The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club
Gil McNeil
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Buy *The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club* by Gil McNeil online

The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club
Gil McNeil
Voice
Hardcover
416 pages
March 2009
rated 4 of 5 possible stars

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Jo McKenzie’s life as she knows it will never be the same. After her husband tells her that he’s been having an affair for a year and wants a divorce, she rails against him and he storms out of the house. A few hours later, policemen show up at the door. Her husband has had an accident, they say. Unfortunately, he’s not going to make it.

Jo is torn between outrage and despair. In an effort to pull her life back together and start anew, she moves to an English beach town with her two young boys. She takes over her grandmother’s yarn shop (called a wool shop across the pond) and tries to revitalize it and redefine it within the community. She begins to settle into her new home and make friends with the quirky personalities in her small town. Slowly, as she becomes part of the community and her shop starts to take off, Jo begins to live her life again and enjoy what she has around her.

The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club, the latest in the knitting novel craze begun with Kate Jacobs’ The Friday Night Knitting Club, was previously published in the United Kingdom as Divas Don’t Knit and is a knitting fan’s dream come true. Knitting is a central part of the story and in fact ties the whole novel together - if you aren’t a knitter, this book will make you want to start. It’s a great social activity, especially with groups such as Jo’s “Stitch and Bitch” weekly get-togethers. That’s why it makes such a great centerpiece for novels such as this.

Jo is quirky and has great wit; her dry humor keeps the book entertaining. However, she is surprisingly unemotional and detached throughout the course of the novel. For example, despite the unexpected death of her husband, Jo doesn’t seem that broken up about it. Most likely, the fact that he had a woman on the side had something to do with it, but it’s almost unbelievable the way she doesn’t seem to grieve at all. Then again, because her husband traveled so much, she was basically like a single mom anyway. The whole situation wasn’t really that new to her. Generally speaking, this book isn’t really about emotions; instead, it’s about making connections and appreciating what is around you.

The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club is so easy to read, a great book to curl up with and read on a rainy afternoon. Any fan of women’s fiction will enjoy this engaging and well-written novel.



Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Swapna Krishna, 2009

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