The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

So, I wrote this entire post earlier in the week, left my computer, came back, and it was gone.

I was displeased.

So I will do my best to recreate my earlier post but I can't offer you any guarantees.

OK, so, Friday Night Knitting Club was recommended to me by a friend over a year ago and I just got around to reading it - or rather, I remembered a while ago, requested it from the library, it came in, I picked it up, finished what I was reading before, and here we are. It took me a while to get through. It was a much slower read than Jacobs' other novel that I had read previously (reviewed here), but it was also much less superficial. The thing that bothered me the most about this novel (after finishing it) was that the best part of the book comes right smack dab at the end. No, I don't mean like the last 5 words, but within the last 10 pages, and that drove me insane, because it didn't allow for a standard denouement (yeah I just used that word). Instead, it was like, bam, in your face, book over, peace out. No time for resolution, for closure. Is it a coincidence that there are two books after this one in the Knit series? That's what I want to know. Did Jacobs always intend for these to be a series or did they only turn out that way after the success of FNKC? Because if I had read FNKC before the sequel had been written, and then the book had ended the way it does, I would have been pissed. Even so, I still feel kind of slighted. Books need to be able to stand on their own without relying on a sequel to clean up after the mess they've made.

Anyway, now that I've probably completely turned you off from ever reading this novel, I'll tell you what it's about...

Georgia Walker is a single mother who lives in NYC and owns her own knitting/yarn store. The store (Walker and Daughter) serves as the hub in this novel, home base for the cast of crazy characters that float in and out of Walker's life. I say single mother because technically she is - her baby daddy is absent from her daughter's life (until a few pages into the novel, that is), but in reality her daughter is being raised not only by Walker herself, but also by Anita, Georgia's mentor and fellow shopkeeper, and Peri and KC and Marty and...you get the idea. People like hanging out at the store and will often stick around to ask for help on a knitting project, and eventually a club of sorts is formed out of the regulars who always seem to be around on Friday nights.

The novel centers around the lives of the Walker women, but what I think it's really about in the end is the strength of female bonds, and the importance of knitting together a safety net for yourself. There are a couple of male characters in the book but they sort of seem to just add spice to the mix - they're not really what this is about. Walker has this great cast of characters in her life, and they irritate her from time to time, but I came to think of the friends in her life as different threads in her safety net - some of them are weaker threads, others are stronger, but when they all come together, she can lean on them and they'll support her when she needs it. So yes, knitting is what this novel is about in the literal sense but I think it's what it's about in the metaphorical sense as well - knitting together the support of the friends in your life to hold yourself up when you need it.

Did you see that coming?

Me neither.

OK, so this isn't a book...

But you should still read it.

I already posted a link to this article on my other blog so you may have already seen it from me, but if you didn't, check it out. An article written from the perspective of a single mother who argues that it's better for women to settle and marry men they don't necessarily feel are "good enough" for them than it is for them to be alone. Not saying I agree or disagree, just that I find it really interesting.

Bed of Roses by Nora Roberts

Bed of Roses is the second book in the Bride Quartet by Nora Roberts. For someone who isn't sure I ever want to get married, I sure love weddings. I love reading wedding magazines, attending weddings, hearing about weddings of people I don't even know, etc. I'm just not sure I can ever imagine having one myself.

That said, obviously I enjoyed this book in the same way I enjoy reading about people who can cook really great things - it's something I love to hear about and something I appreciate, but just not something I am sure I can imagine myself doing someday (I just thought about explaining the cooking thing by saying "I don't like to touch meat" but then I knew that would lead this post down a different route).

But I digress. Not sure if I explained this when I wrote about Vision in White, but the quartet is about a group of friends (4 friends, imagine that) who run a wedding planning business. They each handle separate parts of the business (One does flowers, one does photography, one does catering, and one is the business manager), and the quartet is about their lives as they run the business together.

The thing that irritated me about Bed of Roses is that Roberts tried too hard to hit the reader over the head with the fact that this is the 2nd book in a series. I'm not sure if she set out to write the series, or if she only decided upon the series idea based upon the success of Vision in White (do I seriously read these books?), but Vision in White was a much more stand-alone novel/story than Bed of Roses. In this story, she left loose ends that obligate you to read the next two books in the series (yet to be published). Will I do it? Yeah, probably. Will it still annoy me? Possibly. And it's all a little bit too neat. Four friends, who run a wedding planning business, all of whom fall in love and get married within the span of a few years? Unlikely. Granted I'm not sure if that's how the other two books will turn out. If it isn't, I'll respect Roberts more. I hate reading books and knowing what's going to happen 10 pages before it does - or entire novels before it does, in this case.

Don't worry, I'm not writing this to tell you what a smart person I am - but rather to emphasize just how transparent Roberts' writing is. Meh. I guess that's what you get when you read a series of books that are essentially wedding planning porn.

Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos

My friend Molly recommended that I read Love Walked In while I was on vacation in Jamaica (again, please send me your recommendations, I love them!). I really enjoyed Love Walked In - it was lighthearted enough to work as a vacation read, but serious enough to not feel like I was killing brain cells by reading it.

The title says it all - it's essentially the story of how love walked into the main character's life as she just sort of went about her day the same way she always did. I hope the same thing will happen to me someday - I'm really not all about going "husband hunting" and trying to meet the love of my life. I'm more into letting it happen the natural way. I guess we'll see if someday that changes (such as, if the natural way doesn't work and I change my views on potentially not wanting to get married...ever). At first, it (love) looks exactly like she always expected it to (maybe that's how she recognized it in the first place), but then as time goes on, the greatest love in her life becomes more for an extension of the original love than for the original love itself. Love evolves - as it naturally does.

Anyway, I don't want my story to turn out quite how this story did (without giving too much away I will just say there is a child involved, we all know how I feel about children), but the idea of sort of letting love fall into your lap appeals to me (lazy). Don't get me wrong - when I find it, I'll work hard to keep it.

I will say this, though - the series of events that takes place within the book is not all that feasible, but isn't that usually the case with most dramatic events that eventually change your life? I guess it wouldn't really be worth reading a book in which everything is predictable and commonplace. Reading about situations such as this one make you think - what would I do if I were in that situation? My answer is: not what the protagonist did (which will become funny to you if you read the book).

So what would you do if the person/thing you fell in love with turned out to be/come with more than originally met the eye? I guess that's where you figure out if it was love all along. I haven't really been in one of these situations, but from my perspective, I think love would flex to accommodate and encompass everything it needed to - whereas something weaker (lust? infatuation?) would splinter and break. Maybe my answer will change someday when I meet (I just typed "meat" and it totally changed the meaning of the sentence and broke my serious mood) the person for whom my love will accommodate all things. I'll be here, looking forward to the day when that love walks in.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

It's been a while since I've been in love.

I think by the time you reach my age (ah, the ripe old age of 25) you have probably been in love at least a time or two. Sometimes after you've been in love, even though the feelings are never quite as intense the second time around, you just keep going back. I've gone back to Harry Potter a time or two, but finally I've found something worth moving on for. Don't get me wrong - I'll always be faithful to HP. He'll always be one of my first loves, but I've found something magical with Grossman's 2nd novel (I couldn't resist the pun, sorry).

My friend Paul lent it to me and I was so happy he did - this is why I ask for recommendations so often. I never would have picked up The Magicians without his recommendation. So please, please, please, if you have favorite books you think I may not have read, please send their titles my way!

I mentioned Potter in part because Grossman mentions Potter multiple times throughout the course of the novel. The Magicians is the story of a boy who is very much like me in that he finds himself always feeling a little bit out of place - daydreaming about other worlds, other places (predominantly magical places) in which he thinks he would probably fit in better. The thing that makes me jealous, though, is that Quentin's daydreaming/fervent wishing eventually leads him to stumble into a magical world - and then through that world into one that is even more magical. Who knows, maybe eventually I will have the same fate (fingers crossed).

I need to make a very specific and important distinction here -I very much love movies and books about magical worlds. But I love them when they start in the normal world. The thing that appeals to me is the idea that someday I could fall into the same circumstances. Those people who start in magical/different worlds don't really appeal to me. I started in a normal world and so far my only way out is books.

You will never, EVER catch me saying a bad world about Harry Potter, but one thing that is GOOD about The Magicians that is in stark contrast to the Harry Potter series is the fact that the characters in The Magicians and its target audience are slightly older than HP, and therefore the storyline is able to be a little bit more mature and a little bit darker and more cynical - which appeals to me. As Paul says, you can't appreciate the sweet without the sour...so I think the dark side in The Magicians intensifies your appreciation of the light. At times it's laugh out loud funny - and at others it really tugs on your heartstrings. Harry Potter has sweet and sour as well, obviously, but I would liken Harry Potter more to Sour Patch Kids (there is nothing wrong with that! Sometimes that's exactly what you want!) and The Magicians to...I don't know, tart lemonade? That metaphor got away from me, but you know what I'm trying to say. Same themes, different levels of...maturity.

You never forget your first love, but often you outgrow that relationship. Sometimes it's just the natural course of things. As you move on in your life, often when you fall in love again, you see some of the same things in them as you did in your first love. Lucky for me, that was what let me know that my relationship with The Magicians was likely to turn out well. And it did. So well. Please do me a favor and read this book so I can do you the favor of having been the one to recommend it to you.

And once you read it, you will know what this means - I desperately want a cozy horse for my birthday.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

I tried to read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo twice before I eventually succeeded on my third try. Why? Because the first 40ish pages are complete drivel. Well, not drivel exactly, but rather...really dry, intense financial-speak that I couldn't possibly care less about. I complained to a friend who said that I had to try to persevere and it would be worth it. And I'm here with the same advice for you.

If you liked The Da Vinci Code or other books like it, you'll like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Same sort of suspense, same sense of mystery. You're along for the ride and trying to figure out the clues before the characters in the book. There isn't the same involvement with secret societies or ancient symbols, but the mystery is just as good. One thing I will say that was kind of funny is that the main character is a TOTAL male whore. It didn't add much to the story - for me at least - but it made me wonder if Larsson thought that it would make his book so much better if he added sexytime. Really? I guess you can't have all suspense all the time, but for me in was kind of just a distraction from the part of the story I was actually interested in. Anyway, even with the small distraction of the male slutteny, I do plan to read the sequel - The Girl Who Played with Fire and then eventually, when it comes out in May, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner

So I usually think that Jennifer Weiner is a pretty reliable author. I read everything new she puts out, and I believe that I've read all of her past works. Generally, if you're looking for a light, entertaining read, you can rely on Weiner (I just burst out laughing).

Anyway, Best Friends Forever irritated me a little bit. It's the story of one of those friendships - which I think all women have been in at this point - where there are two people who don't quite seem to make much sense being friends with one another. One of them is bright and shiny, and the other is dark and twisty (thanks, Grey's Anatomy). I am and always have been, without exception, the dark and twisty one in those relationships. The other part that comes with being a dark and twisty person is that you're an acquired taste, so you have to work at having friends sometimes. You end up taking care of yourself, and then by extension, being "the responsible one" who often takes care of other friends as well. Now, before you start defending yourselves, college friends/sorority sisters, I'm not talking about you. We all know that our friendships are all fair and balanced - each taking care of the other when they need it - but that's why we're all so close, I think. We all look out for each other. I'm talking about other people, other friendships. The thing is, when you're bright and shiny, everyone likes you. You get away with a lot. You're not necessarily quite as responsible for yourself. So if a bright and shiny comes into contact with a dark and twisty, they tend to have a successful if somewhat dysfunctional relationship. The bright and shiny gets taken care of by the dark and twisty, and in return provides some light/sunshine. The dark and twisty gets to feel needed. I promise this all relates to the book.

Maybe if you are a bright and shiny you will like this book more than I did. I just hated watching the dark and twisty character get totally dominated by the bright and shiny character. The thing is that you're supposed to grow out of whichever extreme you are to become...normal. I am still kind of dark and kind of twisty, but I have my bright and shiny moments. Just like I think that those who used to be bright and shiny had their dark and twisty moments. These characters didn't. They were two extremes. It was annoying. I felt that they lacked the development they should have had at the ages they were meant to be (late 20s, early 30s...I think) and that annoyed the hell out of me. I wanted them to grow up. I wanted to jump into the plot and give both of them a good ass-kicking for being so immature.

Alright, so maybe I'm being overcritical. But you have to remember, people, that I spend more time socializing with the characters in the books I read than I do with actual live people. So I am quite critical of those characters I encounter in my book-life.

So yeah. I guess take my criticisms with a grain of salt. That said, I would recommend Weiner's earlier books more highly than her most recent two.