A tough book to read.

When your best friend is in a hospice, dying, of course you will do anything to help her to achieve whatever she wants.
The subject matter is dealt with sensitivity and just the right about of humour and reality.

But, I didn't like either of the characters and when looking to escape in to a book, I need to at least understand someones point of view and I didn't get that with this book.

Sadly.

Edi is dying from ovarian cancer. She has moved to a hospice, and does not have much time left.
The book is written from the perspective of her best friend, Ash.
At times funny, at times sad, and sometimes annoying. I did not find Ash a particularly likeable character (I don't know whether the author intended to make her rather annoying).
This is a very sad topic, but for some reason I did not find the book sad. Perhaps it was the rather light style of writing.
I think there is a very good book in there, but it just didn't quite hit the mark for me.

Such a beautiful read, sad but really written well for such a sensitive subject.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

Beautiful but heartbreaking read. This story was written with sensitivity and just the right amount of humour. Would highly recommend.

Ash’s best friend, Edi, is in a Hospice receiving palliative care. Ash is beside Edi for her final few days reminiscing about their life together and love for each other.

I liked this book, but I couldn’t really relate to the characters or understand why the things Ash wanted, or thought she wanted, were impossible. It was well written and an average easy read. Although it’s sad story there’s some humour to lighten the mood.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Doubleday AND Catherine Newman for this book and the opportunity to review.

The writing in this book was very good. However, I felt that parts of the storyline was so unbelievable that I began not to care what was happening.

We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman is a debut novel about Ash and Edi who have been friends since childhood for over 40 years. Edi has ovarian cancer and moves from New York to a hospice in Massachusetts close to where Ash lives. Ash adapts to life centred around palliative care including getting to know the other residents, hunting for a lost recipe for Sicilian lemon polenta pound cake and processing various emotions as the inevitable conclusion approaches. I wouldn’t describe ‘We All Want Impossible Things’ as “riotously funny” like some of the other reviews, but it is a warm and life-affirming novel with light flashes of humour. Many thanks to Random House for sending me a review copy via NetGalley.

Um, not sure where to start with this one. Yes it has humour, no it's not laugh out loud. A sad subject and a good caricature of women, children and husbands, Yet it lost me part way through. The subject is narrow and repetitive and I found this tedious,

This is one of those books that when you finish it, you are not quite sure what to feel - well I was anyway. I liked it but I found the characters annoying? I think its one where you have to wait a while and ponder it. I am unsure!

Not sure where to start with this one, I wasn’t feeling it at all until about halfway through and then I started to empathise with the main character a bit, there were some trying to hard to be funny bits along with some actually funny bits and then I felt that the ending was quite nice, if nice is the right way to describe it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

So much of this book appealed to me, not least how much people who's book judgement I trust, that I started this with high hopes.
Sadly it became one of the most annoying books I've read in several months. In trying to be liberal and openminded I found the author had created characters that were annoying in the extreme and remained thoroughly one dimensional.
Its great that there are books about caring, dying, and end of life care but this book just annoyed me from start to finish.

What a wonderful book this is! I started reading with trepidation, but as I read, I realised that this isn’t just a book about dying, it’s about the living right up until you die. It’s a book about life - and about having a good death. It’s incredibly moving, I wouldn’t say it’s depressing or morose at all, in fact I would say that it’s life affirming.

Edi and Ash have been best friends since childhood. When Edi is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Ash offers to take her home to where she lives, so that her young son doesn’t have to watch her final weeks.

The hospice that Edi stays in is full of interesting characters: from the patient who plays Fiddler on the Roof at full glorious volume, to the doctor who reminds Ash of one of the Sopranos, and a musician who can play any song you request.

This is a book of laughter and sadness, of letting go and moving on. Ash is a wonderful friend with a rather messy, frankly hilarious, sex life. Ash and Eli’s relationship is truly special.

We All Want Impossible Things is a touching novel that had me laughing and crying in equal measure, as well as bringing back memories of my own experiences.

This book really is worth reading. Utterly beautiful.

What a beautiful and life affirming book!

Edi is dying from cancer and moves into a hospice near her friend Ash, away from her husband and son. The story focuses on her final weeks and is essentially a celebration of life and a good death - making the most of your final days, celebrating the people we love and reliving our best memories.

It was beautifully written, especially on such a difficult topic and Ash was a fantastic main character - she makes some hilarious (and bizarre) choices in her grief but you see her muddling through and trying to do her best not only for Edi but also her family and friends.

A wonderful book that although is on the surface about the end of life, really feels to be about making the most of every moment.

This book was a real surprise to me though ultimately very enjoyable. I had not realised it would be a book about end of life care. It did have some very amusing moments but was very gut wrenching at times. The main character was quite unsympathetic in her behaviour and her children didn’t feel entirely real with their endless understanding.

Ash’s world is falling apart, her best friend of over forty years is dying from terminal cancer. How do you cope with such news? Well for Ash, there’s only one thing to do, reshape her world around Edi’s care and squeeze out every single second of joy before the awful inevitable happens.

I’m very torn about this book. There was a lot I enjoyed; their friendship between Ash and Edi was well constructed and felt authentic. However, it took me a while to warm to Ash and sometimes I found her frustrating as she was quite destructive with her choices. Although I understand this was her way of navigating the situation, it came across a little self-indulgent and over the top.

I also found the premise a little unusual, that Edi’s care was take away from her family and moved to a care home near her best friend three hours away. I just couldn’t get my head around her loving husband being okay with this.

That being said, I enjoyed the cast of characters and I was engaged throughout. What felt real to me was the emotions involved, the painful, messy, erratic, unexplainable sides of grief.

However, the book could have just been heartbreakingly sad, but what we get is a book that is heartbreakingly sad, but is also funny, poignant and memorable; unexpectedly, I found myself thinking about Ash and Edi long after I’ve finished the book.

A good read, but not without its flaws.

This book made me think, it opened my eyes to the pain of someone who is dying from cancer. There was so much about the detail that I did not know.

But I did not understand how Edi’s husband would just hand over the support to Ash, his wife’s best friend rather than spending the last precious few weeks with his wife. I struggled with his and it affected how I then enjoyed the book.

All in all, a good read, I would rate it 3 stars.

Not too sure how I feel about this book. I thoroughly disliked the way it was set up and I would hate if Ash was a friend of mine. I tend to like most books I read, so it is unusual for me to take a strong reaction to one, but still appreciate it is well written and a lot of it was quite enjoyable.
It is Ash's story really and her life. Her friend is dying in a hospice and she's back and forth to Edi. We see and learn a lot about hospice activity and I loved the detail (eg on what was in the fridge, that there was a laundry room). What I found hard to believe was that Edi's husband left Ash to look after Edi, rather than spend time with his wife. And in the space of 3 weeks, Ash slept with 3 different people, including Edi's hospice doctor! I would like to read this story from Edi's perspective, and perhaps Jude too.
Many thanks to Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for the ARC.

What can I say? It’s a joy from start to finish. So warm, compassionate, moving and very very funny. I wanted to be friends with both of them and learn from them how to live like they did.

Unfortunately I really didn’t enjoy this book and gave up half way through. Sorry if this means someone who would have enjoyed it missed out

There was quite a lot going on here, but it was handled well. There's much to say here about loss, about joy and about relationships, and it's said well. It's really funny, it has excellent cultural references that resonated with me, and it will make you hug your friends really tight.