Cheap How to Make an American Quilt (Book) (WHITNEY OTTO) Price

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Customer Reviews of How to Make an American Quilt

How to Make an American Quilt~
In How to Make an American Quilt you will meet the ladies of the Grasse Quilting Circle. Glady Jo, her sister Hy, and friends Anna, Marriana, Constance, Sophia and Em gather once a week in Glady Jo's home to assemble quilts. Their current project is to assemble Hy's grand-daughter, Finn's, marriage quilt. It is during this process that we get a glimpse into each of these women's love stories and learn what stitches & fabrics their individual marriages are made up of.

I felt slightly disadvantaged reading this novel, after having seen and loved the movie dozens of times. When I realized the movie was based on a novel by Whitney Otto, I couldn't wait to delve into it. Because I love the movie so much, I found it very hard to be objective while reading the book. To it's credit, the movie follows the book very closely. The novel does provide some additional tidbits, but overall, I didn't feel that I learned a whole lot more from the book.

This book was well written and uniquely drawn, tying in the intricacies of quilt making with each woman. What we learn from the story is how different and complex marriages can be in various shapes and forms, but the common string that binds them all is one of love.

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A woman's work is never done
I listened to the audio book. I learned how life might have been like near Bakersfield, California, during the Depression. That was interesting, even though things did seem a little slow. Probably, that's exactly how it was, slow, and if you like action, this audio book will seem real slow, too.

But interesting. One thing you can avoid, making it probably more like the movie that some reviewers seemed to like, is that the quilting instructions are minimized on the tape. You can just kind of sleep through those. I did, because I couldn't make heads nor tails of them. If quilts had something to do with Grecian art, I'd have to say, "it was all Greek to me," but they don't, so.....it's all Grasse to me.

The only thing, I think, this analogy thing can be a crutch for an author (some reviewers called it a metaphor, I'm not choicy).

Talk about a quilt, talk about a life. Or vice versa.

In that sense, the story reminded me of the Legend of Bagger Vance, a golfer's version of the Bhagavad Gita. It was one of the most boring things I had ever heard, and golf also ranks up there. But it did make me think about the Gita (don't become attached to the results of your actions, or "just do it").

The men in Whitney Otto's story seem pretty weak, by and large. The white people seem pretty conflicted about race, and that's probably an accurate reflection of Bakersfield in the 1930s, if not today.

Diximus.

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A very nice book...
This book was a great read, and very much a women's book. But, I would highly recommend the movie over the book any day.