The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club

I'm tempted to go into great detail here but feel a teaser would be better. This book deals with grief and a unique way of coping with it. It is well worth reading. How and why this novel works is harder to explain but suffice it to say that a woman, torn to pieces by the loss of her husband, has to figure out how to go on. It is fitting that knitting and learning to make something from pieces of yarn is an apt analogy for her own growth.

Sweet and funny story. Easy reading. It's English, so they watch telly and eat Weetabix (did I spell it right?). They also use profanity, so, do not read it if you cannot tolerate it. Not so much about knitting, more about a woman learning to be independent. Quite inspiring story.

First of all-beware that this book is the very same as the one entitled The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club, which just came out in hardback, for lots more money. I didn't know this, and ordered both of them! Don't make the same mistake. That said, it is a fun book. The first reviewer said it all, and I can't really add much, except to say that I enjoyed reading a British slant on the whole yarn-shop-knit-groups type of story that is popular right now. I enjoyed the characters in the seaside town that Jo, the shop owner, meets along her journey to revive the "Wool" Shop (Brit for Yarn Shop), and to revive her own life after suddenly becoming a widow, rather than a divorcee' (read the book, I am not revealing more!). Add a movie star to the mix, her granmother, and a few other quirky folks in the town, and her own two young, active, boys, and you have a delightful read for the few hours you are not visiting your own local yarn shop or knitting!! However, save your money on the hardback, and read the paperback. Remember-same story!!

It appears that Knitting is one of the hot topics at the moment and a raft of books are appearing that use it as the lynchpin of the story. This is not a bad example of it's type. Jo Mackenzie is in need of a new start. Her life has been turned upside down by the death of her philandering husband, her nearly ex-husband. With a second mortgage on the house she decides to up stakes from London and move to Broadgate Bay and take over her grandmother's wool shop. The wool shop is pretty typical of some of the older shops who wonder why they've got little business, stocking nothing but pastel acrylic wool and wondering why their shoppers aren't getting any younger. Jo wants to change things, make it a vibrant hub of the community and change things around. Not only that but will she find a place in the community, resist killing her rowdy children, survive Christmas in Venice with her egocentric mother and teach the local celebrity how to knit. It's fun, light, wide open to a sequel and quite close to the truth. I'm a knitter myself and I've seen a lot of little shops in the same situation, and I've also seen some who discard all of their stock in favour of new losing both old and new knitters in the process. It was pretty predictable but as a slice of life story it was heartwarming and cosy. Something to curl up beside a fire with on a cold winter's day.