Rating: 
Summary: The characters invite you into their homes
Review: After reading this book, I had the desire to spend time bonding with my female friends. There is a bond between women, that no male no matter how close he is to his woman can ever completely understand. I loved the interspersed chapters about quilting. They were very interesting and provided insight. The problem is this book had too many characters. It was hard to keep them all straight. It might have done better to focus on just a few of the characters and look at things from their perspective. A chapter on each female character just wasn't sufficient. Extra-marital affairs seemed to be experienced in one way or the other by nearly every character
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing!
Review: After seeing the previews for this movie, I thought the book would be good. It was just okay. I was disappointed in it. It didn't absolutly suck, but it wasn't as good as I had expected it to be!
Rating: 
Summary: don't listen to them, it's a great book!
Review: All those people up there who were giving it one out of five stars have no clue what they're talking about! It's an awesome book and Whitney Otto really knows what she's doing!
Rating:
Summary: Somethings never grow old
Review: Any reader who regards this book as just some "women's book" is only seeing the tip of the iceberg. Otto, in her young age, has recognized that indeed people do not "grow old". The perennial matters of the heart and emotion continue with us for a lifetime. The vignettes are intricately stitched with a strong literary thread and a lyrical needle. I hope Otto continues to utilize her keen insights in her future books.
Rating:
Summary: As Dull as a Darning Needle
Review: Directions on how to make a quilt stitch the patches of a community's quilt-makers' lives together. An interesting concept. If only the short stories, the tales of the ladies sitting at the quilting frame, were interesting. Unfortunately they're about as dull as a straight stitch.I expected the stories of Finn, Glady Jo, Hy, Anna Neale and the others to be joined with intricate stitches, with rich fabrics; to flow much like the pieces they stitch togehter once a week. Instead they are seperate scraps joined simply by the thread of "belonging." They are connected simply because they get together once a week to quilt. I guess I expected another PERSIAN PICKLE CLUB, or maybe it was the "short story" aspect that attracted me, but I was disappointed. I suppose I should have paid closer attention to the metaphor in the "directions" before each story.
Rating:
Summary: As Dull as a Darning Needle
Review: Directions on how to make a quilt stitch the patches of a community's quilt-makers' lives together. An interesting concept. If only the short stories, the tales of the ladies sitting at the quilting frame, were interesting. Unfortunately they're about as dull as a straight stitch. I expected the stories of Finn, Glady Jo, Hy, Anna Neale and the others to be joined with intricate stitches, with rich fabrics; to flow much like the pieces they stitch togehter once a week. Instead they are seperate scraps joined simply by the thread of "belonging." They are connected simply because they get together once a week to quilt. I guess I expected another PERSIAN PICKLE CLUB, or maybe it was the "short story" aspect that attracted me, but I was disappointed. I suppose I should have paid closer attention to the metaphor in the "directions" before each story.
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting concept.....
Review: How to Make An American Quilt by Whitney Otto HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT is a patchwork of lives that make up a quilting group. The ladies all live in Grasse, California, a small town outside of Bakersfield. Whitney Otto wrote this short novel by interspersing chapters dedicated to quilting, in-between chapters dedicated to each of the quilters in the group. What I didn't figure out right away was that each chapter that described the quilting related to the character description of the next quilter. Each person was different and therefore each quilt that could be created by each woman, had different aspects to it. I have to confess I found the chapters on quilting a bit dull, and it is probably because I am not a quilter. I love to look at quilts; I love to feel them. But reading these chapters on the process of quilting was trying my patience. However, I understood what the author was attempting to do, to compare a quilt to a group of women whose lives were patched together and somehow made them one. The chapters that talked about the history of each character were very interesting, and I saw how they all were somehow connected to the others. Reading the book was a walk through history, as the women were of varying ages and spanned generations. We got to see Hy and Glady Joe as they are now, in their old age, but also what they were like in their younger years. We saw Anna and her daughter Marianna grow and mature as black women living in a white society. And then there is Finn, who is the narrator of the book. She is the one that is building this patchwork of people, helping to tell the story of women whose lives are somehow intertwined. I found this book very easy to read, but I didn't find it as interesting as I think it could have been. I feel the author missed her mark, although I give her points for the idea.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting concept.....
Review: How to Make An American Quilt by Whitney Otto HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT is a patchwork of lives that make up a quilting group. The ladies all live in Grasse, California, a small town outside of Bakersfield. Whitney Otto wrote this short novel by interspersing chapters dedicated to quilting, in-between chapters dedicated to each of the quilters in the group. What I didn't figure out right away was that each chapter that described the quilting related to the character description of the next quilter. Each person was different and therefore each quilt that could be created by each woman, had different aspects to it. I have to confess I found the chapters on quilting a bit dull, and it is probably because I am not a quilter. I love to look at quilts; I love to feel them. But reading these chapters on the process of quilting was trying my patience. However, I understood what the author was attempting to do, to compare a quilt to a group of women whose lives were patched together and somehow made them one. The chapters that talked about the history of each character were very interesting, and I saw how they all were somehow connected to the others. Reading the book was a walk through history, as the women were of varying ages and spanned generations. We got to see Hy and Glady Joe as they are now, in their old age, but also what they were like in their younger years. We saw Anna and her daughter Marianna grow and mature as black women living in a white society. And then there is Finn, who is the narrator of the book. She is the one that is building this patchwork of people, helping to tell the story of women whose lives are somehow intertwined. I found this book very easy to read, but I didn't find it as interesting as I think it could have been. I feel the author missed her mark, although I give her points for the idea.
Rating:
Summary: Plowed through the sentimentality
Review: How To Make an American Quilt was NOT a particularly enjoyable read for me, even though some of the sexier chapters appealed...I hated the quilting instructions that used YOU statements directed to married women unlike myself, I was frustrated by the stiff structure of the book and the way that every character had a separate chapter (it's a cop-out way to write!) My grandmother gave it to me for my 12th? birthday and I think HTMAAQ can only be fully appreciated by women of a different era. However, I think Whitney Otto is a talented writer and I liked some parts of the book. It's definitely aimed at a specific type of reader, though, so if you live in a small town where there are quilting circles that meet once a week or if you are a woman over the age of 60, GO FOR IT!
Rating:
Summary: Every Woman Must Read!!
Review: I felt that this was an wonderful read. This book takes you through the lives of several differant women. Each has a differant yet beautaful love stories. The women are united together to make a quilt. Each step in the quilting has to do with each of the womens love. This is a great reading for any women!!
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