The Friday Night Knitting Club - Kate Jacobs

I had great notions about working through my stack of books this summer in an elegant, lazy fashion; imagine my lovely hammock, a long, cool drink, and casually reading another book every few days. Well, I've finished my first, but in quite different circumstances. Being sick in bed has had only one advantage: quality reading (and sleeping) time!

I saw The Friday Night Knitting Club (2007), by Kate Jacobs, in an airport bookshop earlier this year and added it to my 'to read' list. It's a classic tale of a group of women, who would normally have led very different lives, being brought together by a common interest, each seeking something different. One thing I like about crafts or other activities is the way they often seem to draw together an eclectic group of individuals, very much like the friends we have made through dancing. I hope to do the same thing with my yet-to-be-started ukulele orchestra.

Well-written, The Friday Night Book Club is an easy, pleasant read. It sometimes threatens to create caricatures of a few characters, but generally they are well-rounded, warm and believable. I will look forward to following up with the sequel, Knit Two (2008), which is set five years after the first story ends.