The Friday Night Knitting Club

By: Kate Jacobs

Narrated by: Carrington Macduffie

Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

The New York Times bestselling sensation that’s “Steel Magnolias set in Manhattan” (USA Today)

Once a week, an eclectic group of women comes together at a New York City yarn shop to work on their latest projects—and share the stories of their lives…

Walker & Daughter is Georgia Walker’s little yarn shop, tucked into a quiet storefront on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Its Friday night knitting club is improvised by some of Georgia’s regulars, who stroll into the shop looking for tips on knitting and end up finding much, much more. So now, once a week, they gather to work on their latest projects and to chat—and occasionally clash—over their stories of love, life, and everything in between.

However, unexpected changes soon throw these women’s lives into disarray, and the shop’s comfortable world gets shaken up like a snow globe. When the unthinkable happens, they realize that what they’ve created is not just a knitting club—it’s a sisterhood.

©2007 Kathleen Jacobs (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

• Nominee, 2008 Audie Award, Fiction

"Kate Jacobs' breezy first novel reads like Steel Magnolias set in Manhattan." (USA Today)
"[P]oignant twists propel the plot and help the pacing find a pleasant rhythm." (Publishers Weekly)

Waste of time

I agree with other reviewers who wondered how this book ever made it as a best seller. I guess for those who love the Danielle Steele genre it may be fine. I enjoy some "fluff" once in a while but this started off light,it was predictable and the depressing ending was not at all necessary.

I do not recommend this

The author has a decent grasp of language and seems to be fairly inventive. The reader is clear and precise, although doesn't do accents very well. The story lines were pretty much drivel, though, and the author didn't make me care about any of the characters as they plodded along.

Ending is overdone

Lots of characters you would forget about and 30% throught the book later come up- the ending at the very end, which needed to be more original, it was like so many other stories

Wanted to like it but constantly disappointed.

The best part of the book was the knitting stuff -- and I don't even knit.
The characters had potential, but the writing was hackneyed and vastly in need of editing ("said her blond friend" etc.). I'm always looking for books about groups of women, though, and kept listening even though I found myself shaking my head at almost every turn. And I'm not generally judgmental about what they call "chick-lit" but most of what I've read before (Sophie Kinsella, Jane Green, etc.) is well written.
I agree with the reviewer above who said the way it ended was unbelievable and difficult to take. I also had major issues with what passed for parenting skills in the book. (Spoiler alert: Who rewards their kid for running away with an instant trip to Scotland?)
The book actually left me depressed about the state of publishing instead of the fate of the characters.

So-so

I'm probably not even half-way through with this book but the characters seem fairly predictable and the story is so-so. I agree with another reviewer that Dakota seems like a much younger child than a 12 year-old. What grates on my nerves is the underlying and subtle liberal agenda that is the purpose of this book. I read books for entertainment - not as a vehicle for political opinions. After listening to this book for a while, I completely understand why Julia Roberts picked it for a movie.

On a last note, it's mildly entertaining although like another reviewer wrote, I'm really not invested in what happens to any of the characters.

Sad.

I rarely give up on a book. This one just drove me to throw it over and to look for something else. Honestly, I'm not sure how it got published in the first place. Have editors been decommissioned to the point that an entire book can be made up of trite cliche'd phrases?

I love to knit. I hate this book.

Yuck.

The narration wasn't real great. The characters weren't likable, except for the daughter, Dakota, possibly. I got the feeling the author has something against the idea of children born within a marriage and marriage in general. This book left me frowning in disappointment.

The Friday Night Knitting Club

The language was terrible. I was looking for a clean fiction and this came up as a recommendation. I threw the cds in the garbage.

Couldn't "get into" it.

What disappointed you about The Friday Night Knitting Club?

The beginning was so "dragged out" that I couldn't finish the book.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Don't know at this time.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment

Any additional comments?

When I came to a stopping place, I didn't feel an "urgency" to go back to it. It couldn't hold my interest.

This one should frogged.

I am a knitter, and it seeemed that a lot of other knitters liked this book. So I chose it, and boy, was it painful. HORRIBLY written, boring characters, incredibly cliche'ed stereotypes, and unrealistic stories. Georgia gives up a place at Dartmouth to stay with her friend, who then gets in and goes? No, this does NOT happen. What was she THINKING?
The narrator was awful too, but I'm not going to hold it against her. I wouldn't be able to read this drivel either.