How to Read a Bookby Monica Wood | |
| Category: |
"Fiction - General" |
|---|---|
| Pages: | 288 |
| Year of Publication: | 2024 |
| Date Added: | 06/10/2025 |
| Date Read: | 04/23/2026 |
| Notes: | Violet, 19, is persuaded by her drunk boyfriend to drive home, even though she's been drinking too. She swerves and forces another car off the road, killing the driver. She's sentenced to two years in prison. There she meets Harriet, a widowed, retired teacher who visits the prison once a week for a book club with the inmates. When Violet gets out, she is alone. Her boyfriend and family want nothing to do with her. She wanders into a bookstore and meets Harriet, who takes her under her wing. Frank, the widower of the woman who died in the accident, also works in the bookstore. He never held a grudge against Violet, in part because he knows what nobody else knows — that his wife had been having an affair and was on her way to a divorce lawyer. Frank and Harriet become friends, and eventually become like parents to Violet. She, meanwhile, has gotten a job in a university lab conducting experiments on intelligence in parrots. She has a fling with the scientist until she learns that his wife is pregnant. And that's pretty much where the story ends — Frank and Harriet marry. Violet quits working at the lab but takes one of the parrots with her. She gives a summary of the rest of her life — marriage, career, kids, friends, but says that the story in this book is the story she chooses to tell about herself. |
| My Rating: | 6 |
Reviewed by Roger on 2026-04-23 08:44:49
