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Five Valentine’s Day Treats
In my first post for MDK, one person commented asking for book recommendations. Since February is universally the time when romance is the spotlight, I figured why not share some recs with fiber arts connections, big and small.
These books—all written by writers I admire—are like love letters to the reader: alternately charming, sexy, sweet, entertaining, emotional, uplifting, tender, inspiring, and just plain fun.
Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson
Love this series! The premise: four brothers struggle to keep their foster-turned-adoptive mother’s local yarn shop in Harlem open after her passing. In addition to family drama, romance ensues.
In Real Men Knit (book 1), Jesse, the youngest brother who’s a known heartbreaker, sees part-time LYS employee Kerry through new eyes. In Knot Again (book 2), Lucas, the firefighter brother, stars in an FDNY charity calendar, inadvertently becomes a local celebrity, and seeks relative anonymity in a laundromat, where he reconnects with his high school crush, Sydney, a divorced mom who is making a new path for herself and her daughter.
This fun series is also a beautiful tribute to the LYS community, to family, and to the places and people we call home. Author Kwana Jackson is a knitter, sewer, crocheter, and native New Yorker who signed romance novels at Rhinebeck. Learn more about her work here.
Belle and the Beau by Beverly Jenkins
A YA Black historical romance novel by the trailblazing author whose work inspired my graduate research. Beverly Jenkins is unparalleled in researching and bringing to life what she calls the cultural quilt of American history. And she’s unmatched in writing literally pitch perfect historical romance that gives deeper meaning to the genre.
I have a soft spot for this book as it was the very first Jenkins book I read as a tween. Sixteen-year-old heroine Belle Palmer escapes slavery and finds safety, a new life, and romance with a family of Underground Railroad conductors in 1850s Michigan who are fighting the Fugitive Slave Act.
Belle is a brilliant seamstress whose skills help her establish her independence in freedom—a very real historical scenario for Black women during and after slavery. Like this teen title, Jenkins’s more than 30 adult historical romances are all historically based with kick-ass heroines, including a Revolutionary War spy in 1770s Boston (Midnight), a seamstress who becomes mayor and falls in love with a train robber in 1880s Kansas (Something Like Love), and more.
Though especially known for her westerns, Jenkins has written romances set in locales from Savannah to San Francisco. Learn more about Jenkins and her oeuvre here and here in her oral history with the Black Romance podcast.
By Her Own Design: A Novel of Ann Lowe, Fashion Designer to the Social Register by Piper Huguley
This novel is about the historical figure Ann Lowe, the expert fashion designer and Black woman who made Jackie Kennedy’s wedding dress, and whose sewing skills empowered her through a challenging life. This is biographical historical fiction, not romance, though Huguley, a college English professor, has written romance, too.
Huguley has an exceptional ability to imagine life from inside the perspective of historical figures. Lowe, the daughter and granddaughter of the most talented seamstresses in Alabama (one of whom, her grandmother, was enslaved), became couturier to high society in the 1920s-1960s. She faced obstacles ranging from the personal to the professional (including that less than a week before Jacqueline Bouvier’s wedding, a pipe burst in Lowe’s shop and destroyed ten dresses, including Bouvier’s wedding dress, which Lowe and her seamstresses then recreated).
This book is a powerful rendering of Lowe’s life and the bitter/sweet realities of history, as MDK’s Ann Shayne wrote here.
Wolf Rain by Nalini Singh
The heroine is a knitter and it’s part of how she makes it through some tough times. Knitting doesn’t play a major role but this is hands down one of my favorite series and books.
The slightly post-apocalyptic, paranormal world Singh’s created in the Psy-Changeling world is so compelling in how like and unlike it is from ours—imperiled and on the verge of breaking apart, yet also held together by fierce strands of love, loyalty, and hope. (Sorry if that’s sappy but it’s true!).
Acclaimed romance/thriller writer and crocheter Alyssa Cole did a deep dive on this book and why she loves it on the Shelf Love podcast. Wolf Rain is book 3 of the Psy-Changeling Trinity series, the second “season” of a delightfully long and still running series (it’s book 18 overall).
Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun, and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes
Ok, not technically a knitting book but in my defense, Shonda describes herself as always “spinning tall tales, knitting yarns made of stories.” Regardless this is one of the best and most empowering audiobooks I’ve listened to, period.
It is a funny, feel-good, uplifting, and fascinatingly relatable look inside the life of one of the most impactful romance storytellers in media and her life lessons. It’s like a knitting project on which you keep saying “just one more row.” Two friends of mine (one an academic and a knitter, the other a pediatric oncologist) do annual re-reads of this. The fact that Shonda narrates the audiobook herself—and includes the full text of her 2014 Dartmouth commencement address (also incredibly empowering and you should listen to it now)—is just the icing on the cake.
There’s always a lot going on at MDK—check the homepage for the latest.
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Thank you so much for this Jeania! Exactly what I need these days – interesting, uplifting and maybe a bit escapist reading! I’m so looking forward to some of these books. Happy Valentine’s Day to you!
Excellent list!
I do so love your columns. And what an interesting academic subject matter! As a relative local, and fellow Eli I would love to know where you knit in New Haven and whether you ever would consider hosting a meet up!
Once upon a time in the 80s there was a lovely LYS on Chapel near Park…
Thank you for filling up my TBR list!
My two passions: knitting and reading. Thank you for the recommendations. I shall search them out.
Thank you, Jeania. Every one of these books sounds great!
Thank you for these recommendations! They all look so interesting. Definitely checking availability at my library and then hitting up a bookstore for the rest.
Thank-you Jeania! Happy Valentine’s Day!
Thanks for the recommendations, and Happy Valentines Day!
These look great! I will add them to my list!
That you would take time out of your huge load working on your doctorate to write this recommendations for us is a gift! Thank you! They look fine and I will search the list of audio availabilities on our local library list so I can listen to them while I knit.
The list I didn’t know I needed! Thank you…
Thanks for this. I read Rhimes’ book probably 5 years ago now but may be time for a re-read. Adding the rest of these to my TBR list. It’s been too long since I dug in to a good book!
I love this list and your dissertation subject sounds really interesting!
Thank you! Immediately putting these on my to-read list 🙂
Great recommendations! I am most impressed by your PhD dissertation!
Thanks so much for highlighting these great titles! I’ve loaded up my library cart!
These reviews are very helpful.
I’ve added all these to my TBR list. Thank you for your suggestions.
Thank you for this list! I started with Shonda Rhimes’s Just Say Yes and it is so good. Looking forward to reading the rest of your recommendations.
Thanks for the recommendations! I just started the Real Men Knit book and loving it already! Can’t wait to work my way through your recommendations!
Oh, Jeania…what have you done? Our bookshelves are full to bursting and we have piles of books without shelf space to hold them. And now you’ve given me more “must read” books to add to the piles. Thank you!! They all sound so good and interesting that I’m going to have to flip a coin to figure out where to start. I’m always on the lookout for new books, so you started my day with a smile and a YAY!! Thanks again. And I wish you well as your doctorate work continues. Such an interesting topic!! ❤️
What a wonderful list. I am about to discover some new to me authors. Thank you!
Great list. I have read Kwana Jackson and some of the Beverly Jenkins novels so know I will enjoy the rest of your list. I LOVE your dissertation topic. I started reading romance novels while working on my dissertation to get a respite from the Stalinist period. Its great you can combine the two — the PhD and romances! Good luck finishing and I can’t wait to read your research! Thanks again for the book tips.
Thanks for the list! Please sneak in book recommendations whenever you can.
The historical YA fiction is just what I was looking for- thank you!
Thank you for sharing these titles! I’ve already looked for these books in Libby and Hoopla. I will also trudge through snow to my local bookstore to pick up a couple.
I very much enjoyed the Real Men Knit books. Hoping the other two brothers’ stories will be published soon. Would also be cool to have a prequel book focused on their late mom and how she started the yarn store.