Needles and Pearls

I was so glad to go back to Jo's world and see how she's coping a year out from her husband's death. She has such a warm and funny personality and she is so patient with her kids, even though they drive her batty at times. I liked that Jo was able to recognize what she really wants and be o.k. with it, even though she has people telling her she should want other things. As women we often buy into all the messages out there - "you should have a fabulous career", "you shouldn't waste yourself on that", etc. I like that Jo doesn't listen to those voices.

I picked up Needles and Pearls on my hunt for a novel with a gem in the title as part of the “What’s in a Name” challenge. (A pearl is a gem, yes?) And as a beginning knitter, I thought I would enjoy this.

The novel begins one year after the death of Jo’s cheating husband. When I first picked this up, I didn’t know it was the second novel in Gil McNeil’s Jo Mackenzie series. Being the second in the series, Ms. McNeil did a great job developing Needles and Pearls without leaving me feeling I was missing something. The story continues over the next few months of Jo’s life with many twists and surprises around each corner. What sets Jo apart is how she deals with these surprises.

Jo is quite the heroine. She is funny, charming, show more strong, but above all, she is full of grace. And if that’s not enough, she is so authentic, I fully expect to visit her shop and have tea with her on a future trip to England. I think it’s a challenge to write a character that is so real in spite of everything that has happened to her and that is exactly what Ms. McNeil has done.

Needles and Pearls is laugh out loud funny at times. It reads like a TV comedy about a shopkeeper in a small town coastal with quite a cast of zany characters. Some of those characters are quite famous, some are “common” folk, and there is even an authentic Lady thrown in for good measure. She has an overbearing mother, a loving grandmother, two spunky young sons, Britain’s most loved journalist as a best friend, a famous actress as a client, the boy next door as a love interest, and a crazy large dog named Trevor who wants to adopt her. Whew! Don’t even get me started on the shop ladies.

I enjoyed the friendship among the ladies, but more than anything I adored the promise of a romance between Martin (the boy next door) and Jo. I am pleased the author didn’t rush through their courtship. It was a refreshing change to see Jo think about what is best for her family instead of her own interests. It was also refreshing to see Martin give Jo the space and friend support she needed. He was a gentleman and I loved that about him.

Needles and Pearls didn’t temp me to pick up The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club to find out where it all began but I am looking forward to reading the third novel in this series Knit One, Pearl One.

Above all, I loved the sense of friendship embraced by the women involved. The “Stitch and Bitch” group was more than a casual place to go once a week. It was a place where the woman came together to gather comfort and strength from each other as well as knitting tips. The novel, like The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs, is a testament to friendship tightly woven with one knit and one purl at a time. show less

Jo Mackenzie, in this second novel, is an English widow with two young boys and a small but affably helpful (mostly) circle of friends and her 80-year-old grandmother. Jo runs a yarn shop, volunteers at her boys' school on various projects, is a paid knitting coach for Britain's #1 diva movie star, and somehow finds herself stumbling into a romance of sorts with a shy carpenter friend, while trying to grapple with the aftermath (emotional and biological) of a one-night fling with a famous photographer. This is a story about starting over, with knitting as a backdrop. It's a very civilized, charming story that knows to emphasize what is important in life, with quietly witty dialogue and chock-full of those English turns of phrase that I show more love. Especially satisfying are those rare moments when Jo's dander arises and she gets up the nerve to ever so gracefully and unmistakably tell off those few disagreeable sorts that roam the outer boundaries of her small circle. I hope the author will continue these books; I so want to see how life unfolds for Jo and her loved ones. And the books (three so far) are a quiet hoot. show less

"Needles and Pearls" continues the saga of Jo Mackenzie, widowed mother of two and proprietress of the finest seaside knit shop in England. All the characters from her previous novel "The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club" are again on the screen, with some changes; Ellen is now married, Martin is becoming less weird every day, Trevor the Wonder Dog is camping out in Jo's kitchen. But the big news is that Jo is...uh-oh. Seems a fling has left her with a bun in the oven.

Once again, McNeil has given us a novel without great insights to impart, but with her signature sweet/sharp dialogue. "Needles and Pearls" doesn't waste time with lyrical descriptions; it's all about the characters and the characters are talking all the time. show more Jo's boys Jack and Archie are such true to life little guys - they have that salty sweetness (with a bit of grittiness) that makes little boys so endearing. I liked that in this novel, Certain People (not saying who!) finally get told where to get off (or, as Jo puts it, "I finally got to tell ??? to 'piss off' without using the words 'piss off!'") If you're anything like me, you'll find that McNeil's characters become quite real to you - they display that nutty, complicated, gloriously mixed-up quality that real friends have - they drive you crazy, but when you need them, they are there ranging themselves staunchly at your back. show less

Read the first book in this series and enjoyed it. I think what charms me about this series is the total and unapologetic flavor of life it brings. I love the discussions and grumbles about what the children want for tea time, a big galumphing dog, crusty old ladies, snooty "Better than they aught to be's", women with spirit, people with heart. That it's set around a wool shop in a British sea town, is just fine with me. It's got no major start or stop, though both this and the first book cycled through a number of daily life events. Everything's not tidy at the end, but it's not like you're left really hanging either.

This book picks up where The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club (aka Divas Don't Knit) left off and show more undoubtedly, there's room for another novel. But it was fun to bump into the same characters and to carry on. show less

I have just finished this book and get to read and early review the next in the series, KNIT ONE PEARL TWO, and this book was even a better read then the first. Really you will enjoy these books even if you are a beginner(forever) knitter like I am. Jo and her family are fun and yet she goes into the trials and tribulations of any family unit trying to stay together in tough times. I would like to make more comment on the end of the book, it was so touching but would give too much of it away. Please read it and enjoy!

I really enjoyed this book. I haven't read many books written in present-tense, or that are written in a UK English dialect, but this one didn't disappoint. There were a few technical errors, but it's actually possible that they only seem wrong to me because the writing style is different?

I noticed lots of reviewers complaining about McNeil's language use. I didn't feel like it was excessive--the F-bomb was dropped a small handful of times. She did use the phrase "piss-off" quite a few times, and to her kids "bloody" was a bad word-and it was used several times a chapter at least, so I don't know if some of the reviewers are from the UK and that's why they were offended.

This story was exactly the kind that appeals to me-I felt I could show more relate to the main character--even if our circumstances are different it seemed like our personalities were very similar. And nothing extraordinary really happened in the book. There were no over the top romances, or thrilling mysteries to solve. It was just a glimpse into this fictitious woman's life.

On a side note, I am even more interested in learning to knit after having read about all the cute things everyone was making. show less