{"id":46172,"date":"2026-01-31T21:04:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T02:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46172"},"modified":"2026-01-31T21:04:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T02:04:41","slug":"review-of-how-to-read-a-book-by-monica-wood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46172","title":{"rendered":"Review of How to Read a Book, by Monica Wood"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>How to Read a Book<\/em><\/p>\n

by Monica Wood
\nread by Eileen Stevens<\/p>\n

HarperCollins, 2024. 10 hours, 18 minutes.
\nReview written January 28, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

First, a great big thank you to my friend Eileen, who recommended this book. I loved it so much!<\/p>\n

I mean, what’s not to like? It starts out in a book club in a women’s prison. Violet, who’s 22 years old and was in prison for manslaughter, is remembering how the meetings used to go. The women would find fault with most of the books, but got a lot of satisfaction out of even that.<\/p>\n

Then Violet gets out of prison. Her sister picks her up, but shows her an apartment in the city, rent paid for with inheritance money after their mother’s death – which the whole family blames Violet for. Her family doesn’t want her to even come back to their small town.<\/p>\n

But in Portland, Maine, Violet runs into Harriet, the lady who ran the book club, in a book store – and also encounters Frank, the man whose wife died when Violet was driving drunk.<\/p>\n

One thing leads to another – also involving a job taking care of highly intelligent parrots – and I was super interested all the way, enjoying the company of these kind and wise people. (Well, Violet doesn’t always act wisely, but Harriet and Frank are there to help.)<\/p>\n

And of course it’s a book about the power of books to connect people and transform lives. And a book about second chances. And standing up for yourself even after you make bad mistakes.<\/p>\n

It’s also the sort of book that expands your heart.<\/p>\n

monicawood.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Fiction\/how_to_read_a_book.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

Subscribe<\/a> for more reviews and talk about books.<\/p>\n

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood read by Eileen Stevens HarperCollins, 2024. 10 hours, 18 minutes. Review written January 28, 2026, from a library eaudiobook. Starred Review First, a great big thank you to my friend Eileen, who recommended this book. I loved it so much! I mean, what’s not to like? It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,21,5,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audiobooks","category-contemporary","category-fiction-review","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46172"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46187,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46172\/revisions\/46187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}