Gil McNeilKnit One Pearl One: A Beach Street Knitting Society Novel

This is a mostly light-hearted tale of a mom surviving the stresses and strains of motherhood, widowhood, and granddaughter-hood with humor and a community of intriguing eccentrics. It’s also a good reminder of acceptance and resiliency. Have your English colloquialism source handy to better understand every day language of British English. I really enjoyed it.

First, my frustration: As the third (and final) book in this series, I was sad when it ended, and I still had questions! Despite this, it was an easy read that I could put down and pick back up without feeling like I needed to re-read what had been happening.This book continues to follow Jo, her kids, the wool shop, and the people in and around their lives. There's plenty of laughs, a few annoyances and a surprise or two.I definitely enjoyed this book, however I felt like it didn't go as deep in to the personalities and relationships in compared to the book before this. There are a lot of ancillary characters that come and go throughout the books. In this book specifically, I felt I was trying to remember what friends are from what location and why we do or don't like them without any additional personality development, which was unfortunate.

As I enjoyed the first 2 books in the series very much, I expected to be just as happy with this one. Sadly, this is not the case. There didn't seem to be any actual plot to this one, and no additional development for any of the very interesting characters in the other books. Connie, Ellen, and Gran were all great characters that were just relegated to bit parts in this book.Jo takes on an unrealistic amount of work and numerous labor intensive projects, complaining about all of it constantly, unable to finish anything without lots of help from family and friends. She whines a lot, more than the kids do, which adds nothing to the story and is just plain annoying. As for Martin, he may as well be the hired help for all the respect Jo allows him. Honestly, how many guys would just hang out for a couple of years waiting to see if his chosen lady might decide that he's worthy of relationship with her? That's what bothered me the most, I think, that Jo was so shallow she couldn't decide if she was interested in Martin or not, and that he simply hung out waiting for her favor. Unrealistic, to say the least.The best part of this book is the children. The author knows how to portray kids in all their stages of growth, and writes wonderful dialogue for them. Pearl learning her words is seriously funny. The description of the walking bus is really great, as well as the kids' reactions to having their moms involved in it. All of the scenes involving the school are entertaining.I'm not sorry that I read this book as I did enjoy a lot of it. I am disappointed that there wasn't any real story development, and that the ending left everything unresolved. There doesn't seem to be a reason for another book, and that's a shame.

The Zen benefits of knitting (and crocheting) are timeless. Each generation rediscovers them and thinks they’ve found something new. One thing that is lovely to behold is a group of women with different languages sitting together knitting- the universal language. The characters in Gil’s novel are real 3 dimensional people- so much so that you can easily find yourself in one of her characters.

Worth reading but too much minutia before the plot appears. I loved the story but the day to day was too much.

This is a novel and I discovered it while searching for titles for a fellow knitter sidelined with a broken wrist.

Well written, a variety of characters, the main characters showed growth, and common sense, and absolutely hilarious -- he tutted

I’ve just finished reading the three books in the Beach Street knitting group of stories. Wow what a brilliant read, I’ve laughed out loud and commiserated at times, but had to keep on reading the whole three to the end. I loved them, brilliantly written and so interesting. If you haven’t read them I suggest you do and you won’t be disappointed.

Where's the next one? I would give this book 10* if that were possible. I cannot fault any of her books. (which should really be read in sequence before Knit one Pearl one)They inspire me to get out the knitting needles again, and, if I could I'd be pregnant, knitting and would own my own wool shop. Okay, so enough of the Pollyanna!! Jo is definitely not a Pollyanna - she is a very hard working, real woman with a very full life. She's caring and does over commit herself, yet she fulfills all her promises. Of course it helps having a Gran and a Conzia.Gil writes children into her books SO well! This time Pearl is a little star! She's a delight. Jack has his own problems and Archie likes to create problems for everyone else!I'd recommend this book, without hesitation, to anyone wanting an easy, hilarious, hopeful and inspirational read. So begin at the first in the series and ENJOY!

Absolutely loved this book. It follows on the lives of the people introduced in the previous 2 books. The story is compelling it covers life events, births, family and love. Love love loved it.

I liked this book very much. I have already read 'Diva's Don't knit' and enjoyed it and this was a worthy follow on. Witty, funny and thought provoking.

Although the book took a while to get into, I really enjoyed it as a light weight read. It was good catching up with the characters from the previous two books to see how there lives were all panning out. I hope there is another book or two to follow this so we can see how the lives continue.

I love these books, I am a keen knitter and relate to the heroine. This was a second hand book and claimed to be in good condition. It really wasn’t.