WeHa Book Club

*Spoiler Free Review*

New year, new book list! Coming off the biggest reading year of my life, it’s a little daunting to start from zero again. But hey, to new beginnings! I’m setting the same goal for myself as I did last year – 52 books, one per week. And like last year, I’m going to start with a title that’s a bit on the lighter side, just to get one in the ‘read’ column.

My 2025 journey started with Elevation, a short little novella from Stephen King. It got a perfectly middle-of-the-road 3 ½ stars from me; exactly what I was looking for at the time, especially with bigger King undertakings like The Stand and The Dark Tower series on the horizon.

This year, I’ve decided to kick things off with the newest Catherine Newman release, Wreck, taking place two years after the events of 2024’s Sandwich and set back at home in the suburbs of Western Massachusetts.

With a writing style reminiscent of Elizabeth Strout but with slightly rougher edges, the “Rocky” series focuses on Rachel, nicknamed Rocky, a woman in her mid-50s who finds herself ‘sandwiched’ between the lives of her adolescent children and her aging parents, while attempting to navigate her own everchanging worldview.

While Sandwich falls short of anything particularly profound – if you’re looking for that, I seriously can’t recommend Elizabeth Strout enough – it was an enjoyable enough experience to land the Wreck on my “To Read” list.

And I’m happy to report that the follow-up was a much more enjoyable read than its predecessor. With a more cohesive thematic throughline – not always necessary in a slice-of-life novel but helpful in this case – each character is allowed to stand on their own two feet and really shine to the best of their capabilities.

Sandwich felt as if the characters were simply acquaintances that you may or may not say hello to at the grocery store, while Wreck made you feel as if you were part of the family. A three-dimensional portrait of modern-day life in New England, I felt uplifted while reading this book; an emotion that was often lacking from its Cape Cod companion.

Our insightful and humorous protagonist and her husband Nick, a slightly less cartoonish but similarly tempered Phil Dumphy-type, provide an aspirational, yet grounded example of what a healthy long-term partnership really looks like. Perfect? Certainly not, but a life well-lived nevertheless.

Newman beautifully navigates the family dynamics between two distinct generational divides, exploring the clash of past, present and future under one roof. Perhaps it’s just where I am in my own life, but I find this ‘bridging of the gap’ between children, parents and grandparents to be a particularly interesting subject matter.

Wreck by Catherine Newman was a quick and pleasant read. A good palate cleanser if you’ve been reading a lot of dense, weighty books lately. Get yourself on a library wait list (pretty long at the moment, at least in my neck of the woods), and give this one a shot. Probably not worth owning unless you’re just into the beautiful autumn cover art but that’s what borrowing books is for. And I wouldn’t say it’s 100% necessary to read Sandwich first, either.

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Wreck by Catherine Newman