Author: Sutton Foster
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Genre: Memoir
Format: Audiobook ARC
No. of Pages: 256
Date of Publication: October 12, 2021
My Rating: 5 Stars
From the 2-time Tony Award-winner and the star of TV’s Younger, funny and intimate stories and reflections about how crafting has kept her sane while navigating the highs and lows of family, love, and show business (and how it can help you, too).
Whether she’s playing an “age-defying” book editor on television or dazzling audiences on the Broadway stage, Sutton Foster manages to make it all look easy. How? Crafting. From the moment she picked up a cross stitch needle to escape the bullying chorus girls in her early performing days, she was hooked. Cross stitching led to crocheting, crocheting led to collages, which led to drawing, and so much more. Channeling her emotions into her creations centered Sutton as she navigated the significant moments in her life and gave her tangible reminders of her experiences. Now, in this charming and poignant collection, Sutton shares those moments, including her fraught relationship with her agoraphobic mother; a painful divorce splashed on the pages of the tabloids; her struggles with fertility; the thrills she found on the stage during hit plays like Thoroughly Modern Millie, Anything Goes, and Violet; her breakout TV role in Younger; and the joy of adopting her daughter, Emily. Accompanying the stories, Sutton has included crochet patterns, recipes, and so much more!
Witty and poignant, Hooked will leave readers entertained as well as inspire them to pick up their own cross stitch needles and paintbrushes.
MY THOUGHTS:
When Hooked came into my purview, it grabbed my immediate attention. The summary states that this Tony Award winning actress kept herself sane with her crafting. Oh how I can relate as I have many hobbies. In fact, my online name, Robin Loves Reading and All the Things is because I have so many things besides reading that I enjoy.
With regard to our author, Sutton Foster, who wrote and narrated this audiobook, she used humor and a multitude of crafts to navigate a difficult home life and then a public life once she became an actress.
Coming from a difficult relationship with her mother, to the busy life of being on the stage, Sutton needed her down time. Whether she was crocheting, cross stitching, drawing, or other hobbies, these very activities helped keep her sane. My argument for my life pretty much. I enjoy many of the same hobbies as Sutton, thus this book took on strong meaning for me. I am a brand new cross stitcher so that gave this book even more meaning.
I loved the audiobook narration, but was left wanting a bit as there were things in the PDF version of the book that were not able to be made part of this format. So, at some point I will indeed purchase that version and then do a reread - whether to garner recipes or patterns.
Beyond learning about how much Sutton enjoyed crafting, this book was rich with various stories that she relayed in an enjoyable manner, thus making her quite relatable. I don't watch much television or watch movies, and have never been to a stage performance, so the name Sutton Foster was new to me. Even so, I found this book thoroughly delightful and one that will definitely be a reread for me.
Many thanks to Grand Central Publishing and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
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