How to Read a Book by Monica Wood

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood is a lovely novel that tells the interwoven stories of Violet Powell, Harriet Larson, and Frank Daigle. Powell is a twenty-two-year old released from prison after a drunk driving crash that kills a local teacher. Larson is a retired English teacher who leads the prison book club which Powell was a part of. Frank is a retired machinist who was married to the woman killed in the car crash.

The jacket notes it a hopeful story about letting go of guilt, seizing second chances, and the power of books to change our lives. When the women at book club, they've they’re not just the crimes that put them in jail. Every week they would start by saying, “I am a reader. I am intelligent, I have something worthy to contribute.”

Violet, Harriet, and Frank meet in a bookstore in Portland, Maine. Violet was buying the novel she was reading in prison book club when released. Harriet choosing the next title for the club to read, and Frank working as the handyman at the store. Violet and Harriet were surprised to see each other and Frank and Violet shocked at meeting. Violet felt an overwhelming guilt about her crime, and Frank as well felt bad about scaring Violet with his reaction to seeing her in the store. Forgiveness is a thread that runs through the book and in fairly short order, the three became friends.

It comes out that Frank’s late wife Lorraine was planning on leaving him prior to the accident, and had told their daughter Kristy that Frank having an affair, not the opposite which was true. Harriet gets Violet a job as a lab assistant at the university, working with Dr. Petrov, an animal behaviorist who studies the intelligence of birds, parrots Bob, Alan, Oliver, and Charlotte, all able to speak and understand English. Then fellow book club member Dawna-Lynn escaped from prison and came to Harriet's house, while she, Violet, and Frank there. It's a fun and a lovely book, with people who care for one another, and has a nice postscript about their later lives.

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali is a novel that begins in 1950s Iran. Seven-year-old Ellie's father dies and she and her mother have to move. In Ellie's first day of school, she meets a fellow student, Homa. 

The two become fast friends, with the irrepressible and brave Homa often leading Ellie to new experiences. Ellie's mom takes up with her late husband's brother, Massoud, and the three move to a wealthy neighborhood. Later, Ellie in high school has Homa reenter her life, joining her school from the neighborhood where they met. 

The Shah had taken control of Iran, away from the democratically elected prime minister. From fourth grade, Homa wanted to be a judge, and Homa's father had been imprisoned by the Shah's regime for supporting people's rights. Ellie met a fellow student, Mehrdad, and they began a relationship, and the three after graduation attended Tehran University, with Homa still aiming to set laws in the country. 

Homa was arrested for her part in student protests for women's rights and free speech, with Ellie accidentally making it happen, and went to jail. Homa was sexually assaulted in prison and came out pregnant. She was married by Mehrdad's friend Abdol, who loved her before she was arrested and was willing to marry Homa and help raise her child Bahar as his own. Had he not, Homa as a single woman with a child would have been a pariah. Abdol later died in a fire in a movie theater, with the doors having been locked to prevent people from fleeing to safety.

Ellie and Mehrdad married and she and Homa saw each other once when Bahar was a baby, and then again when she a teenager. Ellie and Mehrdad moved to New York, and Homa asked if seventeen-year-old Bahar could go live with them. Iran was becoming engulfed in protests and Homa stayed to fight for people's rights. In 1979 the Ayatollah took power and a mandatory headscarf for women, or hijab, became law. The book is about the repression of women in Iran, the "Lion Women" who fought bravely for rights, and a friendship through the years. It's an excellent read and a refrain from Homa throughout the book is to love madly.

Down the Drain by Julia Fox

Down the Drain by Julia Fox is a memoir that details the life of the actress from Uncut Gems from childhood to now. In the forward she writes "this is for the dreamers and the delinquents" and the takeaway from it feels to be how lucky she is to be alive and not in jail, with this in part because (as she writes) she's attractive.

The book starts in 1996, with her as a six-year-old landing in New York City from Italy. She came to the U.S. to live with her father, who wasn't incredibly interested in parenting. The Italy she left featured her also not terribly interested in parenting mother, and grandfather who basically raised her. It was a ridiculously chaotic childhood in New York, basically exhibit A in how not to raise kids, rather just let them raise themselves, with an environment of drugs, sex, violence, and stealing.

After she barely graduates from middle school, she goes back to Italy, then takes up with a guy there. She hates it and goes back to New York for a visit at Christmas. She takes up with a drug dealer for a couple days, then back to Italy. She then on her own gets a ticket back to New York to be with her violent, drug dealer guy. Her father put out a missing persons poster, one with her wrong birth year, height, and weight. 

She got arrested, barely passed drug tests while on probation, and then a job as a dominatrix, which led to her getting a sugar daddy who paid for everything for her. The book in a lot of ways is a detailing of depravity, with the seemingly endless stream of insane stories.

Enormous Wings by Laurie Frankel

Enormous Wings by Laurie Frankel tells the story of seventy-seven-year-old Pepper Mills. She moves into a retirement community in Austin, Texas, starts seeing another of the residents, and becomes pregnant. 

Other characters in the book include Pepper's children, Alice, Darcy, and Max, along with her ex-husband Roger, also a resident of the retirement community. Her grandchildren are seven-year-old twin boys Oliver and Pierre, and teenage girls Sari and Lola. In the retirement community, Pepper meets and starts a relationship with Moth Holden, and becomes friends with Maisie and Dot. 

The news of Pepper's pregnancy, possible as a side effect of an experimental cancer treatment decades earlier, gets out and people gawk at her and/or try to attach here to their various causes or business ventures. There's interesting things in the book about the lack of autonomy women have over their bodies depending on what state they live in, relationships they form, and things they do for one another, particularly Pepper for her granddaughter. 

Lola came to Pepper and said she was pregnant so they along with Moth drove to New Mexico so Lola could have an abortion. Shortly after, Pepper's baby girl, Bob, was born, and then Pepper became an abortion fairy, driving people across state lines to be able to have abortions. It's a nice book.