Sutton Foster is an actor who can dance, sing, and capably narrate her own memoir—and she can also impressively wield a crochet hook. In a refreshingly conversational style, Foster tells entertaining stories from her childhood and career, which are interwoven with descriptions of how crocheting and other crafts were treasured distractions from her anxieties. With warmth in her voice, Foster describes her early years, which were happy despite her troubled relationship with her agoraphobic mother. Isolated by bullying cliques on her first tour, Foster found solace by cross-stitching in her hotel rooms. When she found herself a famous Broadway actor tormented by tabloid accounts of her divorce, her crafting projects became empowering. Foster’s delightful narration is complemented with pdfs of patterns and recipes. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Hooked: How Crafting Saved My Life
Narrated by Sutton Foster
Sutton FosterUnabridged — 7 hours, 5 minutes
Hooked: How Crafting Saved My Life
Narrated by Sutton Foster
Sutton FosterUnabridged — 7 hours, 5 minutes
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Overview
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.
Editorial Reviews
★ 08/23/2021
Stage, screen, and cabaret star Foster dazzles with this deeply personal debut told largely through crafts ranging from baby blankets to bonbon recipes. After the actor encountered mean girls at age 19 on her first national theater tour—as the understudy for Marty, Rizzo, and Sandy in Grease—she took up cross-stitching as a way to cope. “I call it my gateway craft,” she writes, noting how generations of women in her family have expressed themselves in a similar fashion. The more she cross-stitched, Foster explains, “the less I cared what other people thought about me.” This revelation set her on a path to crafting her way through every production she’s ever starred in—from her Tony Award–winning performances on Broadway to her role on TV’s Younger (where she crocheted a pink dinosaur for her daughter). In prose both brutally honest and deeply empathetic, she writes of her struggle with panic attacks and of knitting, collaging, and baking as a way to ease anxiety about major life events—including a very public divorce—but also as a means to celebrate more joyous moments, such as adopting her daughter, Emily, and marrying her husband, screenwriter Ted Griffin. Those struggling with mental health or family problems will find this incredibly moving. Agent: Mollie Glick, CAA. (Oct.)
While filming the last season of Younger, I had the honor of witnessing Sutton’s writing process and watching her crack herself open to share the monumental moments in her life. She is talented beyond belief, a comfy home cook, a wonderful friend, and now a crafting and crochet teacher to all. Just like the rest of us, Sutton’s journey is beautiful and complicated, an intricate pattern woven one thread at a time. Be prepared to get hooked.”—Hilary Duff
"I have been a superfan of Sutton Foster ever since I watched her demolish the stage as the "Star to Be" in Annie but, after reading Hooked I feel like I finally met her. I will watch all of her future roles through a different lens because with this book she filled in the blanks and left this adoring audience member fully satisfied. I had no idea Sutton's beauty was informed by such early heartbreak and I am grateful to have her example of resilience as a guiding light. And, shoot, it looks like I have to bust out the yarn after all."—Jennifer Garner
“Hooked is an inspiring memoir about overcoming fear, finding true love, and the healing power of art.”—Lauren Graham
"When I first worked with Sutton Foster on my show Bunheads she just seemed too good to be true. Brilliant, funny, professional and just wonderful on all fronts. I was immediately suspicious. How is this possible? Humanity doesn’t produce perfect people like this. There must be something very wrong. And then I spotted it. A bag of yarn and some knitting needles. She was a crafter! I knew it! I should’ve guessed that anyone that seemingly perfect had a hot glue gun stashed somewhere. Now as someone who truly has no talents to do anything crafty, I am deeply suspicious of those who bedazzle things and hand you handmade scarves at Christmas. Have these people never heard of Bloomingdales? But in all honesty, they were pretty great scarves. And then came the art shows. And I have to say – they were pretty great art shows. And then Sutton said she was going to write a book. A book about her crafting and how it helped her navigate her life. And I said sure. In all your spare time why not add a book to the mix. And then I read it. This book is much like Sutton herself. Warm, honest, funny, probably very helpful to those that actually wish to pick up the glue-gun, basically its own unique thing. So as someone who has gone from fan to friend to semi-stalker I highly recommend you find a great chair and spend some time in Sutton Foster’s weird, wonderful world. You’ll certainly love her stories. You might even cry a little. Or at the very least maybe you’ll come out of it with a great scarf. Merry Christmas."—Amy Sherman-Palladino
10/01/2021
Tony Award-winning actress Foster writes an inspirational ode to crafting, in which the work that most defines her is somewhere inside her own homes. Framing her life as a "maker," Foster is a relatable narrator of her own journey to success, addressing familiar anxieties for women in the workplace and giving readers a peek behind the showbiz curtain. Pairing low stakes art with major life decisions, Foster's memoir is playful and optimistic, interjecting recipes, instructions, and interviews for the especially curious. With easygoing language, Sutton shares how she was drawn to the arts, especially acting and singing, and how the art of making has always been both a personal interest and a coping mechanism. For Sutton, this leads to dabbling in everything from cross-stitching and quilting to her personal favorite: crocheting. While her memoir sometimes jolts a bit out of sequence, the writing reflects her natural storytelling prowess and showcases the joy of finding a creative outlet and sharing creations with others. VERDICT Crafters and fans of Foster will enjoy this tender memoir about creative coping as a way to say yes to personal ambitions big and small.—Asa Drake, Marion County P.L., FL
Sutton Foster is an actor who can dance, sing, and capably narrate her own memoir—and she can also impressively wield a crochet hook. In a refreshingly conversational style, Foster tells entertaining stories from her childhood and career, which are interwoven with descriptions of how crocheting and other crafts were treasured distractions from her anxieties. With warmth in her voice, Foster describes her early years, which were happy despite her troubled relationship with her agoraphobic mother. Isolated by bullying cliques on her first tour, Foster found solace by cross-stitching in her hotel rooms. When she found herself a famous Broadway actor tormented by tabloid accounts of her divorce, her crafting projects became empowering. Foster’s delightful narration is complemented with pdfs of patterns and recipes. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
2021-09-22
A Tony Award–winning actor explores crafting as therapy.
Foster’s grounded, heartfelt, and family-focused memoir is rooted in the art projects she’s been creating (and selling) since learning how to crochet at 19 during a 1995 national tour with Grease. Each creation has a purpose and is inspired by a specific significant moment. “These hobbies,” she writes, “have literally preserved my sanity through some of the darkest periods of my life….My crafts have helped hold me together and given me a place to pour all of my love or sadness into.” The author hails from a crafting family: Her mother, grandmother, and aunt all knitted, crocheted, and cross-stitched (what she calls her “gateway craft”), and she proudly carries on that tradition in handcrafting items for her adopted daughter as an expression of parental love and to foster a more creative connection. Foster also writes about how she and her brother were both groomed for musical theater groups and aggressively encouraged to perform. Despite garnering immense stage success on Broadway and TV (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Anything Goes, etc.), the author has struggled, like many of us, with anxiety and other mental health issues. Thankfully for Foster, she discovered the calming salve of crafting, which has given her a consistent, centering source of peace and sanity. Crocheted blankets helped her through a divorce and her mother’s declining health, while colorful sketch work soothed her frustrating attempts to start a biological family with her second husband, screenwriter Ted Griffin. Throughout the narrative’s delicately described episodes, Foster dispenses sage advice and shares cookie recipes, blanket instructions, and the story behind her “graphgan,” which creatively fused her drawings with her crochet career. Foster’s fans will delight in this inspiring story of the multitalented actor’s heights and pitfalls, while crafters will discover newfound purpose, embedded meaning, and shared serendipity in their universal pastime.
An intimate, moving mosaic of art and memoir.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940177252759 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Hachette Audio |
| Publication date: | 10/12/2021 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Sales rank: | 532,256 |
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