How to Read a Book
By Monica Wood
Published 2024
Read Aug 2025
This was the first Monica Wood book for this reader. It was recommended to this reader by a fellow reader with reliable recommendations (including the Dr Siri series). She indicated that she found it engaging and read it quite quickly as a result. That was a good enough recommendation for this reader so the search for a copy ensued. Libby and Cloud Library that this reader could access had the book, but with long wait times. This reader tried Hoopla which usually was a reliable source for “older” books and this reader was very pleasantly surprised to find an eBook copy available for immediate loan.
Two days later this reader had finished the book and thoroughly agreed that it was very engaging and a really enjoyable read. Monica Wood provided a story of complex characters simply but powerfully.
Violet is twenty-two years old and in prison for manslaughter. She was driving the car that hit another car and killed its driver. She was eighteen and in the process of leaving town with her boyfriend. He made her the driver because he realized he was under the influence of too many drugs and alcohol to be trusted. She wasn’t sober either. Violet suddenly finds herself released from prison a bit early. Her sister picks her up from prison and deposits her at an apartment in Portland she has secured for her. Violet is very unsettled with this as she expected to return to her small town, not Portland, and especially because her sister has told her that neither she nor any other family member wants anything to do with her.
Violet had been a member of a prison book club led by Harriet, a widowed English teacher, who is finally finding some meaning in post-retirement life through this activity that she provides for a collection of imprisoned women. We enjoy learning about her book selections for the prisoners and their reactions to them. An outcome of this is that this reader now has interest in reading “Spoon River Anthology”, a book this reader managed to never previously encounter.
The third main character is Frank, the husband of the woman Violet killed. He is also retired and also has found retirement difficult until he creates a job for himself at a local independent bookstore who needs a handy-man to address maintenance issues that the young book-loving owners can’t manage themselves. Frank is interested in speaking with Harriet who frequents the bookstore to find and order books for her prison book club, but he is shy, and his initial attempt is ineffective. When Violet turns up at the bookstore while Frank and Harriet are there, Frank has a bit of a meltdown when he sees Violet, whom he hasn’t seen since the trial. Harriet scurries Violet away. Thus, the three become connected and the story takes off.
The action of this book occurs over a few months. The book tells the story by alternating between the three characters which engaged this reader quickly and completely. We root for Violet as she gets a job that she loves, but we become concerned about her boss’s actions towards her. We hope that Frank and Harriet can find a way towards each other. Monica Wood tells these stories in a compelling but not overly sweet way. She also gives us the back story of each of these characters which confirms that they are coping with human disappointments as they figure out how to live day by day.
This reader truly appreciated the author’s insights regarding retirees and their transition into the “retired” state when their work life has ended. This reader also found it interesting that the author’s third character was a young woman who is trying to re-start her life after it was disrupted in such a truly life-changing way just as she was hoping her life was starting.
At first, the ending felt a little abrupt to this reader but then it felt quite perfect. How else would this reader want the book to go?
This book compelled me to read more about Monica Wood and more by her. You’ll find posts for several of these books at this site; search the “books by author” page for Monica Wood to locate them. This reader certainly hopes Monica Wood will keep writing!
MarshaReads.com 