How To Read A Book by Monica Wood

This was recommended to me by a friend who read it with her book group. This is a great book to read and discuss with a group. It is a book about redemption, forgiveness, and starting over. It is also about creating the family you need when the family you have is for whatever reason just not working out. Harriet is a retired English teacher who leads a book club in a women’s prison near Portland, Maine. Violet is an inmate at the prison who meets Harriet in the book group, but is also about to be released. She was convicted of manslaughter after she went on a bit of a bender with her high school boyfriend and kills a woman with her car. Her family disowns her for the shame brought on them and her mother dies--of a medical condition, but Violet's family blame her for this as well. They are not about to participate in forgiveness. After she is released, Violet moves into an apartment close to Harriet’s house, and even more improbably, it also turns out that Harriet’s friend Frank was married to the woman Violet killed in a drunk driving car accident. The book is about how the three of them form a family of sorts, how they manage to find not just support but the ability to heal through their friendship, and how each of their families are a hindrance to healing. Despite the weight of the material here, it is a light and hopeful book that is quite enjoyable.