The Weekend Crashers

Finished January 16

The Weekend Crashers by Jamie Brenner

This women's fiction novel has three female characters that we follow over the course of a few days. Maggie Hodges is in her 40s, raised her adult daughter as a single mom, and works at a clothing store in New York City. She started the job when her daughter was young, and stayed. The owner, an older woman named Elaine, is a woman that has invested in a variety of businesses.

Piper Hodges, 23, daughter of Maggie has been working as a model since being discovered by a reputable agent. Piper lives with her boyfriend Ethan, and has paused her college education to focus on modelling. 

Belinda Yarrow owns a small hotel in small town Pennsylvania with her husband of 35 years, Max, something they bought into decades ago after a crisis in their marriage.

All three of these women are knitters. Belinda runs knitting retreats on a regular basis, with some people coming regularly. Elaine grew up in the town Belinda's hotel is in and told Maggie about the retreat.

As the book opens, Piper is doing a show in New York City, and Maggie has scored a ticket. For unknown reasons, as Piper is walking onto the runway, she faints and collapses. 

We can see Piper is less enthused about her modelling career than her mother is. Piper has other interests, and hasn't made big money so far, and she finds herself feeling relieved that this may end her career. Maggie is worried about her daughter in many ways, including that she is in a serious relationship at such a young age. This may be because Maggie herself got pregnant with Piper when she was quite young and gave up her college education to be a responsible mom. She wants Piper to have more options.

Maggie brings up the knitting retreat as a way to take Piper's mind off her mishap and have some mother daughter time. 

Belinda's husband has booked another group into the hotel on the same weekend as the retreat, a bachelor's party where the focus is on outdoor expertise and survival skills. They've also had an offer from a chain to buy the hotel and Max is eager to move to another stage of life. Belinda isn't so sure. 

As we see the possibilities for people who truly care about each other want different things in life, we also see how throwing two disparate groups of people together by change can create interesting situations. 

I think I liked Belinda best of the characters, perhaps because she is closest to me in age, I found her insightful, thoughtful, and good at her job. She isn't as good at communicating her own wants and isn't always diplomatic when she does.

Each women grows in some way during this weekend and its aftermath, and many of the men face issues of change as well. I enjoyed the read. 

Read Men Knit

Finished April 29

Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson

This romance book is centered around two twenty-year-somethings that have known each other since childhood, but face a major loss in their lives by coming together. Jesse Strong is the youngest of four adopted brothers, held together by the strength of their mother and their shared family. With their mother, known to all the neighbourhood as Mama Joy, suddenly passes away, he must join his brothers in figuring out what is next. 

They grew up in an apartment above the knitting store run by Mama Joy, and were all taught to knit at a young age, finding comfort and discipline in the act of creativity. The oldest brother, Damien, has launched his career as a financial analyst in the world of investment and keeps his old bedroom mainly as a closet for his upstyle wardrobe. The next two brothers, real half-brothers, Lucas and Noah, have just begun their careers, Lucas as a firefighter and Noah in the world of dance. The apartment is still a base for them even though they don't spend all their nights there. Jesse hasn't settled yet, either in his career choice or in his personal life. He is a bit of a player, and hasn't stayed in any one job too long.

One mainstay in the knitting store has been Kerry Fuller. Kerry has been working part-time in the store, as the only employee for years and even though she has now finished her degree in children's counselling and art therapy and works part-time at the community centre, she finds it hard to leave the knitting store. 

As Jesse fights to keep the store open and viable and keep the home they have above it, the brothers rely on Kerry to help them learn what they need to know to give the store a fresh start with the ideas that Jesse brings to it. Will this major life event mark a change in Jesse's life for the better, and what will Kerry's future bring her?

This is a story of love and loss, of learning and growing, of finding common ground and families coming together through adversity. The only thing missing for me was a knitting pattern. This book cried out for one to be included. There is humour and sadness, but an overall sense of hope for the future, for the main characters, and the community as a whole. 

Twenty-One Wishes

Finished February 9 

Twenty-One Wishes by Debbie Macomber

This volume is actually two books, the novel Twenty Wishes, and the novella The Twenty-First Wish. At the center of Twenty Wishes is Anne-Marie Roche, the owner of Blossom Street Books, in Seattle. Twenty Wishes is the fifth book in the series set on Blossom Street. The Twenty-First Wish is number 5.5 in the series but I found that the actions here came after those of the sixth book, Summer on Blossom Street, which I read a while ago. 

Anne-Marie is still recovering from the loss of her husband a year earlier. They had been estranged due to Anne-Marie's desire to have a child, something she'd agreed not to have when they married, but then had a change of mind about. They were starting to reconcile when her husband died suddenly. She has formed a small group with three other women who are widows. Elise has recently reconnected with her husband Maverick, only for him to be diagnosed with cancer. Lillie and Barbie are a mother and daughter who both lost their husbands when their plane went down on a business trip. Barbie was very close to her husband, and she and their college-age twin sons are finally beginning to move forward. Lillie didn't have a great marriage, but she pretended not to be aware of her husband's infidelity. On their Valentines Day get-together, the women decide to make lists of twenty wishes that they have for themselves, not necessarily with a definite plan, but as a way to move forward. 

We see them slowly develop these wishes, and each move forward in different ways. The story concentrates most on Anne-Marie, with Lillie and Barbie also having a fair bit of plot line. Elise is a more minor character here. 

The Twenty-First Wish is a development based on some of Anne-Marie's results to her wishes, and is definitely her story. 

I always enjoy the light romance, with some life decisions happening in Macomber's novels. And there is knitting involved again as a part of the plot, but no knitting patterns are included here. 

Summer on Blossom Street

Finished October 29
Summer on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber

This novel is part of the series that takes place around the shops on Blossom Street in Seattle. Lydia Goetz, co-owner of the knitting store A Good Yarn has just decided to start a new class called Knit to Quit, to help people who are trying to quit a bad habit or anything like that.
The first person to join is Phoebe Rylander. Phoebe has recently called off her engagement to a local lawyer after discovering he's in the habit of cruising for prostitutes. He's a charming man, and his social status is a draw for Phoebe's mother, but she knows he isn't a good man to have in her life. She needs to distract herself with an activity, and get away from her apartment as he is still trying desperately to change her mind.
Alix Turner, a friend of Lydia's who works at the cafe across the street as a baker, is thinking of starting a family with her new husband, but she hasn't exactly had good models for parenthood herself, and she started smoking again around the stress of the wedding, and knows she has to quit before having a baby.
Local businessman Bryan Hutchinson took on the family chocolate business after his father's unexpected death. He's had a steep learning curve, works far too many hours, doesn't always eat as healthy as he should and is even more keyed up than he has been because of a woman suing the company. He also has a thumb injury that hasn't been healing as well as he hoped. His doctor has now told him to go to a knitting class to help with both the thumb and with stress.
Lydia also has stuff going on in her personal life. She and her husband Brad have recently been approved as foster parents, part of their plan to adopt an infant. But when they are asked to take on an older child, due to an urgent need, want to help but are not sure how this will impact their son Cody. Her sister Margaret is dubious as well.
Lydia's friend Anne Marie is also doing some thinking. She recently finalized the adoption on her daughter and they've just returned from a trip to Paris. Now back to running her bookstore, Anne Marie is looking for a larger home for them, and is confronted by a situation that she isn't sure how she feels about.
Lots going on here, with lots of interesting plot lines. The book also includes the pattern the knitting class is working on, a cable sampler scarf.

Knitting Yarns

Finished February 2
Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting edited by Ann Hood

This anthology of essays shows a range of experiences with knitting from twenty-seven different writers including both men and women. Most of them knit, but others just enjoy the finished product or the soothing accompaniment of being near a knitter during the process.
There are also six knitting patterns included in the book, all by Helen Bingham: fingerless mittens, a cabled head wrap, coffee cozies, slipper socks, a dog sweater, and a lacy wrap.
I have only ventured into knitting twice as of yet: once for a scarf that my mother finished for me, and once for a too ambitious sweater that still lies unfinished in a box. I did purchase yarn and a pattern for a scarf a couple years ago, but haven't yet tackled it.
I enjoyed the stories here, partly for the knitting, and partly for the window they opened into these writers' lives.
A fun book.

The Wishing Thread

Finished August 27
The Wishing Thread by Lisa Van Allen

This book is a romance with a theme of paranormal. The story takes place in Tarrytown, New York and centres around three sisters of the Van Ripper family. The sisters grew up in an old house with a wool shop called The Stitchery contained within. The house was owned by their eccentric aunt Mariah, and the girls were all trained in the art of knitting spells. The spells were knitted to order, and the one who requested each knitted item had to offer something they valued in return. Aubrey, the middle sister has stayed on with Mariah and taken on the inheritance of the store and its services. Bitty married young and has two children, Vanessa and Carson. Meggie took off a few years ago on her own quest. As the book begins, Mariah has passed away suddenly, and the sisters all come back together at The Stitchery to mourn her and find that Mariah has left her own task for them in her will.
Tarrytown is also undergoing a fight. The area of town around Tappan Square, where The Stitchery is located, is planned for redevelopment, a plan that would mean the end of The Stitchery, but also the end of a neighbourhood that has fallen into hard times and yet still has community spirit. Mariah had been fighting against this development and Aubrey tries to overcome her shyness to continue the fight, and perhaps reach out to the man she has a crush on.
Each sister is struggling with her own issues and they haven't shared with each other until now. As Bitty and Meggie reveal their own struggles they help Aubrey, and regain the closeness they had lost.
The knitting projects in the book are shared on the author's website for this novel.

Fiction Audiobook

Finished April 30
The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood, Read by Hillary Huber
Mary Baxter is reeling from the recent death of her only child, Stella, of meningitis, at the age of five. She hasn't been going to work, or seeing friends or doing much of anything. Her mother, now living in Mexico, urges her to begin to knit to help with recovery. Mary joins a knitting circle in nearby Providence, Rhode Island, and as she learns knitting skills, she begins to connect with the people around her.
The book flows well, but I found that having everyone in the knitting circle recovering or dealing with some sort of trauma to be a bit much. Doesn't anyone who hasn't had to deal with this join the knitting circle? It was one sad story after another and after a while I became inured to them. Another thing that bothered me was Mary's work circumstances. She didn't go to work for a considerable time, but no one there seems to have been doing her job while she was gone, and there don't seem to be any economic repercussions for her.
The book does offer hope and recovery and the stories show a variety of circumstances.