How to Read a Book

A fatal drunk driving accident and a prison book club set the stage for Wood’s heartwarming if simplistic story of second chances (after The One-in-a-Million Boy). An intoxicated Violet Powell, 22, gets behind the wheel (the reasons why come out later) and kills Lorraine Daigle, a 61-year-old kindergarten teacher. Convicted of vehicular manslaughter and given a nearly two-year sentence, Violet is deeply remorseful and grateful for the prison book club led by Harriet Larson, a retired English teacher and widow. While visiting a bookstore, Harriet runs into an older man who turns out to be Lorraine’s widower, Frank, a retired machinist. In chapters from Frank’s point of view, the reader learns that his new job as handyman for the bookstore has given him a sense of purpose since Lorraine’s death the previous year. Then Violet is released early from prison, and she crosses paths with Harriet and Frank at the shop. The novel improves in the second half with an immersive section on Violet’s job assisting a scientist on researching cognition in parrots, and there are some poignant revelations about how she came to drive drunk that night and about the Daigles’ marriage. Unfortunately, the minor-key plot is fairly predictable. This one’s a bit too formulaic to stay with readers for long. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman Literary. (June)