We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman

Friday Book Friends: Book Beginnings on Fridays, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop 

I've been intending to join these fun book memes for many years, and I finally got around to trying these out on Fridays in December. I plan to continue participating in 2023.

Today's Featured Book:

We All Want Impossible Things 

by Catherine Newman

Genre: Fiction

Published: December 19, 2022

Page Count: 210 pages

Synopsis: Edith and Ashley have been best friends for over forty-two years. They’ve shared the mundane and the momentous together: trick or treating and binge drinking; Gilligan’s Island reruns and REM concerts; hickeys and heartbreak; surprise Scottish wakes; marriages, infertility, and children. As Ash says, “Edi’s memory is like the back-up hard drive for mine.” 

But now the unthinkable has happened. Edi is dying of ovarian cancer and spending her last days at a hospice near Ash, who stumbles into heartbreak surrounded by her daughters, ex(ish) husband, dear friends, a poorly chosen lover (or two), and a rotating cast of beautifully, fleetingly human hospice characters.

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY is hosted by Rose City Reader. What book are you happy about reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) on BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY! Add the link to your blog or social media post and visit other blogs to see what others are reading.

Happy Friday and welcome to the FIRST LINE FRIDAY, hosted by Reading is My Superpower! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line.

She says, "What?" and Jude says, "Edi." She hears it in his voice, turns to him and says, "What?" again, but I'm already starting to cry a little bit.

"S---," she says. "No, no. You guys." She wrings her hands. "I'm not ready for this. Whatever this is. What is this?"

Here's what this is: Out in the hallway, Jude had asked about Edi's treatment. "Isn't she supposed to get her infusion today?" he'd said, and the nurse had said cheerfully, "Nope! We're all done with that." And so, it seemed, we were. Nobody exactly talked to us about this decision. It was like it had already happened, in some other time and place. You order a burger and the kitchen makes an executive decision in the back. "We're out of burgers," your server says. "There's just this plate of nothing with a side of morphine and grief."

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice. To play, open a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence or two and post them, along with the book title and author. Then link up on Freda's Voice and visit others in the linky. 

Violet, paged away by another patient, calls back to me, "Get her to go in the hat, okay?" The hat is a kind of bucket in the toilet that measures something about the volume of urine or maybe its composition. But after we successfully navigate the wheelchair and the bathroom and the IV pole and the leggings, the fact of the hat makes Edi unable to pee. "Sorry," she says. "I'm having performance anxiety. Hang on."

"Please," I say. "Edi. Take your time. We're not in a massive rush to get home and lie around depressively."

The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.    

January 6th - 12th - What was the first book you read this year? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)

Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to Happiness by Bill Bailey