Ann Hood
Author of The Knitting Circle
About the Author
Ann Hood was born on December 9, 1956, in West Warwick, R.I. She attended the University of Rhode Island and New York University. For several years, she worked as a flight attendant before pursuing her dream of becoming a writer. Ann Hood had a dream of writing ever since her first "novel" at the show more age of 11. It was not until 1987, with the publication of Somewhere off the Coast of Maine that she received the recognition she had been longing for. Set in the period from the 1960s to the 1980s, the story deals with the lives of three women of the Vietnam era and their children. Strong on emotion and personal growth, Hood's writing frequently examines the intricacies of various levels of relationships. Other works include Something Blue, which also involves the association between three friends. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/24558.Ann_Hood
Series
Works by Ann Hood
L'amante perduto 1 copy
Strikkesirkelen 1 copy
Associated Works
My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop (2012) — Contributor — 562 copies
The Friend Who Got Away: Twenty Women's True Life Tales of Friendships that Blew Up, Burned Out or Faded Away (2005) — Contributor — 203 copies
What My Mother Gave Me: Thirty-one Women on the Gifts That Mattered Most (2013) — Contributor — 97 copies
Choice: True Stories of Birth, Contraception, Infertility, Adoption, Single Parenthood, and Abortion (2007) — Contributor — 93 copies
The Artists' and Writers' Cookbook: A Collection of Stories with Recipes (2016) — Contributor — 18 copies
Wanting a Child: Twenty-Two Writers on Their Difficult but Mostly Successful Quests for Parenthood in a High-Tech Age (1998) — Contributor — 17 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 20th century
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- West Warwick, Rhode Island, USA
- Places of residence
- West Warwick, Rhode Island, USA
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
St. Louis, Missouri, USA
New York City, New York, USA - Education
- University of Rhode Island
- Occupations
- flight attendant
- Relationships
- Ruhlman, Michael (husband)
Members
Reviews
I first heard about this book through BookPage. Ann Hood writes about her time as a flight attendant for TWA (and a little about her transition to writing). It's quite an interesting journey. Along the way she shares a few humorous stories (and a few that are not so humorous) and some of the interesting places she visited in her travels.
Enzo has a difficult choice to make when he meets a young woman while in the trenches during the war in the countryside of France. She leaves her new born baby in his care. The choice he does make haunts him his entire life and he tries to make amends by going back to see if her can find out what happened to the baby. Great read. Loved this book.
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 41
- Also by
- 16
- Members
- 5,201
- Popularity
- #4,787
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 292
- ISBNs
- 235
- Languages
- 8
- Favorited
- 5
This ended up being a little bit better than I expected it to be. The premise of the novel is that protaganist Ava joins a book club where each of the members selects "the book that has mattered most to them in their life" as a club selection. While there are many side stories also taking place, I was most curious to see how the author would explore the topic of these fictional characters choosing and discussing favorite books.
The book choices are largely cliched, which was a disappointment. To the extent that any book lover can really name a singular book that has mattered *most* to him or her, I doubt that a group of people gathered would choose the books that came from the syllabus from a high school English class (e.g. [b:Slaughterhouse-Five|4981|Slaughterhouse-Five|Kurt Vonnegut|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1493075177s/4981.jpg|1683562], [b:The Great Gatsby|4671|The Great Gatsby|F. Scott Fitzgerald|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1490528560s/4671.jpg|245494], [b:Anna Karenina|15823480|Anna Karenina|Leo Tolstoy|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1352422904s/15823480.jpg|2507928], etc.)
The whole idea that a singular book can matter *most* is aptly addressed by one of the book club characters: "I think it's impossible to pick [a book that matters most]. When you read a book, and who you are when you read it, make it matter or not. Like if you're unhappy and you read, I don't know, "On the Road" or "The Three Musketeers," and that book changes how you feel or how you think then it matters the most. At that time."… (more)