Hooked: How Crafting Saved My Life
Happy December and welcome back to Bibliotherapy Thursday! As daylight hours wane and the temperature drops, it’s not uncommon for depression, anxiety, grief, and other things that impact our mental health to be a little more difficult to manage. Finding ways to feel comforted, productive, and creative during this time can be a literal lifesaver, but it can seem like a tall order when you’re not feeling well! If you’re looking for some inspiration and curling up with a cozy memoir sounds like a pleasant idea, check out Hooked: How Crafting Saved My Life by Sutton Foster.
Sutton Foster is a Tony Award-winning actress whose warmth and humor absolutely leap from the page. As a child with North Carolina roots and raised in Georgia and Michigan, Sutton struggled to make friends and navigate her mother’s declining mental health. She found solace on the stage, where she excelled and felt truly at home. But acting isn’t an easy career choice, and high stress and lonely nights on tour eventually built to a panic attack that landed her in the hospital. Soon after, she remembered her mother’s love of cross-stitch and how she seemed to draw a lot of comfort from the process. She decided to teach herself, and so began a lifetime of turning to crafting when she needed something calming and meditative.
As Sutton shares her life story, she describes how crafting helped her through anxiety, her mother’s increasing agoraphobia, relationships, divorce, fertility struggles, the adoption process, and her mother’s failing health and eventual passing. Through a variety of artistic mediums from collages to crocheting, Sutton finds a way to process trauma and figure out who she is. Best of all, she shares her love of crafting with her friends, and making things together deepens their friendships and understanding of one another.
If you want to find a crafting hobby but aren’t sure where to start, Sutton includes a few favorite recipes, patterns, etc. from her family and herself that are referenced in the book. Personally, I’m planning on whipping up a batch of Aunt Mary Anne’s Pillsbury Bake-Off Award-Winning Fudgy Bonbons the next time I feel like creating something!
You can find Hooked in print, e-book, and audiobook at these retailers:
Morning Light doesn’t receive compensation for sharing book recommendations, nor do we receive a commission if you choose to buy the book. We just love them and think some of our clients may find them useful!