Let's Bust a Recap : The Wednesday Letters

The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright was published in 2007, and I read it totally by accident.

Yes, you read that right. I read it on accident. How does one read a book by accident, you ask? Great question. I discovered this book while wandering around The Book Shelter, and after a couple separate trips where it caught my eye and I picked it up, it finally made it home with me. (Very similar to how I probably read the back of Maisie Dobbs at least five times before I bought it.) Since The Book Shelter opened in 2018, my library of contemporary literature has exploded. I have a much easier time justifying my book-buying habits when I'm buying secondhand and only spending a couple bucks on a book I may or may never have heard of. It's how I discovered books like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and The Light Between Oceans. 

The Wednesday Letters falls into the category of books I'd never heard of. This still doesn't explain how I read it "by accident" but don't worry, I'm getting there. I mean, is it even me if I don't give you a complete history of how a book came to be in my library and why I ended up reading it?? Anyway, these stacks of books come home with me from The Book Shelter, I somehow squeeze them into my already full shelves, and there they sit for only the Lord knows how long until I'll get around to reading them. Even as I'm buying them, I have zero intention of reading them any time soon and definitely not in the year I bought them because, believe it or not, I really do try to stick to my yearly book lists. 

But one day a few months ago, I pulled The Wednesday Letters off my shelf for an Instagram post of all things. (Oh Instagram, you time vampire.) Whitney at The Unread Shelf had created a book bingo game for everyone during all the initial lockdown craziness, and I pulled this book because one of her categories was a "red book" and as you can see, this book is all red. 

As I was putting these books away (by the way, I've actually read three of these since taking this photo), The Wednesday Letters somehow fell open, my eyes began to scan the first paragraph, and 24 hours later, I realized I had finished the whole book. 

Y'all. I could not stop reading it. So far this year, The Wednesday Letters is winning the most readable book award. 

After Jack and Laurel Cooper die in each other's arms, their three children come home and discover thousands of letters that Jack had written to Laurel every Wednesday of their nearly 40-year marriage. Obviously, the kids get some insight into their parents they'd never had before, and a shocking family secret none of them ever suspected comes to light.  

I loved it. I was along for the ride with the Cooper kids as they made one discovery about their parents after another, and I literally couldn't stop reading until the last page. There's even a cutie little "hand-written" epilogue letter pasted into the back of the book.

The Wednesday Letters spent time on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller lists, and Jason F. Wright actually wrote a sequel to it in 2011 called The Wedding Letters; but The Wednesday Letters definitely stands on its own, and even though Wright has written 16 other books, I'm not rushing out for more. 

This one, though, I would recommend, particularly if you're looking for something highly readable to bust you out of a reading slump. It was easy, absorbing, and I didn't see the twist coming. If you read it, I'd love to hear what you think!

Have you ever read a book on accident? Do you buy books even if you know you probably won't get to them any time soon?