of fascinating insights into seizing the initiative,
weak colour complexes and how to develop rapidly.

all these books describe middle game.

I hope the title / description of each book comes to fruition