Product Description

The New York Times bestselling sensation that's "Steel Magnolias set in Manhattan" (USA Today)-now in paperback.

Juggling the demands of her yarn shop and single-handedly raising a teenage daughter has made Georgia Walker grateful for her Friday Night Knitting Club. Her friends are happy to escape their lives too, even for just a few hours. But when Georgia's ex suddenly reappears, demanding a role in their daughter's life, her whole world is shattered.

Luckily, Georgia's friends are there, sharing their own tales of intimacy, heartbreak, and miracle making. And when the unthinkable happens, these women will discover that what they've created isn't just a knitting club: it's a sisterhood.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #466 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From Publishers Weekly
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. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
Kate Jacobss novel about the communal aspects of knitting celebrates the craft, which is finding renewed life in a new generation. Georgia Walker is a single mother who runs yarn shop in uptown New York City. Several of her customers come together to bond in a weekly night of knitting, noshing, and conversation. Walkers 12-year-old daughter, Dakota, a budding culinary entrepreneur, keeps the knitting circle in noshes. Carrington MacDuffies reading make the storys first-person narrator sound detached from the story. The variety of characters and their joys and concerns never come to life. Overall, MacDuffie cannot overcome the superficialities of the story itself. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Georgia Walker's entire life is wrapped up in running her knitting store, Walker and Daughter, and caring for her 12-year-old daughter, Dakota. With the help of Anita, a lively widow in her seventies, Georgia starts the Friday Night Knitting Club, which draws loyal customers and a few oddballs. Darwin Chiu, a feminist grad student, believes knitting is downright old-fashioned, but she's drawn to the club as her young marriage threatens to unravel. Lucie, 42, a television producer, is about to become a mother for the first time--without a man in her life. Brash book editor KC finds her career has stalled unexpectedly, while brilliant Peri works at Walker and Daughter by day and designs handbags at night. Georgia gets her own taste of upheaval when Dakota's father reappears, hoping for a second chance. The yarn picks up steam as it draws to a conclusion, and an unexpected tragedy makes it impossible to put down. Jacobs' winning first novel is bound to have appeal among book clubs. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

As the cover says...
... This plays out as a "Steel Magnolia's set in Manhattan" and I was not let down. A nicely written account of how womens lives connect and develop into deep friendships. I was hanging on the writers every word, not being able to put the book down. I wish this would be made into a movie soon. I cannot say enough good things about this story.

Enjoyable but formulaic
I like a good chick-lit book once or twice a summer, and this one fit the bill. There were some likeable characters, and it was fun to see some different kinds of conflicts, like the 72 year old woman suddenly rediscovering her sexuality, and I loved the scene where James' mother gives him a dressing down. Some of the characters were too one-dimensional -- Georgia was just too good to be true much of the time, and Cat too stupid for redemption, and Darwin too annoying overall. I know I was supposed to cry when Georgia died, but honestly, her role seemd to be to be the catalyst for everyone else to get her life together, and once that happened, she kinda had to die because her purpose was served. The writer has obvious talent and some passages were either incredibly insightful (like why New Yorkers never invite you to their homes) or just plain lyrical. It's not great literature, but it's not bad, either, and she is definitely an author I would read again. But the book will go in my giveaway/trade pile because it's really not deep enough or satisfying enough for a second read.

Lukewarm
I just never really got into the characters. I can knit well, so I wanted to like this book. It seemed like there was something missing . . .