It’s a terrible day weather-wise here in Cambridge–slush almost a foot deep in some places. I wiped out on a sidewalk earlier which did not help me feel any better. A small sinus thing snuck up on me earlier this week. All of this is to say that now I am at home and I just finished reading Wrecker by Summer Wood, a book I heard about from a sales rep in D.C. a few weeks ago.

It’s about a boy named Wrecker, named so by his mother because of his destructive tendencies, who goes to live with his uncle Len on a farm north of San Francisco at the age of 3. His mother was sent to jail and as his only relative, Len reluctantly agrees to care for him. His own wife Meg has recently suffered an accident that left her brain damaged. Luckily the neighboring commune houses three women, whose lives Wrecker upturns, both literally and figuratively: Willow, Ruthie, and Melody. The novel traces how the boy affects each of these family over the years. I found it a touching and readable story.