Book: The Friday Night Knitting Club
Author: Kate Jacobs
Amazon Summary:
Between running her Manhattan yarn shop, Walker & Daughter, and raising her 12-year-old biracial daughter, Dakota, Georgia Walker has plenty on her plate in Jacobs's debut novel. But when Dakota's father reappears and a former friend contacts Georgia, Georgia's orderly existence begins to unravel. Her support system is her staff and the knitting club that meets at her store every Friday night, though each person has dramas of her own brewing. Jacobs surveys the knitters' histories, and the novel's pace crawls as the novel lurches between past and present, the latter largely occupied by munching on baked goods, sipping coffee and watching the knitters size each other up. Club members' troubles don't intersect so much as build on common themes of domestic woes and betrayal. It takes a while, but when Jacobs, who worked at Redbook and Working Woman, hits her storytelling stride, poignant twists propel the plot and help the pacing find a pleasant rhythm.
Between running her Manhattan yarn shop, Walker & Daughter, and raising her 12-year-old biracial daughter, Dakota, Georgia Walker has plenty on her plate in Jacobs's debut novel. But when Dakota's father reappears and a former friend contacts Georgia, Georgia's orderly existence begins to unravel. Her support system is her staff and the knitting club that meets at her store every Friday night, though each person has dramas of her own brewing. Jacobs surveys the knitters' histories, and the novel's pace crawls as the novel lurches between past and present, the latter largely occupied by munching on baked goods, sipping coffee and watching the knitters size each other up. Club members' troubles don't intersect so much as build on common themes of domestic woes and betrayal. It takes a while, but when Jacobs, who worked at Redbook and Working Woman, hits her storytelling stride, poignant twists propel the plot and help the pacing find a pleasant rhythm.
What I have to say:
As many of you know, I work in non-profit fundraising. One of the board members found out I was an avid reader and she lent me this book to read. Her book club had this book.
As many of you know, I work in non-profit fundraising. One of the board members found out I was an avid reader and she lent me this book to read. Her book club had this book.
This book was up and down; there were times that I was really into the story and there were other times were it was difficult to keep reading. I enjoy books that focus on characters and their personal stories and seeing how different lives intersect. The characters were all different...reading this book left me with a desire to know them more, to see them fully developed. With that being said, I found out that this is the first book in a series and maybe the other books show how more about the characters. Maybe having less characters or plot lines would have helped make the story more interesting.
I also felt that there was no real plot. The book sorted plotted the everyday going on of the yarn store, and the people connected to it, over a period of time. Well into the book (about 300 pages in), things started to get interesting, this is also where a plot twist was thrown in...a twist that had nothing to do with anything, but it was much welcomed as it actually made the book interesting.
Reading this book did make me want to learn now to knit and while I will likely read the next book in the series just to see what happens and if things will pick up, I doubt I would recommend this book, It might make a good beach or rainy day read. I did enjoy aspects of this book and I would like to recommend it, but it just left a lot to be desired.
It is worth noting that this was the author's first book...a great first attempt and hopefully, with her following books, she will develop a clear voice.
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