Think a moment on the absolutely worst thing you’ve ever done in your life.  And I don’t mean that time you rushed by an old woman who’d dropped her purse on the floor, lip balms and prescription bottles rolling everywhere (I was in a hurry, but I still have guilt).  No, I mean THAT thing.  That thing you’re thinking about right now.  The thing I’M thinking about right now.  Maybe we should all share our thing, what do you think?  I’ll go first…

Yeah, nope.  Not happening.

But imagine if everyone DID know your horrible thing.  And imagine if that horrible thing was the thing for which you were judged for the rest of your life.  Then imagine if that thing was the only thing people thought of when you came into the room.  And what if every good thing you tried to do in your life was forever obliterated by the bad thing you had done?  This is the question Wood poses in her novel, How to Read a Book, a question several of the characters face as one is released from prison, one struggles with loneliness, and one is tired of feeling like a fraud every time he looks in the mirror.  Much like the rest of us, they’re all trying to figure out their story.  Where it begins.  Where it ends.  And what it all means.

Wood does a lovely job discussing loss and forgiveness in their truest sense.  Her characters don’t shy away from their terrible actions and choices.  And Wood makes no attempt to whitewash the horror of that “bad thing” one of her characters commits.  Instead, we see this character (and others) learn that our lives are comprised of more than one story.  Our story is not the worst thing we’ve done.  Nor is it the greatest.  We are, in short, the sum total of a multitude of stories throughout our lifetimes.  Some beginning, some ending, some overlapping, all arching toward what we hope is the best of ourselves.

Oh! I almost forgot to tell you about Ollie, the African grey parrot that will make you want to adopt him.  If you love animals, you must read this book!  Also read the book if you’re feeling like you need to start a new story in your own life.  Or if you’re feeling you need a little hope, some reassurance that people can change.  That life is not static, and that sometimes when we think we’re grieving an end, we’re actually on page one of a whole new story.

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