Customer Reviews

The Shop on Blossom Street (Blossom Street, No. 1)

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

With a renewed interest in knitting on my part, and having enjoyed several books by Debbie Macomber in the past, I recently read and enjoyed The Shop on Blossom Street. And whether you're an old time knitter or this is your first time learning to cast on and purl, I do recommend you read a book which blends a hobby with personal friendships.

The Shop on Blossom Street books tells the story of a young woman and cancer survivor who opens a knitting store. Offering knitting classes to attract customers, three women come to the shop to learn how to make a baby blanket. But these three women couldn't be more different or come to the classes for different reasons which don't necessarily include learning how to knit. And we as readers watch as these three women learn the stitches, watch their baby blankets take shape, and find themselves learning more about each other, helping each other with their projects and influencing each other's lives. By the end of the book we find them forming lasting friendships and we know we won't soon forget these knitters.

Similar to the premise of Debbie Macomber's book, Thursdays at Eight which I really enjoyed, The Shop on Blossom Street while somehwat perdictable was a good journey and satisfying destination. The best part is that the sequel, A Good Yarn, was recently published and I look forward to reading this shortly.

Obie Award winner and Tony nominee Linda Emond gives a light and sympathetic reading to this story of a group of four women who share a love for knitting and a determination to overcome obstacles.

Lydia Hoffman has overcome cancer and now she realizes a dream by opening a shop in Seattle called A Good Yarn. It's a comfortable, homey place that offers knitting supplies and patterns. Before long it also houses a knitting class. The first lesson? A baby blanket.

Jacqueline Donovan comes to the class hopefully. Her marriage has soured into a sometimes amicable, lots of space between each other arrangement. The blanket is for her daughter-in-law, the young woman who married her only son. Jacqueline doesn't care for her at all. Can a baby blanket cover those feelings?

Another woman comes to class who also has thoughts of a baby - Carol Girard and her spouse are making one more try for a child with in vitro pregnancy. Alix Townsend is almost the antithesis of Carol, reluctantly knitting her blanket as part of her community service project.

What a disparate, interesting quartet! Easy, relaxing listening.

- Gail Cooke

Lydia Hoffman has defeated cancer twice. To celebrate life, Lydia opens A Good Yarn, a knitting supplies store in Seattle. She also teaches a class on knitting. The first lesson is "How to Knit a Baby Blanket".

Jacqueline Donovan reacts poorly to her son's news that she is to be a grandmother for the first time. She does not like her daughter-in-law Tammie Lee. Maybe her bitterness is because she knows her marriage to Reese, a partner in an architectural firm, is dying. She must make amends with her son Paul so she joins A Good Yarn knitting class.

Desperate to become pregnant, Carol Girard joins the class seeking hope that her and her husband Doug's final attempt with in vitro pregnancy succeeds. This is her last chance to have the child she craves.

The court ordered Alix Townsend to do community service as part of her sentencing. She decides that knitting for the Linus Project should satisfy her case worker. However, she needs to first learn to knit so she joins the class too.

This four diverse women bond in friendship and love as they work on the baby blanket. Though their individual dreams may not be answered, a group dream forges as each learns the meaning of life.

THE SHOP ON BLOSSOM STREET is a fabulous deep character study that rotates the narration between the women so that the audience has four subplots that cleverly knit together into a powerful look at the ups and downs of modern day living. Though not all dreams are fulfilled and some change for instance to cooking, fans will enjoy Debbie Macomber's strong tale of four females struggling to overcome different setbacks.

Harriet Klausner

In this latest "gal pal" book, Debbie Macomber creates four very different characters. Lydia Hoffman is a two-time cancer survivor who decides to open a Yarn Shop as a symbol of her new life. Jacqueline Donovan joins Lydia's beginning knitting class, but has a hard time fitting in with some of the other women, due to her haughty and superior attitude. Carol Girard is a woman who is desparate to have a baby and she thinks that if she joins the knitting class and makes a baby blanket, that will be a good omen for her goal of motherhood. Alix Townsend seems like a real misfit when she joins the group. She is a tough young woman who has grown up on the streets and she is particularly prickly with the aristocratic Jacqueline. As usual, Debbie Macomber mixes these disparate characters together and somehow manages to "knit" them together in a lasting friendship. This is an enjoyable and easy read.

This is the first book by Debbie Macomber I have read. In fact,until a month ago I had never heard of her. Now I find she has a website and seems to be quite involved with her many fans. In fact, for her book tour to promote this book she is doing signings at yarn shops and inviting her fans to knit a square while there to be joined together and assembled into blankets and donated to charities. I was more impressed with THAT than the actual book!

Not to say this isn't a decent story. It was a fun, fast read. I have been reading every book of knitting stories I can lay my hands on, and when I came across a novel on the topic, I thought I'd give it a try. Since I live in the Pacific Northwest and am familiar with Seattle, it was easy to visualize a lot of the background presented in the story. However, I thought the writing a little shallow and I kept wishing for a bit more depth of the characters as I read. I wanted more about the knitting and the goings on at the yarn shop than the outside lives of the three women who came to learn to knit. Some threads got dropped like lost stitches off knitting needles!

I do see there is room for a sequel to this book, as the yarn shop owner could become involved with a new group of knitting students and that could become an even better read than this one was.

Now, having said all that, I still intend to go to the book signing event in mid-May to do my little part in completing a part of one of the blankets. I absolutely LOVE the idea of this type of book tour. I hope it sparks more authors to come up with fresh ideas to not only promote their books, meet their fans, create a little more community, AND do something good for local organizations.

This was the first book by Debbie Macomber that I've read and I enjoyed it. I had it finished in two days and plan on starting the sequel, A Good Yarn.

The story begins with Lydia, a two-time cancer survivor who decides to open a yarn store and offer knitting classes. Because of the class, she meets Jacqueline, Alix and Carol.

Lydia is just trying to get through each day and finds her store a comfort. After battling a brain tumor for the second time, she just wants her life back and some normalcy. She has a strained relationship with her sister, Margaret, who always felt she was cheated out of her parent's attention because of the time they spent with Lydia while she was sick. During the story, Margaret has her own cancer scare, and begins to see and understand what Lydia has been dealing with since she was 16. Because of this, they are able to repair their relationship.

Jacqueline is the wife of a contractor and belongs to the country club. She is upset because she feels her only child, Paul, has married beneath him. Tammie Lee is from the south and everything she says and does grates on Jacqueline. Then she finds out Tammie Lee is pregnant and thinks it's just to keep her son. Her relationship with her husband is non-existent. She's very judgmental and opinionated. She joins Lydia's knitting class to make a baby blanket for her grandchild.

Carol is trying to get pregnant. She has run out of chances and desperately wants a baby. When she sees Lydia offering the class on baby blankets, she sees it as a sign that she will have a child.

Alix is from a troubled home. She doesn't have any contact with her father and her mother is in jail. It's hard for her to let anyone get close to her. Her goal is to attend cooking school and someday have her own catering business. She runs into a childhood friend, Jordan, and cautiously begins a relationship with him.

Joining this class changes the lives of all the women. When these women meet for the first time, it's hard to see how they will become friends, but they do. It's wonderful to see how they learn to trust and turn to each other. Over time, Jacqueline realizes that Tammie Lee isn't so bad and she befriends Alix. It's nice to see Lydia and Margaret get along. Lydia begins to see her UPS delivery man.

The story is realistic and interesting. I had a hard time putting it down. If all of Debbie Macomber's books are this good, I've found myself a new author to enjoy! I highly recommend this one to anyone.

When she opens a yarn and knitting shop on Blossom Street, cancer survivor Lydia Hoffman doesn't know what to expect. She has enough money to run the shop for a while, but will she bring in customers? Or is she simply wasting her time and creating a burden on her mother, as her sister hints? It doesn't take too long before Lydia's beginning knitting class starts up with three very different women. Jacqueline Donovan is a wealthy snob, contemptuous of her daughter-in-law and angry with her husband for having an affair. Alix Townsend is planning on working off the community service time she earned for having drugs in her purse (they belonged to her roommate). Carol Girard is obsessed with having a baby--no matter what the financial, emotional, or ethical costs. Despite their differences and initial conflict, the four women forge a bond, gradually growing together.

At first, the women seem to share only two things--their knitting and an unhealthy self-obsession. By working together, each becomes free to break out from their self-imposed boundaries and to see how their self-destructive behavior was a choice rather than something imposed on them from the outside.

Author Debbie Macomber specializes in strongly written stories of women coming together for support and growth. THE SHOP ON BLOSSOM STREET is a strong entry into this category. Although all four women may initially put readers off, their growing strength as they finally face their problems and seize their power makes them sympathetic and even heroic. The love interests are possibly a bit too perfect, but this is a romance after all and who needs a romantic fantasy about a realistic male.

This is a heartwarming book about four very different women who come together in a knitting class. It is classic Debbie Macomber, a compelling story that gives the reader hope for the future as each woman comes to terms with her lot in life, finds the gumption to succeed -- no matter what her aspirations -- and learns to understand and appreciate the people around her. I'd love to see the story go on to the women in the next class. I loved it!

A friend of mine gave me this book and how I enjoyed the story. I could not put it down. I had to find out what was going to happen to each knitter. All their lives were so different, yet they shared the common thread-knitting. What a great way to put a hobby into a story. Knitting and sewing groups are very much like this story, in that a person gains friendships. I plan to read the next book "A Good Yarn".

My mother-in-law read this in her book club and was immediately thinking of me in connection to the character that suffers with fertility. She and her book club spent months learning to knit the baby blanket described in the book and then sent it to me as a gift along with a copy of the book. I was astounded that this group of women (most of whom I have never met)were so inspired by a book that they learned to knit me a baby blanket. I read it in one sitting. It's a very light, pleasant read. While not intellectually stimulating, I still enjoyed the characters and their developing relationships.