Review: The Friday Night Knitting Club
August 19, 2009 by Kimberly
Filed under Chick Lit, Special Notices
Surprise, tears, and the desire to share. After being an avid reader forever, I find that I usually see an ending coming. I’ve usually recognize the foreshadowing and even though I enjoy a book, it’s rare that a book actually totally surprises me at the end. It’s even rarer for it to surprise me with tears. The Friday Night Knitting Club did just that though. I had read good reviews for the book so I purchased it one day on a whim, and I’m so glad I did.
I’ll be honest and tell you that I started this book three times before I actually read it though. There was something about the beginning that seemed slow, and I had a hard time getting involved; however, after the first few chapters I was anxious to get to know the characters more. By the time I made it halfway through the book, I did not want to put it down. I was so anxious to continue the story. And then when the end took such a surprising twist. I was SHOCKED! Kate Jacobs truly did an amazing job of coming up with a real shocker.
The Friday Night Knitting Club is the story or Georgia Walker and her yarn shop, Walker and Daughter. Georgia is a single mom to a teenager in New York City. She’s raised her daughter on her own (maybe one of the reasons that this book appealed me as I’m doing the same?) – only having the help of store employees and customers who have become friends. The group of friends forms The Friday Night Knitting Club as a time to bond (and for some to knit). One amazing quality of the club is that they don’t even all knit well. It’s more of a social bond – a connection.
Of course, then things go crazy – each of the women seems to have some major issues in their personal lives – from an unexpected pregnancy, Georgia’s daughter trying to find herself, an ex love coming back into the picture, children who think they should make decisions for elderly parents, and a divorce – it’s a roller coaster of emotions. However, The Friday Night Knitting Club presents a place for each of the women to find an escape and ultimately because of the friendships formed a peace with their problems.
I enjoy most books I read. I just have an appreciation for reading. However rarely do I read a book that I start telling everyone I know that they need to read it too, but this is one of those books. I’ve already passed it on to my grandmother who read it and enjoyed it because she said “it was so realistic.” I’m passing it on to a coworker next and then another friend of mine that loves to read.
The book has a sequel, Knit Two, that I have already purchased and will be reading and reviewing soon.
Review: The Diary by Eileen Goudge
I bought The Diary by accident to be honest. I’m not sure how it ended up on my booklist at Book of the Month Club, but I must have been looking at it and clicked “add” somewhere along the way because sure enough it came in the mail a few months ago. I knew I’d need a couple books for my trip to Chicago so I threw this one in my bag for the trip home. I had read the summary a couple times, but it didn’t really get my attention so it kept being placed further down in the stack. I’ll even admit that I only put it in my suitcase knowing when it was the only book in my suitcase, I’d have to read it.
So as soon as I took my seat on the plane, I pulled out The Diary and started reading – bound and determined to successfully finish it so it could be moved to the “finished” stack. Imagine how surprised I was when by the third chapter I was really into it and loving every page – daring the man next to me to speak and distract me from my book (luckily he was reading too) or the stewardess to ask if I wanted a drink or snack.
The Diary is the story of two sisters who recently lost their father and their mother is now on the verge of death herself. They are going through and cleaning out the family home when they discover their mother’s diary from when she was in her early twenties. It is then that they discover that their mother once had a life (imagine that!), but not just any life – a pretty dramatic life. She professes to have only truly one love and the man is not her father. They have no doubts that her mother and father loved each other, but in her 20’s her mother loved another man – and this is devastating news to the girls. How did their mother make the decision to “settle” for the father? They don’t know as the diary ends with all those decisions left unsaid.
Eileen Goudge does such a good job pulling you into this book, that you too are flipping each page hoping to find the answers to all the questions left unsaid in the diary that the sisters are searching for themselves. Will they find a follow up diary? Will Mom wake up from her stroke and finish the story for them? As I flipped each page, I was anxious for those answers, but never saw them coming from the source that Eileen provided. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the messenger and the message.
The Diary may be the ultimate love story – a reminder of what “genuine love” is, how hard it is to make decisions between your heart and your mind, and that our parents are real people with real emotions now matter how we’ve looked at them as we grow up as infallible.
Book Challenge Update
March 23, 2009 by Kimberly
Filed under Book Challenges
This will be a short post, but I wanted to post that I’ve read one of the books on my 2009 Chick Lit Challenge list and TBR Book Challenge 2009 – Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich. I won’t cover a real review here as I plan to do a separate post for that within the next couple days, but I will tell you that I read this book in one day (as I tend to do with all the Stephanie Plum books) because I simply could not put it down. If you are a chick lit fan, I high recommend you read the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich. The first is One for the Money. I’ve read most of them twice and I plan to reread the entire series this summer so I can do a complete series review for you.
2009 Chick Lit Challenge
February 23, 2009 by Kimberly
Filed under Book Challenges
I won’t officially start posting my progress on my book challenges until after our Grand Opening Party, but I wanted to go ahead and post about another challenge that I will be participating in this year – the 2009 Chick Lit Challenge. There was a time when I almost looked down on the term “chick lit” because I thought of it as more of the romance genre that my mom read. *gag me* But then I met Stephanie Plum and all of that changed. All of a sudden I realized that chick lit was not the “sex books” that my mom had read all of my life.
And now I’ve expanded and am more than happy to know about more and more chick lit authors – besides Janet Evanovich, I’ve also fell in love with Sophie Kinsella. I hope to pick up another author this year. Any suggestions?
But back to the challenge. To participate in the challenge you are supposed to pick 10 books you will read during 2009. It’s ok if they overlap another challenge and if you change your mind and want to eliminate or add a book at any time, that’s ok.
My 2009 Chick Lit Challenge Book List
- Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich
- Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks
- If Mama Don’t Laugh, It Ain’t Funny by Lucy Adam
- Play Dirty by Sandra Brown
- The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks
- Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot
- Size 12 is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
- The Grand Finale by Janet Evanovich
- A Lost Wive’s Tale by Marion McGilvray
- Steamed by Jessica Conant-Park and Susan Conant
Queen of the Road
“A Charles Kuralt-Albert Brooks-style romp where they meet up with nudists, robbers and more. Required Reading.” -The New York Post
“Eat, Pray, Love – without the depression – meets Confessions of a Shopaholic – without the ditz.” – Denver Magazine.
is the true story of Doreen and her husband, Tim, who are both psychiatrists, and embark on a year long road trip across the United States following Tim’s dreams and to Doreen’s despair. Tim has dreamed of this trip for years while Doreen has cringed at even the idea. However, somehow Tim convinces her to abandon her “princess” life of working from home in her pjs and load up in a 340 square foot bus turned RV for a year. On top of her hermit like qualities, Doreen also loves to shop – proud of the large number of shoes she owns, but these shoes can not make the trip with her. How will she ever survive?
I was immediately caught up in Doreen,Tim, the cats, and the poodle’s life. It was amazing how quickly I was dying to know what adventure would be next. Their journey’s were told with such great language that I felt like I was there. My only regret was that my book was a paperback because as I carried it around everywhere trying to get to the next story, it became pretty rugged. 
I have to admit that when I began this book, I missed one very important detail – that it was true. Yes, as an avid reader, as an English teacher, I am mortified that I actually didn’t read (and register) that this was a true story. After all, it was in perfectly clear English that is said ON THE COVER, “The True Tale of 47 States.” Yes. So as I read of each of their stops along the way, I was increasingly amazed at how thorough Doreen has researched each of those locations. She knew so much about them. It was unbelievable. Imagine my amazement at the end when I realized it was in fact true. That explained so much.
My favorite stops along the way? I loved her trip to Disney World. I actually read parts of this to my two daughters (they are 8 and 17) as we are the BIGGEST Disney fans and wishing hard that we could make it back to Disney. My 17 year old is now dying to read the book herself, and my 8 year old told me I had to save it until she could read books “that big.” Next I really enjoyed the Texas stops. Since I’m from Texas I have been to these areas also and so I could relate. It was actually during the Disney and Texas stops that I realized how much of this book was true – how much “research” Doreen had done to write this book.
When the end came and I realized it was true, well I am actually ready to read it again. I don’t reread many books, but I do think this is one that I’ll focus on different parts the next time around and knowing it’s true, I think will put an entirely different outlook.
About The Author:
DOREEN ORION is a triple-boarded psychiatrist on the faculty of The University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Her first book, I Know You Really Love Me, established her as a national expert on stalking with related appearances on Larry King Live, 48 Hours, and Good Morning America, to name a few. In spite of all this, Doreen considers her greatest accomplishment to be that her bus was featured as the centerfold for Bus Conversions magazine (where she is currently the travel writer), thus fulfilling her life-long ambition of becoming a Miss September.
One for the Money
I love to shop the bargain bins at the bookstores and last summer I stumbled on a book by Janet Evanovich called Ten Big Ones, and ever since then I have been hooked on the antics of the main character, Stephanie Plum. I skipped around this series for the first few books, but then decided I wanted to read them in order from the beginning so I began watching sales and collecting the books. Finally, I think I have gotten my hands on all of them so last week I started with book one, One for the Money.
All of the Stephanie Plum books center around her life as a female bounty hunter in Trenton, New Jersey. She is not really very good at her job, but somehow after a book full of bad luck she will catch her FTA (failure to appear).
When One for the Money begins Stephanie has lost her job as a lingerie buyer and is desperate to find employment as she does’nt want to move in with her parents (and grandmother) in the Burg. She ends up blackmailing her cousin Vinnie for a job at his bail bonds office. He hires her on as a bond enforcement agent (otherwise known as a bounty hunter).
Her first job is apprehend Joe Morelli – a cop who is suspected of murder. Joe is not a stranger to Stephanie as he is from her neighborhood and was considered a “romeo” when they were growing up – and did in fact try out his moves successfully on her a couple times. Stephanie doesn’t let this slow her down though as she is desperate for her 10% of the bond.
The following characters are also introduced in book one that will be around for future books:
- Ranger – another bondsman who Vinnie sometimes hires; he’s a dark, handsome, Cuban who Stephanie has enlisted to help her learn the ropes of her new job.
- Grandma Mazur – This is her mother’s mom. She is widowed and lives with Stephanie’s parents. Her primary source of entertainment is going to local funerals with her friends. She is a pretty crazy character who is always mortifying Stephanie’s mom and dad.
- Lula – Stephanie meets Lula during book one on a street corner. When she is attacked by a Benito Ramirez that is after Stephanie, the two become friends.
- Benito Ramirez – local celebrity; he’s a professional boxer who is a little too rough with the women. When Stephanie turns him down, he becomes a BIG problem for her.
If you like “chick books,” you’ll love the antics of Stephanie Plum. If you’ve read these, I’d love to hear your comments and discuss future books too.
