Happy Easter Weekend.

Spring is in the air and it’s almost warm enough to hit the deck with a good book. Why not spend your Good Friday with one of these good Friday reads, which will be of particular interest to readers who are looking for suggestions for their book club or who enjoy stories which focus on the lives of women.

Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

Georgia Walker is a single mother and the owner of a yarn store in Manhattan. The knitting group of the book’s title is part of her business, but she and the regular group members also develop strong friendships, assisting each other, and particularly Georgia when her personal life takes an unexpected turn. The series is suggested for those who are fans of Jennifer Chiaverini‘s Elm Creek series.

Friday Nights by Joanna Trollope

Take away the knitting from the Jacobs book, and the plot of this book starts to seem a bit similar. A group of friends meet weekly on a Friday, sharing their stories and their lives. Another novel for readers who enjoy stories that focus on women’s friendships, from a popular British writer who has been compared to Maeve Binchy.

Friday Water by Linda Rogers

Written by a Canadian author and poet, a novel that examines issues of life and death. At the centre is Ariel, who is undergoing treatment for breast cancer, and who is distanced (in some cases physically, in other cases emotionally) from her closest family members. The Hamilton Spectator said that Friday Water is “a patient, painstaking and fearless novel …”

Friday Night at Silver Star by Patricia Henley

Another poet dipping into the world of prose writing, this time in short stories. This is an early attempt at fiction from a writer whose later works include that National Book Award finalist Hummingbird House. The stories in this collection are focused on character and description, more so than plot and action but they provide thoughtful insight into the human condition.