The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood
Finally a "real" story -- with real situations and real emotion! I have been reading book after book -- after book of nothing but fluff and fantasy. I am not discarding these other books that claim a quickie with the handsome mailman and books that have sugar coded life to the most general of terms -- happy without a care, because they too are needed. There are days when I want to escape into the handsome mailman's arms, but it sure isn't going to happen in real life. First off my mailman is married and secondly he doesn't look like any hero I've seen on any cover -- he just doesn't wear the postal uniform in the right places, if you know what I mean.
This book is real -- true to life and it's raw! Ann Hood didn't edit herself in her dialogue, thoughts or the emotions shown by her characters. She has put a face to loss and depression that couldn't have been truer.
The Knitting Circle follows Mary Baxter through the pain of loosing a child. With the persistence of her mother, she joins a knitting circle at Big Alice's Knit Shop. She is introduced to Alice, Scarlet, Lulu, Beth, Harriet, and Ellen. Each woman has a story and as they knit they reveal like you do with each knit or pearl, a piece of the yarn that ties us all together -- personal stories of loss, love, and hope. Eventually Mary shares her own story. This book traces Mary's life for over a year after the death of her daughter and within the pages you feel every emotion and -- the slowing of emotion that she deals with. Within the story it seems she has made her life even worse through her grief -- until her mother reveals the secret that shaped Mary's childhood. Mary has to make a decision.
I use to knit a bit, nothing big or -- anything good for that matter. But after reading this book I picked up my knitting needles once again. Somehow this book gave me hope that a simple act preformed daily will lead to healing and a better life.
My only concern about this book is simply it may be just too depressing and tragic for some readers. And after the reader knows and understands that the author, Ann Hood, wrote this book as a type of therapy after her own lose of a child, it may become too tragic to read. For me, the tales of the other characters are what pulled me in and made me keep reading. Keep reading and there will be not a happy ending, but one that satisfies.
Rated: 3.5
Reviewed: March 11, 2008 Copyright 2008. Katie Cloran
Susannah's Garden by Debbie Macomber
I am a fan of Macomber. She never disappoints. She's dependable. As a writer, you always want to hear this; it means you have a large fan base who considers you a friend. But in the same way, it makes me (personally) flinch a bit. Let me explain: To me, a writer such as I have described, doesn't surprise me. Doesn't excite me. In other words, she's not the friend who throws me a surprise party but instead she's the friend who brings the casserole. I love her casserole, but it leaves a dull taste in my mouth.
With this said, I must make it clear how much I admire Macomber! She is a comfort in the bad times. She is always there with a "good job, well done" and a batch of warm cookies waiting. To make it brief, I like to refer to her as my mom's kind of writer. Which is true; my mom loves her.
Susannah's Garden is very loosely tied to Macomber's very popular and enduring series about knitters. Three books entitled The Shop on Blossom Street, A Good Yarn, and Back on Blossom Street are hazy backdrops to Susannah's story. This book, no doubt, is Susannah's story dealing with mid-life. For many of us women, that means caregiving, which is where we can all relate to Macomber's story. Susannah deals with the lose of her father along with her elder mother, her college-age daughter, her husband, and the search for her high school sweetheart.
She returns home to move her senile mother into a care facility. She reconnects with a dear high school friend and searches for a former boyfriend. During all of this a very strange mystery unfolds. Things are missing from her childhood home and the flower beds in front of the house are being taken care of. The mystery continues to become even stranger when Vivian, Susannah's mother, has visions and conversations with her dead husband. By the end of the book, Susannah is invited to meet a mystery man in the town's cemetery. And when you think it can't get any stranger ... the mystery man ends up to be her dead brother who her father claimed was killed in a car accident over 25 years ago.
Short clips of her old high school friend falling in-love plays out, and her daughter coming to town along with falling in-love with the town's bad boy. There are also brief phone conversations with her husband and son back in Seattle. Her mother, too, falls in-love with a man named George in the care facility. She deals with a mini mid-life crisis as she decides to end her career as a teacher when she returns back to Seattle. This book has many story lines and can be entertaining
Please note that this is not a romance. It is a life tale, which I think should be in the mainstream section of your local bookstore.
It is a touching story, but left me saying, "What the Hell just happened here?" The final chapter brings Susannah back home and links the knitting series to this book with Susannah opening her own gardening shop next door to A Good Yard Shop.
Rated: 2.5
Reviewed: October 7, 2007 Copyright 2007. Katie Cloran