Catherine Newman and Bittersweet Motherhood

The Book Case

ABC News

Fiction, Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.7 • 913 Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Catherine Newman’s latest, Wreck, is a beautiful meditation on the act of motherhood. Revisiting the family from Sandwich as they enter a new phase of familial life. We all know that successful parents raise kids just to lose them to the world, and that this launch into independence is something we all desperately hope for and deeply dread. Funny, touching and compulsively readable this is a novel about the beauty and pain of family, who have so much to lose when they have so much to love. Find books mentioned on The Book Case: https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/shop/story/book-case-podcast-reading-list-118433302 Books mentioned in this week's episode: Wreck by Catherine Newman Sandwich by Catherine Newman We all Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman Waiting for Birdy by Catherine Newman The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers Heart the Lover by Lily King Moby Dick by Herman Melville Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	911. What is the address to emergency?
0:04.2	This 911 call began an investigation that would turn the town of Ashland, Ohio, into a crime scene.
0:11.9	We've got something big going on here.
0:13.8	The first thing you hit my mind is a monster.
0:16.7	A new series from ABC Audio in 2020.
0:20.7	The Hand in the Window.
0:23.6	Out now, wherever you listen to podcasts.
0:31.4	Welcome bookcases.
0:37.3	Welcome readers all.
0:39.4	We're happy to have you with us.
0:41.3	Halloween is passed.
0:42.9	You will now face the yearly question.
0:45.4	What do I do with all that leftover candy?
0:48.1	Go ahead, indulge yourself, eat it.
0:50.4	It's a lovely time to think that you can eat candy with impunity. Hi, Kate. Yeah, I agree. The number of times in the last, I don't know, 48 hours that the thought has popped into my head, damn it, it's my candy. You know, I can eat it if I want to. It's kind of remarkable how often that thought has crossed my mind. I also want to say Halloween is the one time of year that I want Nuget. There's no other time of the year that anybody really wants Nuget. Just Halloween for whatever reason is just anyway. The word Nougat turns me off to begin with. By the way, thank you for the pictures of your children on Halloween night. What did they do? Did they go out for eight hours?
1:30.0	About that. It felt like that. They must have started at four and went to midnight.
1:33.9	In Minnesota, October 31st, really doesn't matter how long you go out. It feels like eight hours because it's so cold. This time it was not icy, so I could at least, I didn't have to wear clampons. I could just, you know, carry the umbrella and it was okay. But they really hit it hard this year. They really did. They did very well. They did very, very well. To define that as a pile is to understate what it was. Do you portion it out to them or do they have free rein on their stash?
2:01.2	No, they do not have free rein on their stash. That's ridiculous. I'm not suicidal.
2:05.7	Well, then their stash is going to last them well into the new year.
2:09.4	Anyway, good to have all of you with us.
2:12.7	This week we are featuring Catherine Newman. If you remember back, well, year and a half.
2:17.4	She wrote a wonderful book called Sandwich,
	...

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