How to Read a Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood

G👀dreads

A charming, deeply moving novel about second chances, unlikely friendships, and the life-changing power of sharing stories.

Our Reasons meet us in the morning and whisper to us at night. Mine is an innocent, unsuspecting, eternally sixty-one-year-old woman named Lorraine Daigle…

Violet Powell, a twenty-two-year-old from rural Abbott Falls, Maine, is being released from prison after serving twenty-two months for a drunk-driving crash that killed a local kindergarten teacher. Harriet Larson, a retired English teacher who runs the prison book club, is facing the unsettling prospect of an empty nest. Frank Daigle, a retired machinist, hasn’t yet come to grips with the complications of his marriage to the woman Violet killed.

When the three encounter each other one morning in a bookstore in Portland—Violet to buy the novel she was reading in the prison book club before her release, Harriet to choose the next title for the women who remain, and Frank to dispatch his duties as the store handyman—their lives begin to intersect in transformative ways.

One person gave it a 4 star review but two thumbs down for the title and cover. "What's with the title? Honestly...two thumbs down. I like to think as a reader, I know how to read.  It could be interpreted as demeaning and condescending."  Then continued with the review "but inside the cover...".  

Another review said the cover gave the impression that the novel was likely going to be cute, sweet, and neatly wrapped up. Not.   
Don't judge a book by it's cover comes to mind. 

Genre: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Books About Books, Contemporary Romance

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I loved it. It was one of those "can't wait to see how it ends" to "I don't want it to end". I was sad to click *return*.

When I recommend it, which I do often, I say "it's not about the fundamentals of reading" and "don't judge a book by it's cover". The cover looks cozy but inside the cover is a very different story about the power of friendship you didn't know you needed.

🎧Eileen Stevens

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