Book Review: How to Read a Book

I remember enjoying The One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood. So when I saw another title, How to Read a Book, on the library acquisitions list, I put my name on the hold list. Three days before it was due, I finally dove in and devoured it in 2 days. Although it is not a clean title (some sexual activity described), the story caught me up, and I valued the writing.

How to Read a Book tells the story of the intersection of 3 people who meet at a bookstore. Their lives have already intersected, but the bookstore serves as a conduit for redemption and forgiveness. Violet is a 22-year-old recently released from prison after killing a teacher in a drunk driving accident. Harriet, a retired schoolteacher, runs the prison book club. Frank is the husband of the woman Violet killed. 

Several powerful themes spin in the pages. One is the idea that we are all human and the playing field is level, no matter what our actions have been. I loved this line, "People set their husbands afire, they nurse their dying mothers, they rob demented old men, they sing songs that bring listeners to tears, they kill a woman while drunk on love and 86-proof. The line between this and that, you and her, us and them, the line is thin." The book also delves into second chances. Violet deserves a second chance, despite her manslaughter conviction. So do Harriet and Frank.

Finally, the book highlights how stories function and how they change us. With stirring, poetic passages about the "meanwhile," within a story, the author stirs the reader to contemplate how to read a book and how to read a life. "Even the least eventful life holds an avalanche of stories.... The one I chose - the one that now composes this epitaph - isn't a story at all. It's what Harriet would call the meanwhile, the important thing that was happening while the rest of the story moved along.... I took a life. I lived and died. Meanwhile, I was loved." Beautiful! The writing and lessons within these pages captivated and comforted me.

📒 Content caution: sex