My Head Is Full of Books: Review: HOW TO READ A BOOK by Monica Wood (+Friday56 LinkUp)

"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Thursday, July 17, 2025

Review: HOW TO READ A BOOK by Monica Wood (+Friday56 LinkUp)

Title: How to Read a Book by Monica Wood

Summary: A novel about friendships, second chances, and life-changing power of stories.

Violet is incarcerated for manslaughter and killing a person in a drunk-driving accident. Harriet is a retired English teacher who decides she still has something to give so she starts a book club at a the women's prison. Violet is a member of that book club. Frank is the husband of the woman killed in the accident and now a handyman at the bookstore where Harriet shops for books for her group. The three, Violet, Harriet, and Frank all converge one day after Violet's release in that very bookstore with unexpected results.

Comment: I do not have a physical copy of How to Read a Book. The preview only provides the first seven pages so I am unable to provide a quote for page 56 (or anything beyond page 7). When I went searching for help from the internet I found this blogpost by For the Joy of Books which was crammed full of quotes from this book. As I read through them I was so charmed I thought I'd share a few with you, rather than the usual from pages one and 56. Since the chapters are divided by speakers I'll try to identify who is speaking and, if possible, give a hint to action:

Quotes:

Violet (in prison, reflecting on her time in book club):

"I feel the way I always feel in Book Club. The way I think we all feel. Safe."
"When we gather to talk about books...We're readers...Not embezzlers. Not murderers. Readers."
"Harriet was forever showing us how to read. How to look for shapes and meaning. How to see that stories have a 'meanwhile' -- an important thing that's happening while the rest of the story moves along."

Harriet (teaching about books to incarcerated women):

"In order for reading to become an exercise in empathy, it helps to think of all the characters in all the books as fellow creatures."
"Reading one book makes it part of all the other books you've read."
"Iambic pentameter does hurt."

Frank (reflecting on his life and relationships):

"Retired people were thought to be lonely. But it wasn't that. It was the feeling of uselessness, of being done with it all."
"For decades he whiffed a sense of wrong in everything he aimed for, but Harriet seemed to accept his good intentions. Or, more precisely, to accept his intentions as good."

Review: I missed the book club where How to Read a Book was discussed. Which is a pity since it seems like a book whose themes could be explored more fully. I am a fan of Monica Wood and I get a sense that she cares about creating characters who are good human beings -- kind, thoughtful, complicated. I appreciated the way Harriet taught her students about how to think of literature, including poetry, and how they responded to stories. Don't we all respond to stories? A good story can transport us "to" or "away from" -- traveling in our minds to new places, or taking us away from current circumstances at least for awhile. The book club meetings were my favorite parts of this book's stories though there was much more to say about the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, and how we are all worthy of love.

Book Club: Since I wasn't at book club I decided to attempt to answer the questions myself. I went searching and again ran into For the Joy of Books, but this time with discussion questions. Honestly they are some of the best discussion questions I've ever seen for a book, any books. I will not attempt to answer all the questions here but I thought I'd pick at a few:

1. In honor of Harriet, write a 10-word (maximum) sentence to describe your reading experience:

"Audiobook brings stories to life, I can picture all the scenes."

3. Why do you think Harriet started each book club with the mantra: "I am a reader. I am intelligent. I have something to contribute"?

I imagine that women in prison very likely had a lot of negative feelings about school. They also probably didn't think very highly of themselves. To make such a strong, declarative statement out loud sets the stage for a robust discussion in the group, where no one person can dominate, and everyone is encouraged to participate.

16. Why did the women like to hear stories about Lou?

Lou is Harriet's dead husband. Hearing stories about Lou brings him to life in everyone's minds. He is like a hero character in a book.

Check out the whole list. There are 40, gulp, questions. My book clubs can usually only handle 10 or so questions at one meeting, but all of them are good and worthy of consideration.

My rating: I initially gave the book a 4-star rating but after this post, and reading all those quotes, I am upgrading my rating to 4.5 stars.