The Knitting Circle: A Novel
by Ann Hood
|
|
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of The Knitting Circle: A Novel.
discuss this book
friend reviews (0)
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
lists with this book
This book is not in any lists. Go add it to a list.
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 882)
Read in May, 2008
recommended to Jo by:
The library's search engine when I looked up 'knitting' & this brecommends it for: Women who've been through some tough stuff, knitters & nonknitters
I tend to shy away from books w/this type of subject matter (losing children) but for some reason, when I accidentally came across this book in a 'knitting' search at the library, I didn't shy away from it and I'm glad. Like the author Ann Hood, I too lost my daughter, though under very different circumstances and before Brianna was born. Ann's daughter Grace died suddenly at the too young age of 5.
I had a very difficult time getting into the book though. I wasn't feeling any connection w...more
I had a very difficult time getting into the book though. I wasn't feeling any connection w...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in March, 2007
Expert Craftsmanship
I enjoyed every minute spent reading The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood. Knitting is far more than just a device in this well-crafted tale. It provides the warmth and the intimacy, and is the central focus for a group of people (mostly women) who are in various stages of emotional distress.
The writing is straightforward and easy to read, and I can't offer enough praise about the expert craftsmanship used to propel the story. It's as though the author follo...more
I enjoyed every minute spent reading The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood. Knitting is far more than just a device in this well-crafted tale. It provides the warmth and the intimacy, and is the central focus for a group of people (mostly women) who are in various stages of emotional distress.
The writing is straightforward and easy to read, and I can't offer enough praise about the expert craftsmanship used to propel the story. It's as though the author follo...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in May, 2008
This was both a difficult and easy book. Difficult because of the subject matter, and easy only because I wanted to learn whether there was any relief, any easing of the pain of loss. Although, the losses were varied, the pain and grief was much the same. Woven throughout the story was the common bond that all the women and men had through the comfort the were able to feel from knitting. This novel is very different from all the other knitting linked novels I have enjoyed. It was like the w...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in February, 2007
Consider this the third in a series of books that I wouldn’t suggest reading while pregnant.
The Knitting Circle is about grief more than it’s about yarn. We meet a circle of knitters and over the course of the book, we learn their tragic tales. And they are all tragic. Most deal with the loss of children.
It took me a long time to read the book because I knew every time I picked it up, I was going to read something sad. But it was well-written, albeit grandiose at times. Maybe ...more
The Knitting Circle is about grief more than it’s about yarn. We meet a circle of knitters and over the course of the book, we learn their tragic tales. And they are all tragic. Most deal with the loss of children.
It took me a long time to read the book because I knew every time I picked it up, I was going to read something sad. But it was well-written, albeit grandiose at times. Maybe ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2008
Very readable, could hardly put it down, and because of my current insomnia, I read it in about 2 days. But this is such an intensely depressing book.
Ann Hood is a fantastic writer and I love other things I have read by her, but this book just felt a bit too much like a (necessary) part of her recovery from grief, rather than the quality of storytelling that I know she's capable of. Knowing that it is semi-autobiographical made the details all the more painful, but also left me disappointe...more
Ann Hood is a fantastic writer and I love other things I have read by her, but this book just felt a bit too much like a (necessary) part of her recovery from grief, rather than the quality of storytelling that I know she's capable of. Knowing that it is semi-autobiographical made the details all the more painful, but also left me disappointe...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in July, 2008
I finished this book in just a couple of hours which is good sometimes! I really like this book for the most part. I read it in a sad state of mind which I wish I wouldn't do, but always manage too.
It is a story about how Mary, the main character deals with the death of her daughter and her interactions with others during this painful time. Her marriage falls apart via deep sadness, neglect and infidelity and most of her well-meaning friends, mother and co-workers slip away also.
But s...more
It is a story about how Mary, the main character deals with the death of her daughter and her interactions with others during this painful time. Her marriage falls apart via deep sadness, neglect and infidelity and most of her well-meaning friends, mother and co-workers slip away also.
But s...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
all
Like Ann Hood’s previous novels, she creates memorable and complete characters. But, unlike her other books, this one explores more of a dark side…the death of a child. Most of Hood’s works have been about moving on…from relationships, from the past, etc. But, moving on from the death of a child is a pretty impossible task. And I think that Hood really proves that here. After all, she is writing from experience…she lost a child several years ago. So, the main character of Mary in The K...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Knitters and mothers beware -- if you start reading this book, you will not be able to put it down until you've devoured every word. Mary is left reeling in the wake of the death of her five-year-old daughter. At the urging of her mother, she starts to knit, and puts her life back together, one stitch at a time.
Along the way she encounters a group of women at the local knitting circle, each with a story of her own to tell. Gradually, Mary learns that she's not the only one with a tragic sto...more
Along the way she encounters a group of women at the local knitting circle, each with a story of her own to tell. Gradually, Mary learns that she's not the only one with a tragic sto...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
How one book can be depressing and inspirational at the same time, I don’t know, but Ann Hood’s semi-autobiographical tale definately fit into those two categories.
The pace of the book was very even, the transitions from scene to scene, character to character, story to story was very smooth and fluid. Its an incredibly quick read. I started it on my lunch hour yesterday, and stayed up until midnight to finish it.
The quick plot summary is that mother Mary Baxter lost her 5 year old da...more
The pace of the book was very even, the transitions from scene to scene, character to character, story to story was very smooth and fluid. Its an incredibly quick read. I started it on my lunch hour yesterday, and stayed up until midnight to finish it.
The quick plot summary is that mother Mary Baxter lost her 5 year old da...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in July, 2008
This book definitely made me cry at times...it's a very tragic book, but I like how real it truly is. Without ruining any of the book, I'll just say that there are happy and sad resolutions to life's issues scattered throughout the book. I do believe this is an ultimately uplifting book, though, about community and support and love. I really enjoyed (if that's a good word for it) reading all of the women's histories, although I did at times find it slightly annoying that I couldn't always rem...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
a reader looking for an easy-to-read piece. someone who needs a good cry. anyone who needs a hug.
I picked this book up on a whim (and a Borders 30% off coupon). I had a stack of serious, literary, profound books in a pile, and yet this little book called out to me. Right there in the store, I read the first twenty-five pages, and I wanted to continue to read. So, like as many skeins of yarn, I took it home.
It sat on my shelf about a week, waiting for me to finish The Confederacy of Dunces. Then today after lunch, I picked it up again. A couple hours later, I was wrapped up in th...more
It sat on my shelf about a week, waiting for me to finish The Confederacy of Dunces. Then today after lunch, I picked it up again. A couple hours later, I was wrapped up in th...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in April, 2007
The Knitting Circle is an amazing story of great love and of equally great loss, and of one woman's climb from literally the end of her rope back to a place where hope still exists. I came to love each and every one of the characters in this story as their storylines were further developed, and their secrets and struggles were revealed. I promise that if you read this, you WILL want to go out and learn how to knit!!
Anne Hood is a friend of my mother's from college! She is from Rhode Island ...more
Anne Hood is a friend of my mother's from college! She is from Rhode Island ...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in January, 2008
A bit sappy and unrealistic. Also, the author has problems with time.
1. It is impossible to have your 25th wedding anniversary in November and, three weeks later in December, lose your son and daughter-in-law in the September 11th terrorist attacks.
2. You cannot, especially if you are a beginning knitter, knit the top six inches of a sock and turn the heel on size 1 needles during a 45 minute conversation. Unless I missed the bit about where "they sat in silence for about 12 hours, ...more
1. It is impossible to have your 25th wedding anniversary in November and, three weeks later in December, lose your son and daughter-in-law in the September 11th terrorist attacks.
2. You cannot, especially if you are a beginning knitter, knit the top six inches of a sock and turn the heel on size 1 needles during a 45 minute conversation. Unless I missed the bit about where "they sat in silence for about 12 hours, ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
ok. hmmmm. I liked this book and I didn't. I thought the characters could have been more developed and the book longer....it felt lacking in some places. I wanted more feeling. I would just start to feel bad for these people and want to cry for them and then it would switch to another person and we wouldn't hear about the other one again really. I just felt like I was almost...sorta kinda....just about there with the characters and then they would shut down.
I gave it 3 stars though beca...more
I gave it 3 stars though beca...more
Like this review?
yes
3 comments
Read in July, 2008
The book had its good point and its bad. It deals honestly with the various way people deal (or don't deal) with grief. Some of the characters were very inviting but others I just couldn't connect with...however that is a lot like life I guess. The thing that bothered me about the book was in the "telling of their stories" most of these women spoke in ways no one I know would speak They spoke like a novel would speak...would tell their story. so although the story and the message w...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 2007
I just started this one this morning and I am really enjoying it so far. Chose it because the author will be coming to my library to speak and I am a knitter so I figured this would appeal to me and it does. It is also quite moving and I have only just begun.
* Well I finished over the weekend. Basically I have realized I need to spend a good hour with a new book to really get into it. I read a lot of this on Saturday morning and most of it on Sunday morning and all I wanted to do was read...more
* Well I finished over the weekend. Basically I have realized I need to spend a good hour with a new book to really get into it. I read a lot of this on Saturday morning and most of it on Sunday morning and all I wanted to do was read...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in October, 2007
While mourning the death of her daughter, Hood learned to knit. In her comeback novel, Mary Baxter, her five-year-old daughter to meningitis. Mary and her husband struggle to preserve their marriage, but the memories are too painful, and the healing too difficult. Mary can't focus on her job as a writer for a local newspaper. At her mother's insistance she joins a knitting circle and discovers that knitting soothes without distracting. Of course everyone in the group is experiencing, or has expe...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
anyone who doesn't mind fluffy chick lit, or depressing stories
This book is about a woman who joins a knitting circle to help overcome the grief of the child she's lost. It's clear through the writing that the author understands what the main character goes through on an emotional level dealing with her loss - that aspect comes across as very authentic. However, I thought the overall plot was very contrived. You have these women (and a man), most of whom have lost a child, or had some major grief-inducing event, they all have these very extraordinary tal...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in July, 2008
recommended to Michael by:
SBC Book Club Book
This was a Book Club read, and I don't think I would have read it otherwise. It turned out to be a good read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a story about a husband and wife who lose their daughter to bacterial menigitis. The husband returns to work, and the wife cannot get over the loss of her daughter. She joins a knitting circle, and unbeknownst to her at the time she joins, each of the other women joined because of tragedies in their lives. The book sends a powerful message...that we...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in May, 2008
i probably never would have picked this up on my own, but i had it mailed to me by someone whose judgment i trust implicitly, and once i began, sure enough, i couldn't stop. i mainlined this entire book in a night, five hours or so, i could not put it down. it's not that the plot kept me on the edge of my seat, rather, i found myself so enjoying the characters and their interactions together that i didn't notice one chapter passing to the next. this is a charming book, and i use the word here in...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
