We All Want Impossible Things: The funny, moving Richard and Judy Book Club pick 2023

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Edi is dying. Ash is her best friend. They have been for over 42 years. What is beautiful about this story is that the author achieved something that is difficult. She talks about death with humor. And we as readers can be present – albeit with Kleenex. Tragically funny, with moments of clarity and wisdom, Newman writes loss and laughter in equally brilliant amounts. ' BONNIE GARMUS Mikki Brammer's The Collected Regrets of Clover is a big-hearted and life-affirming debut about a death doula who, in caring for others at the end of their life, has forgotten how to live her own, for readers of The Midnight Library. The novel’s premise, however, is hard to swallow. If Edi has only weeks to live, would she really leave her husband, Jude, and 7-year-old son – forever-- to die at a hospice three hours away, merely because Ash and Jude can’t find a hospice nearer to her New York City home within their first few hours of phone calls? Wouldn’t Edi want to spend every last minute with her family? How about staying at home and hiring a temporary aide or nurse while her companions continue searching for a closer hospice?

Is it fair to rate a book so harshly just because you despise the main character? I don't know but I am. Full of humour, warmth and eye-popping honesty ... a beautiful, candid and uplifting testament to female friendship that will make you laugh and cry WOMAN & HOME We All Want Impossible Things is ostensibly a novel about death—but it pulses with life ... . full of moments both mundane and painful, hilarious and heartbreaking ... . The complications of love, parenting and saying goodbye all mingle together in rich detail. Two random things: I have a PhD, and I'm the secretary of Creative Writing at Amherst College. (catherinenewmanwriter.com) A book begging to be read on the beach, with the sun warming the sand and salt in the air: pure escapism.I have written the grown-up parenting memoirs Catastrophic Happiness (Little, Brown) and Waiting for Birdy (Penguin). I have also written the middle-grade novel One Mixed-Up Night (Random House), Stitch Camp, which is a kids' craft book I co-wrote with my friend Nicole, and the award-winning bestselling skill-building books for kids How to Be a Person and What Can I Say? (both from Storey). My first adult novel, We All Want Impossible Things, is out now. This is not an easy book to read, despite the deft touch, we go through the death watch with Ashley. The author injects the ironic note of Ashley’s sexual reawakening as the life force drains from her dearest friend. Emma Beddington Tears and laughter: We All Want Impossible Things, by Catherine Newman, reviewed When Edi is moved to palliative care, her best friend Ash keeps vigil at her bedside, recalling their lifetime of shared jokes and experiences This is a very poignant story of the deeply moving friendship between 2 women, Edi and Ashley. When Edi is facing death from terminal ovarian cancer, it is Ashley who becomes her caretaker. The strange situation is caused when the best hospice care for Edi is near Ashley’s home. For the last two days I have done nothing but read this book or think longingly about when I can return to reading this book. It's sad, and confronting, and comforting, and life-affirming all at the same time. Congrats, Catherine Newman, on an astonishing debut. KATIE BISHOP, author of THE GIRLS OF SUMMER

Newman perfectly captures the beauty and burden of caring for someone in their final moments while showing the gift of Edi and Ash's once-in-a-lifetime friendship. A warm and remarkably funny book that will make readers laugh through their tears. KIRKUS Already the winner of numerous awards, Elliott’s debut tells the heartbreaking and, at times, harrowing story of eight years in the life of Dasani Coates. Coates’s family are homeless and on welfare benefits, and Elliott follows them through inadequate social housing and daily experiences of poverty, bureaucracy, hunger and violence. Shining a light on both the failings of the system and the clan’s desperate situation, it’s a justifiably enraging, moving and timely work. I have heard nothing but good things about [ We All Want Impossible Things] and they were all quite right - it's so warm and funny and full of great observations ... it looks set for rip-roaring success, deservedly so! CLARE CHAMBERS, author of SMALL PLEASURES Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.At the same time, Ash is dealing with her own midlife crisis. She still pines for her husband despite their separation, but that isn’t stopping her from sleeping with several different men. As she comes to terms with her best friend’s mortality, she’s also concerned about her daughters and what will happen to Edi’s husband and young son. When I started reading this book, I found myself indifferent to Ashley. Written in a first-person narrative, it was strictly Ashley talking about Ashley and my impression, from the synopsis, was this story would focus on the friendship between Ashley and Edith.