of what happens when Nell runs away to Los Angeles in the year 1901 as the new motion-picture industry is just taking root. Nell marries again, has...
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Nov 01, 2009
Tara
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There is not a whole lot to say about this book. It quite simply did not impress me. It follows the life of a girl named Nell that leaves a life of farming in Kansas for a life of sewing in Los Angeles in the early 1900s. When the story begins she is fifteen years old and I must say, for a girl that never made it past the third grade, her character is awful witty, sarcastic, and wise for a mere fifteen. She marries around this age and has two babies. Her marriage is not the kind of marriage
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Nov 23, 2008
Alissa
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Took me awhile to get into this historical fiction story but once I did it was an interesting read.
Nell Platt lives on the Kansas plains in the late 1800s. In 1901 she leaves her two small children and moves to Los to recreate herself. Her only skill in life was sewing, which was what gave her the money to escape the farm life. In Los Angeles she slowly builds a reputation as a fine seamstress. She marries, has another child, and life seems perfect until one day a knock on her door More...
Nell Platt lives on the Kansas plains in the late 1800s. In 1901 she leaves her two small children and moves to Los to recreate herself. Her only skill in life was sewing, which was what gave her the money to escape the farm life. In Los Angeles she slowly builds a reputation as a fine seamstress. She marries, has another child, and life seems perfect until one day a knock on her door More...
Sep 04, 2008
Patti
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I really wanted to like this book. The story of a young girl who makes a plan, takes a chance, and creates a life for herself, this book had all the chances to become a great read. However, the heroine kept losing my attention, her husband was far too predictable, their actions frequently made them less than sympathetic. It should have been better than it was.
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Feb 07, 2012
Jishi
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In one of my quests for non-romance novels, I found this on sale in PowerBooks; and the life in the early part of the 1900s pulled at me and the added incentive of fashion in that era. It turned out as a serious novel about a girl who left home, her husband and two daughters to escape the suffocating world that she grew up in and build a new one in Los Angeles, in glamor and excitement. The past caught up with her though, when years after, her two daughters showed up and threatened the balance
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Oct 30, 2009
Christiana
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Apr 16, 2009
Joanne
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Apr 14, 2009
Cathy
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I enjoyed this a lot. McGraw tells the story, supposedly based on the life of her grandmother, of a young housewife who runs away from her ghastly life in hardscrabble turn-of-the-century Kansas, leaving her two baby daughters behind. Nell lands in Hollywood and works her way up from a shop-assistant to a career as a self-styled "modiste" and then Hollywood costumer. In the process she marries and has another daughter, but of course in a story like this one the past never stays buried
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Apr 05, 2010
Peggy
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This was a very good book about a 15 year ols Kansas girl who was married off to the sixteen year old son of a neighbor and lived with him and his family. By seveteen she has 2 small babies and little prospects except to live on the farm. She begins sewing for people in the little town to earn extra money for the family. Unknown to her mother in law, she put some money aside and saves unttil she can escape. She leaves her children and goes to Hollywood to be a seamstress. Her story is one o
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Jul 20, 2010
Claudia
rated it:
This book is based on Erin McGraw's grandmother's life story. Nell, the main character, runs away to Los Angeles in 1901 to make an interesting life for herself. She runs from her old life, leaving behind 2 daughters and a husband. She marries in Los Angeles, has a daughter and begins the successful career of a seamstress/costumer in Hollywood, at which point her earlier life confronts her. Erin McGraw is a professor of creative writing at Ohio State University, which made this book even mor
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Jul 07, 2010
Wavelength
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Nell Plat is a young girl living a dreary life on the plains of Kansas at the turn of the century. She marries young, and begins having babies. Her one gift is her ability to design and sew clothes and to daydream about the possibility of a different life. By taking on extra work as a seamstress, she is able to save enough money to leave Kansas and her husband and two children and escape to Hollywood. Here was my first problem with the book, Nell had no remorse. Every time she started to think a
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Aug 29, 2008
Jason
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Like her short fiction, McGraw uses short, quick stabs at description to describe her characters and their surroundings. While this works well in her short stories, it works so much better here. The character of Nell, a girl married young in Kansas quickly comes out from the details we get of her. When she abandons her life, including her husband and two children, the same short, quick writing describes her state of mind and how she thought or did not think about her children. By the time Nell i
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Sep 26, 2009
Phyllis
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Aug 04, 2010
Beth
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This was a great read for summer--fairly quick and compelling, if not too deep, but definitely not fluffy. Picked it up at a library book sale and it was definitely worth the dollar I paid for it! Starts with the protagonist's grim turn-of-the-century dust bowl farm life, and follows her trek to Hollywood to pursue a career utilizing her exceptional skill as a seamstress/designer, all the while waiting for the past she left behind to catch up to her.
Nov 03, 2009
Stacy
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Jan 20, 2010
Nancy
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Married and a mother way too young, skilled seamstress Nell Platt abandons her husband and young daughters for Hollywood, where she transforms herself into a French modiste, working for the movie studios and the society ladies of Pasadena. Everything is going well, until her two daughters from her first marriage show up.
Jan 07, 2010
Wendy
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I admit that what got me interested in this book was the title. I suppose I had higher expectations than I should have. Though I appreciated and really enjoyed all the terminology and vivid descriptions of the sewing portions, the characters are extremely difficult to like or relate to. The story was interesting - especially when put into context of the time period, but it was just simply a downer.
Nov 22, 2010
Paula
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This book was well written, and certainly a fascinating time in history. I also liked the premise of the story. I had a hard time really being captivated by it, I almost put it it down twice but I kept reading. I am glad I finished it and found out how the story played out.
Mar 04, 2009
Caryn
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This book starts out in Kansas about 1900. It then travels to Hollywood. It follows the life of a young girl and it is fascinating. Her life in Kansas is not ideal and she runs away leaving behind two little girls. She herself is only 17. Well worth the read.
Aug 23, 2009
Neonfog
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The main character was not sympathic. Not one of the characters was sympathic. The author based her story on her grandmother's career as a seamstress in Hollywood in the silent era. But this is not a loving tribute. It was well-written and a good story, but I couldn't have cared less what happened to anyone in the story. The story line built up and built up but sort of just ended.
Mar 11, 2009
Kerry
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Historical fiction. I had a hard time identifying or liking any of the characters in this book. It was well written, and a good story, but I struggled with wanting Nell to succeed or fail miserably due to her choices.
Oct 16, 2009
Hilary
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I REALLY liked the beginning, but towards the middle it got REALLY slow and the ending was just painful.
Good message about how lives have different "rooms" -- but I can't imagine just up and leaving my kids...
Good message about how lives have different "rooms" -- but I can't imagine just up and leaving my kids...
Mar 08, 2009
Tina
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Our book club read this book because the author is coming to town for a book signing/reading this year. I enjoyed the book, and feel that I'm a better seamstress just from all the sewing I read about!
Jan 27, 2010
Lisa
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I was just loving this book (what do window-less houses look like, anyways?) but the last maybe quarter of the book was really far-fetched and kind of lame, but I still give it four stars for the rest of it.
Mar 03, 2009
Kim
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This book would have received 4 stars from me, except that the last quarter of the story becomes too melodramatic. I am disappointed, especially since the majority of the story fluidly along.
Jan 21, 2011
Cassandra
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Nov 12, 2011
Kirsten
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I loved, loved, loved this book. It was engaging and moving and, really, just a lovely read. One of the rare novels that you don't want to end.
Mar 18, 2009
Alisa
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Interesting book about the lives we leave behind, how they haunt us, how they come back to visit us, and how cyclical life can be.
Feb 26, 2010
Rena
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The first half is pretty good, then it gets a little one dimensional and boring. It's about a Kansas farm girl who leaves her family, including her babies, and goes to Hollywood in the early 1900s.
Apr 25, 2009
Laila
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Okay, so I loved this book until about halfway through, when it sort of lost steam. I kept on reading, though, just to see what happened. It's an interesting time period and setting, and the premise of the novel was good, but by the end I wasn't sure if I could root for any of the characters or not. And I need someone to root for.
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Mar 24, 2009
Andrea
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A gal from Kansas makes it big in the early 1900s sewing in Hollywood.
