Customer Reviews

A Good Yarn (Blossom Street, No. 2)

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There's something so soothing about knitting - the sweet clicking of needles weaving yarn into items made with love. It's a very calming hobby and it's no wonder that the beloved craft has made a resurgence in popularity. So it makes perfect sense for best selling author Debbie Macomber to combine her love of knitting and writing as she takes her readers on a trip back to revisit the lovely little yarn shop on Blossom Street in her latest novel, "A Good Yarn."

Lydia Hoffman opened her shop, A Good Yarn, a year ago as a celebration in her life of overcoming cancer twice in her young life. The shop was met with great success, and Lydia had found contentment in her life as she taught her beloved knitting classes and renewed her friendship with her sister Margaret who came to work with her. She also found love with deliveryman Brad Goetz and they planned to be married one day soon.

But life has a way of throwing monkey-wrenches into the best lives, and Lydia soon finds herself dealing with heartache as Brad announces that he is back on speaking terms with his ex-wife. As Lydia reels from this crisis-of-the-heart, her sister Margaret is also dealing with problems in her own homelife, and their mother is beginning to experience declining health problems that keep both sisters busy dealing with her care. But as always, her optimism for life, her love for and of family and friends, and her knitting carry Lydia through this rough bump in her life.

Customers of Lydia's shop flock to her store to find the best yarns and advice on knitting, but they also find warmth and friendship among the threads. In interweaving stories, three new ladies join Lydia's sock knitting class, and although they are all from diverse backgrounds and ages, they soon find a connection to each other as they click their needles away.

Elise Beaumont has recently retired as a school librarian, but
finds her dreams of owning her own home dashed as a con-artist makes off with her investment money. Forced to move in with her daughter, Elise is dismayed when it is announced that her ex-husband, a gambler who had been out of her life for many years, would be paying the family an extended visit. Would their former affection for each other resurface, or would old wounds still be tender? Elise finds an escape in her knitting and joins the sock class as a way of avoiding the tense situations at home.

Bethanne Hamlin thought she had a perfect life - a wonderful husband, nice home, and great kids. Then her world was turned upside down when her husband leaves her for a younger woman, and the stay-at-home mom must learn to make ends meet. As her daughter rebels and the financial situation declines, Bethanne splurges on a knitting class as a way of saving a little of her sanity. As she becomes acquainted with the class, she finds not only friendship but encouragement to pursue her dreams.

It seemed unusual for a teenager to be enrolled in knitting classes, but Courtney Pulanski's grandmother thought it would be good for Courtney to try this new activity, in addition to the swimming classes with her senior citizens class. The young girl has come to live with her grandmother while her father is working out of the country, and is somewhat depressed and overweight. Courtney soon finds a sense of accomplishment in her knitting and is surprised to find that the swimming and a new hobby of bike-riding is actually helping her physical appearance as well. When she befriends Bethanne's daughter and son, life takes on a new dynamic that makes it more bearable than the teen could have imagined.

The ladies from Macomber's book, "The Shop on Blossom Street," make appearances at the shop, interacting with the new ladies and bringing a sense of continuity to the story that I personally hope will continue in future books. (hint, hint!)

"A Good Yarn" is a heart-warming book that evokes laughter and tears. Macomber is a wonderful storyteller with legions of fans both in the reading world and now in the knitting world. This book includes patterns for knitting socks and sage advice from knitting experts sprinkled throughout, tying the story together as neatly as knit one, purl one. Knitters and lovers of women's fiction will find a treasure in among the stitches of this tale.

Sharon Galligar Chance
Wichita Falls Times Record News

This book just left right off and I couldn't have been more pleased. Truly money well spent on such a wonderful story about friendships, love, and family. Although once again you can guess for the most part what is going to happen, there are a few surprises.

This book tells us what is going on with Lydia and Brad, a little bit about our first three friends and of course Margaret. This book deals quite a bit more about Margaret in fact. The sisterly bond strengthens and parents get older.

We also meet three new people, whom of course become the best of friends, all the while dealing with life's curve balls.

Enjoy!

Debbie Macomber is one my favorite authors. No one can write about women, for women better (in my opinion!!). A GOOD YARN is no different from any of her other books on this subject. It's not her best novel (BETWEEN FRIENDS has that honor!), but it's certainly a pleasant read, and would make the perfect "beach companion" or poolside read this summer.

The book is a sequel (or follow-up) to last year's SHOP ON BLOSSOM STREET, with the story revolving aroud the main character and shop's owner, Lydia. This year's knitting class teaches us how to make a pair of socks (an actual pattern is included inside the book), while Lydia meets and becomes friends with a new group of three women. The three characters from last year's book (students from her first knitting class) make "cameo" appearances, but the story focuses on Lydia and her three new students.

Written from the point of view of all four characters, the chapters once again alternate between narrators (which is actually typical for a Debbie Macomber novel). While this can become confusing or even a nuisance under the pen of other writers, Debbie Macomber does it flawlessly and effortlessly, so that readers get to know each character on an intimate level, and can actually see themselves becoming with friends with one or all of all of the book's main characters.

Lydia is the shop owner and the one who brings these women together (through her knitting classes which she offers at her shop). After battling illness for most of her life, she's given a clean bill of health and finally found, what she believes is true love with Brad (the handsome UPS guy!) and has made a connection with & become much closer to her sister, whom she has battled with for nearly as long as she's battled her illness.

Bethane is a recently divorced mother of two, who is learning how to live life on her own, discovering who she is, and what it is she can offer to those around her, all the while trying to deal with the emotional roller coster her children are on due to the divorce. Elise is also divorced, whose gambling ex-husband comes to town to re-accquaint himself with their now grown and married daughter, while trying to mend the fences with the one & only woman he's ever really truly loved. Courtney is a teen-aged girl who is new in town and has recently come to stay with her grandmother. After losing her mother in a car accident, her father to his work, and her siblings to marriage, Courtney must deal with a new school, making new friends, and all the other trials & tribulations that all teens go through, all without the guidance of a parent close by to lead the way. Each character has their own individual story to tell, while at the same time, we see how their paths cross and how each affects one another's life and help each other along.

The stories are fairly predictable, yet the familarity of each character with their trimumphs and tragedies makes this a comfortable, enjoyable read that most readers will certainly identify with and feel like one of the friends in the book. I'm sure many will be wishing that a similar shop existed in their own neighborhood!

My only "negative" thought about this book, and the reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5, is that I felt the characters & stories were too similar and parallel to the characters & stories of last year's SHOP ON BLOSSOM STREET. While most of Debie Macomber's books have a familar feeling to them, since most deal with the friendships of women and are often told in a similar way, I'd prefer to meet new charcters with new stories and go on a new journey. It didn't make this book any less enjoyable, it just left me with a feeling of "been there, done that."

I still think Debbie Macomber is one of the best authors of women's fiction today, and her stories and characters feel very real with many true-to-life experiences. If you enjoy stories about the love of friends and family with a little romance thrown in, you're certain to enjoy any one of Debbie Macomber's HC releases.

You don't have to have read SHOP ON BLOSSOM STREET to enjoy this book, but it will certainly help fill in some of the blanks. Once you've finished this book, if you're left wanting more, I highly recommend BETWEEN FRIENDS, which was written by Debbie Macomber and released about two years ago - it remains one of my favorite books of all time!

What a sweet and delightful novel this one is. Very romantic, full of love and generosity....as well as the women in the knitting class. Debbie Macomber has given us a delightful read. One in which i did not want to put down
also read: Full Bloom by Janet Evanovich and the hot-Fire In The Ice by Katlyn Stewart

This novel kept me up all night last night! Debbie Macomber teases you into reading just one more page all the way through, so don't start it until you have time to read it all at once! And now that I am done I feel like the characters are real people.

I think anyone who reads this book is going to walk into the first yarn store they see and ask to have a class like the characters in the book do. The only thing missing for me was that no men were knitting. Sometimes it seemed like the author was about to have a man or boy knit but she never did.

I learned to knit socks on two circular needles three years ago from Cat Bordhi's excellent book, Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles. A Good Yarn starts right out with a sock pattern by Nancy Bush (she is the matriarch of sock knitting books!) done on double pointed needles, and then the same pattern is given again by Cat Bordhi for two circular needles. The story is about a group of women who learn to knit socks as taught in Cat's book and so I felt like I was right in the room with them, because I knew exactly what they were knitting!

This second knitting novel by Debbie Macomber (the first is Blossom Street) is a wonderful gift for any knitter or even for any woman who appreciates true friends. There's a bunch of knitting novels now, from mysteries to Debbie's wonderful books. I read Knitting: a Novel recently and it is very good too, but not as easy to follow as this one. Cat Bordhi also wrote a novel that has sock knitting in it and even tree house knitting (no kidding). The book is called Treasure Forest. It kept me up all night too turning the next page until the very end.

A Good Yarn is the story of Lydia, the owner of a small yarn store in downtown Seattle. The book starts off where I'm assuming "A Shop On Bloom Street" finished. Although, I didn't read this book and can not say for sure. Lydia has overcome a lot of problems in her life and finds happiness and joy in working in her store with her sister.

The story unfolds with Lydia starting a sock class. The students that join are all in different places in their life and are so diverse that Lydia worries the class will never become friendly. There is the young over weight high school student, a divorced librarian who has lost all of her money in a scam, and a newly divorced single mother of two who is trying to find not only her self, but also some semblance of life after marriage.

A Good Yarn is an uplifting story of female triumph and power. I found the story to be slow to start, but once it got going I was very into it. A lovely story!

I have to admit I was not sure how I would enjoy this story. I found the characters to be quite interesting and real. The way she had the chapters change to the telling of one of the four main characters went quite smoothly. What made it interesting in this style is that though the chapters might be dedicated to a particular character, it was the same story just in parallel of what the other characters are doing at the time.
Definitely worth picking up to read.

It's a warm and wonderful story of four lonely woman of various ages at crossroads in their lives, who have nothing in common except a knitting class that they each reluctantly joined. They never expected to find such strong soulmate-like bonds of sisterhood with their classmates, and the support to work through their personal issues and feel whole again. With well-written dialogues and excellent characterizations, Debbie Macomber draws the reader into an emotional connection with this clique, as though we are a member of the group ourselves. I certainly wish A Good Yarn was a shop in my community where I could go to learn to knit and forge lifelong friendships with such compassionate woman!

A good sequal to The Shop on Blossom Street Lydia has a new class of making socks and her relationship with Brad hits a wall when Brad's ex returns. We learn more about her sister Margaret and her mother and meet a new group of women from different backgrounds. There's Courtney who just moved to town to live with her grandmother for her senior year while her dad's in Brazil. Bethanne who's husband recently left her for another woman and struggling to pick up the pieces of her life and her two children's. And Elise who after some bad investment moves in with her daughter when her ex-husband returns and true to normal it goes through one year of their lives. Elise seemed to hold on to her bitter with her ex-husband and Bethanne probably should have gotten herself together soon but both of them and Courtney's stories were very realtistic the only one that was a little difficult to believe was Lydia taking Brad back after he dumped her because he felt he should work things out with his ex I think she forgave him way to fast but other then that a very good book.

I love all of Debbie's books - they are sweet, and there are almost always happy endings. There isn't gratuitious sex or violence, and while most of the characters lead charmed lives, in that everything turns out for the best for them, it doesn't detract from the books' essential appeal. Haven't we all wished that our problems would be neatly resolved in 200 pages or less? While not a fan of romances in general, I like this author's books, because they are a nice blend of life as it is, and life as we wish it would be. I also like the way friendships among women are portrayed. They have real sustainable connections to each other, and are a great support system, and a great comfort to each other. Real life isn't always like that; these women aren't competing with each other, they aren't pulling the rug out from under each other, they are rooting for each other. That's how friends ought to be. The books are idealized versions of reality, but these days, we all need a good fairy tale to cuddle up with. The characters remind us of people we have known, and the dialogue, while not sparkling or brilliant, is good. She has an eye and ear for what makes a character real, and they are living, breathing companions in your fictional travels. I enjoy the serial aspect of the Cedar Cove books; they go on, life goes on, and in every book you meet old friends and acquaintances again, and you catch up on their lives. It was nice to meet Lydia and her sister again, and to meet the new group in the knitting class. I hope there are many more sequels in this series. It's easy to care about these characters, and you want to know what happens to them, and you really do want them to be happy. These books are as comfortable as an old shoe, and just perfect for a read on a rainy day. Or a sunny day. Or a snowy day. And if you have a generator, they would be perfect for the middle of any tropical island you happen to be stranded on. These books are easy to figure out; they won't tax your brain. You pretty much can guess where they are all going, since there are a lot of cliches and stock situations, but it doesn't make them any less enjoyable. I gave up romances at the jaded age of 14, but Macomber's tales captivated me, which really surprised me. I don't even remember which book I read first, or how I happened to come upon it. It must have been one of the Xmas books in a seasonal display at the library last year. After that one book, I wanted to read more. They remind me a lot of the Miss Read, Jan Karon, and D.E. Stevenson books: nothing much happens but life, and that's what makes them so endearing, and so lovable. Pull up a chair, put away your life, and read for awhile. In a skilled writer's hands, the ordinary becomes extraordinary, and a rose blooms in every corner.