Customer Reviews

Knitting Under the Influence

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I just finished KUI, and I felt like I spent a fabulous weekend away with three close girlfriends, with all the benefits of intimate, nonstop conversation, and none of the obligations of having to cook, clean, and make bed assignments. LaZebnik creates a world that is at once familiar and compelling. Her characters are completely relatable -- you'll recognize parts of yourself in their busy lives and hilarious predicaments. It's a breezy read without being fluff. The author has such a keen understanding of how enriching women's friendships are -- the confidences they share, the advice and support they offer -- that you'll wish you, too, had a knitting circle comprised of wonderful women like these with whom to share your trials and tribulations.

I found that this book was only loosely related to the craft of knitting and found the plot and dialogue to be shallow and crass. I also and am avid knitter and no one that I know would relate to the themes in the book. The ending is also lackluster and weak.

Definitely skip this one and read either Kate Jacobs' The Friday Night Knitting Club or Anne Hood's touching book entitled The Knitting Circle.

I am happy that I checked this book out of the the local library rather than purchase it.

Not a lot of plot and so predictable there are no surprises. Not even any patterns to give it that knitter's twist - the knitting pattern names come with recipes for weird alcoholic drinks. Probably the knitting references are just to get the attention of the growing audience for knitting related novels; there is never anything that would indicate any real knitting knowledge.

This would almost be a good book for the high school library, except for the alcohol/adult content scattered around it, as it is easy reading. I am sending my read copy to an adult library for English as a Second Language folks; it should work there.

I am a knitter, and I'm 30 something, with no kids. I loved this book. The women were people I would be friends with. They have careers, love lives, and love to knit, drink, and hang out with the girls. I highly recommend this book, to anyone who loves to knit, and to anyone who liked "Sex and the City."

I'm a big fan of Lazebnik's so I was anxiously awaiting the release of "Knitting Under the Influence". I read the book in record time simply because I just couldn't put it down. Page after page of witty dialogue and carefully crafted sentences draws the reader into the knitting circle which is Sari, Kathleen and Lucy's world. Lazebnik examines the flaws of her leading characters in a way that is honest and likeable. "Knitting Under the Influence" takes chick-lit to a whole new level. Hopefully it will be a chick-flick soon.

I'm sorry. I wanted to like this book; however, to be fair to the books I've rated 5-stars and feel proud to recommend, I'm afraid this one doesn't come close. I had to force myself to read the first 96 pages and then could no longer dedicate another minute to this plotless tale. Capitalizing on the current trend in knitting-related novels, this does the genre an injustice. It's chick-lit and not the good kind of chick-lit like Sophie Kinsella's work or the stories of Bridget Jones. This has three main characters, Sari, Kathleen and Lucy, who engage in, like, totally inane and profane dialog through probably 90% of the writing. Yes, they knit (one owns a knitting store), but from what I've read, mostly they obsess over guys and apparently alcohol? I'm not sure, I didn't get far enough to determine WHAT this was about.

In my opinion, the author's first novel, Same As It Never Was: A Novel, was far better. Read that one, skip this. And for a truly excellent knitting novel, I suggest The Knitting Circle: A Novel by Ann Hood.

I am an avid knitter and was very excited to see this book. I enjoyed Ann Hood's "The Kniting Circle" immensely, in fact, that book got me started knitting. So when I saw "Knitting Under the Influence", I was looking forward to another delightful reading experience. This book blew me away. I felt like I was reading documentation of a college sorority hazing. There is no plot to speak of, and very little mention of knitting at all. I think the author just threw that in to ride the coattails of other popular fiction books that include knitting circles as the underpinning for female frienships. In the first chapter, the drinking that is described is absolutely outside the boundaries of normal, but it is couched in terms that make it seem cute. I found it offensive and sophomoric, and it perpetuated negative stereotypes of young women who are "trying to get it together".

If you enjoy Debbie Macomber, Mary Kruger and Maggie Sefton - skip this one. There is nothing in the least little bit funny about getting drunk on a regular basis. The language leaves a great deal to be desired. As an avid knitter and having many friends who knit, none of us would relate in the least to this book. The knitting aspect of it is an aside and drew me in with the title. An extremely disappointing book with shallow characters with almost no redeeming qualities. Sari is by far the more interesting character and the information on children who are autistic is good but the rest of the book is a waste of time - in the language of knitting - skip this one.

I was so looking forward to this book but found it too vulgar to enjoy.

I see that this book is getting rave reviews, but I vehemently disagree. It is shallow, uninteresting, and predictable. The characters are not fully developed, nor are the individual plot lines. Before I was a third of the way through it, I had already figured out who would end up with whom and how their lives would "change". I've read children's and young adult books that were more involved and readable than this was, and supposedly it's for adults!

Maybe my expectations were set too high...maybe I'm too old for "chick lit". Either way, this book was a waste of money and time.