The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater
Essays on Crafting
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Narrated by:
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Alanna Okun
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By:
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Alanna Okun
About this listen
This program is read by the author.
The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater is journalist Alanna Okun's cozy audiobook memoir about life truths learned through crafting.
People who craft know things. They know how to transform piles of yarn into sweaters and scarves. They know that some items, like woolen bikini tops, are better left unknit. They know that making a hat for a newborn baby isn't just about crafting something small but appreciating the beginnings of life, which sometimes helps make peace with the endings. They know that if you knit your boyfriend a sweater, your relationship will most likely be over before the last stitch.
Alanna Okun knows that crafting keeps her anxiety at bay. She knows that no one will ever be as good a knitting teacher as her beloved grandmother. And she knows that even when we can't control anything else, we can at least control the sticks, string, and fabric right in front of us.
In The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater, Okun lays herself bare and takes listeners into the parts of themselves they often keep hidden. Yet at the same time, she finds humor in the daily indignities all crafters must face (like when you catch the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome and can't possibly finish the second in a pair).
Alanna Okun's newest audiobook will speak to anyone who has ever said to themselves, or to everyone within earshot, "I made that".
©2018 Alanna Okun (P)2018 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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"Okun's narration, lightly poignant and occasionally tongue-in-cheek, enhances her witty writing style.... Listeners need not be knitters or crafters to relish Okun's delightful, self-deprecating stories." (AudioFile Magazine)
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Story
Since her time on Saturday Night Live, where she created the infamous androgynous character "Pat", Julia Sweeney has gone on to establish herself as a witty, captivating performer of one-woman shows, like God Said Ha!, In the Family Way, and Letting Go of God. She gave a TED talk sharing how she explained the birds and the bees to her eight-year-old daughter, Mulan, which ignited an incredible response. Now, when it comes to talking about motherhood, people want to hear what Julia has to say.
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I Love Julia Sweeney
- By Lisa on 04-05-13
By: Julia Sweeney
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Schadenfreude, a Love Story
- Me, the Germans, and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Unfortunate Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations That Only They Have Words For
- By: Rebecca Schuman
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Schadenfreude is the story of a teenage Jewish intellectual who falls in love - in love with a boy (who breaks her heart), a language (that's nearly impossible to master), a culture (that's nihilistic but punctual), and a landscape (that's breathtaking when there's not a wall in the way). Rebecca is an everyday, misunderstood '90s teenager with a passion for Pearl Jam and Ethan Hawke circa Reality Bites until two men walk into her high school civics class: Dylan Gellner and Franz Kafka, hitching a ride in Dylan's backpack.
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A humorous, delectable read
- By Amazon Customer on 07-13-17
By: Rebecca Schuman
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Wildflower
- By: Drew Barrymore
- Narrated by: Drew Barrymore
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Wildflower is a portrait of Drew's life in stories as she looks back on the adventures, challenges, and incredible experiences of her earlier years. It includes tales of living on her own at 14 (and how laundry may have saved her life), getting stuck in a gas station overhang on a cross-country road trip, saying good-bye to her father in a way only he could have understood, and many more adventures and lessons that have led her to the successful, happy, and healthy place she is today.
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Hold the shrieking !
- By Dawne on 11-27-15
By: Drew Barrymore
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Fat Girl Walking
- Sex, Food, Love, and Being Comfortable in Your Skin...Every Inch of It
- By: Brittany Gibbons
- Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Fat Girl Walking is a collection of stories from my life, my thoughts about the issues that I have faced as a woman, wife, mom, daughter, daughter-in-law, and Internet personality in regards to my weight. I have tried to be as honest as I possibly could - apologies in advance to my husband and parents, but hopefully any discomfort you feel is quickly replaced by laughter.
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One Woman's Body; One Woman's Story
- By Meghan Matt on 06-03-15
By: Brittany Gibbons
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The Wrong End of the Table
- A Mostly Comic Memoir of a Muslim Arab American Woman Just Trying to Fit In
- By: Ayser Salman, Reza Aslan - foreword
- Narrated by: Ayser Salman, Assaf Cohen
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Part memoir and part how-not-to guide, The Wrong End of the Table is everything you wanted to know about Arabs but were afraid to ask, with chapters such as “Tattoos and Other National Security Risks,” “You Can’t Blame Everything on Your Period; Sometimes You’re Going to Be a Crazy Bitch: and Other Advice from Mom,” and even an open letter to Trump. This is the story of every American outsider on a path to find themselves in a country of beautiful diversity.
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Not what I was looking for
- By Amazon Customer on 09-01-22
By: Ayser Salman, and others
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Your Voice in My Head
- A Memoir
- By: Emma Forrest
- Narrated by: Emma Forrest
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Emma Forrest, a British journalist, was just 22 and living the fast life in New York City when she realized that her quirks had gone beyond eccentricity. In a cycle of loneliness, damaging relationships, and destructive behavior, she found herself in the chair of a slim, balding, and effortlessly optimistic psychiatrist--a man whose wisdom and humanity would wrench her from the dangerous tide after she tried to end her life.
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Great, quick read
- By Amazon Customer on 02-12-21
By: Emma Forrest
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Everything Is Awful
- And Other Observations
- By: Matt Bellassai
- Narrated by: Matt Bellassai
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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From the break-out star of BuzzFeed and the People's Choice Award-winning comedian comes a collection of hilariously anguished essays chronicling awful moments from his life so far, the humiliations of being an adult, and other little indignities. Matt Bellassai has no idea what he's doing. Well, to be fair, he did become semi-Internet famous by getting drunk at work, making him a socially-acceptable - nay - professional alcoholic. He's got some things figured out. But the rest is all just a terrible, disgusting mess.
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Best Audio Book I’ve heard ever.
- By M on 11-23-17
By: Matt Bellassai
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The Unspeakable
- And Other Subjects of Discussion
- By: Meghan Daum
- Narrated by: Meghan Daum
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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It's a report tempered by hard times. In "Matricide", Daum unflinchingly describes a parent's death and the uncomfortable emotions it provokes; and in "Diary of a Coma" she relates her own journey to the twilight of the mind. But Daum also operates in a comic register. With perfect precision, she reveals the absurdities of the marriage-industrial complex, of the New Age dating market, and of the peculiar habits of the young and digital.
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Complaining about her dead mom.
- By Erik Hermansen on 11-23-14
By: Meghan Daum
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The Book of Help
- A Memoir in Remedies
- By: Megan Griswold
- Narrated by: Megan Griswold
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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A hilarious and heartbreaking memoir-in-remedies by a self-described "professional soul-searcher" that details a journey of self-discovery through more than 160 tonics, seminars, regimens, and transformative therapies. With a voice that is at once intimate and hilarious, Megan captures the openness and honesty necessary for people to take a new path in life. Listeners will open the audiobook with curiosity about all the different healing therapies that Megan tries, but leave with a new understanding of themselves.
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Mr. Toad's Wild Ride has some serious competition!
- By Elisa R. Goodman on 02-15-19
By: Megan Griswold
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Get Lucky
- By: Katherine Center
- Narrated by: Morgan Hallett
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Filled with wit and heart, Get Lucky by Katherine Center explores the deep bonds of sisterhood. Sarah Harper’s whole world revolved around her job at a New York advertising agency before an email snafu got her fired. Now she’s seeking refuge at her sister Mackie’s home in Houston. But Mackie, who’s unable to get pregnant, is also down-and-out these days. So Sarah decides to do something good and becomes a surrogate mother.
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Finding what matters most in life
- By bizymom7 on 10-12-24
By: Katherine Center
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Nearly Normal
- Surviving the Wilderness, My Family and Myself
- By: Cea Sunrise Person
- Narrated by: Cea Sunrise Person
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In her best-selling memoir North of Normal, Cea wrote with grace about her unconventional childhood - her early years living in a tipi in Alberta with her pot-smoking, free-loving counterculture family. But her struggles do not end when she leaves her family at the age of 13 to become a model. Honest and daring, Nearly Normal reveals the many ways that Cea's unconventional childhood continues to reverberate through the years.
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This one is just not for me
- By Pamela Plimpton on 03-15-19
What listeners say about The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Kyle Cassidy
- 02-25-21
essays about life that occasionally involve yarn
if michelle tea or Michael chabon wrote a book of essays about knitting it would probably look like this. the prose is beautiful and at times just stops you in your tracks with a sentence so beautifully constructed and poignant that you have to go back and read it again. The essays carry you like waves on a journey of broken hearts, missed connections, anxiety and love all wrapped in a project bag filled with knitting needles, half finished projects, and then endless possibilities of a future that can happen if you just keep making the next stitch.
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- Anahi Reyes
- 03-26-18
heartwarming
I wasn't ready for all the emotions this book made me feel. 💔 loved it!
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- Patty
- 08-17-19
Fantastic!
Loved it! Very poignant, humorous and heartwarming. It made me think about my own life situations and smile.
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- Jamie Sullivan
- 05-09-18
Beautiful Tales of Life and Knitting
If you're looking for a knitting tutorial, this is not the book for you. If you are a dedicated crafter who understands, like Okun does, what place knitting and crafting has in our hearts and in our relationships, this is the one for you. Okun's essays hit me right in the feels. I don't think I've ever heard someone so accurately describe what it is really like to be a 20-something "millennial" woman, beyond the Buzzfeed listicles and Facebook memes. Trying desperately to "check the boxes" - good college, good job, find a boyfriend, get married, buy a house - but also don't forget to "find your truth!"(does anyone know what that actually means?).
As we transition from teenage years to the mock adulthood of our 20s, Okun examines the people we encounter, changing relationships with family, trying to hold onto childhood and tradition while struggling to craft a new life all your own. It's really great stuff, and she knits her way through it. She inspired me to pick up my knitting needles after many, many years away. She reminded me that my grandma taught me, and, even if I'm still crap at it, I can weave those memories into every stitch. Bravo!
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- Etoile NEOhio
- 05-25-21
Pleasant to listen to
Pleasant enough to listen to while crocheting. Possibly a little too self-revealing in parts. I'm probably closer to her mother's or grandmother's ages so this gave me to feeling of being in a craft circle where all the "sweet young things" think they just discovered the secret of how to keep your granny squares from twisting in the middle while the old heads smile and nod encouragingly and knowingly. And yes, Ravelry.com is a real thing established in 2007. Welcome to the party!
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1 person found this helpful
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- J
- 09-08-18
chicken soup for the crafting soul
a lovely memoir for the reader or listener who loves to craft or loves someone who crafts and can't quite identify why.
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- Crystal
- 03-24-18
Cozy, fun & relatable
I greatly enjoyed this book. It was cozy, fun and relatable. The author did a great job with the narration. I know I will listen to it again and again. It has a real beauty about it and warms my heart. It put a little smile on my face every time I turned it on.
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- Jane
- 04-23-18
Okay. Stream of consciousness.
The author sounded young and read the book fast. When I realized it might sound better at a slower speed, I slowed it to 75 percent, and that did sound better. I enjoyed some of the thoughts expressed, but at times she sounded spoiled and self-centered. Not my cup of tea.
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- E. J. Butler
- 03-21-18
Great listen
The only objection I had to the collection of essays is that it wasn’t longer. It’s the perfect thing to listen to while knitting- both relatable and inspiring.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Amanda Suzzanne Whittington
- 07-12-19
thanks but no thanks
it's not a bad book, it's just not what I was looking for. the title had given me the impression that it was a comedy writing, rather than a sort of autobiography.
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1 person found this helpful