Two Stories, One Heart
Let’s start the year in my usual style - with some emotional books!
Some books find their way into your hands at just the right moment, and Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall and We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman are two that hit me straight in the heart in 2024. Both are completely different, yet both explore love, loss, and the power of human connection in ways that will stay with you and hopefully have you recommending them to a friend.
📚 Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall
This book had me hooked and broke me more than once along the way. Looking for Jane weaves together the lives of three women across generations, all connected by a secret underground network supporting women seeking abortions when the law—and society—failed them. It’s a story about choice, resilience, and the sacrifices women make for themselves and others.
Marshall’s writing is both beautiful and unflinching. She doesn’t sugarcoat the struggles faced by her characters, but she fills their stories with so much hope and love that you can’t help but root for them. It reminded me how far we’ve come and how fragile progress can be—a timely and deeply moving reminder of the fight for women’s rights. This one is for anyone who loves stories that blend history with emotion, where every character feels like someone you might know—or someone you wish you could have been there for.
📚 We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman
I’ll be honest—this one destroyed me. It’s a slim book that somehow contains everything: friendship, grief, laughter, and the devastating beauty of saying goodbye. The story follows Ash and her best friend Edi, who is in hospice care, as they navigate the messiness of life, love, and loss. It’s heartbreakingly sad but also unexpectedly funny. I laughed out loud even as I wiped away tears.
Newman has a way of writing that feels so real and warm, it’s like sitting down with an old friend who knows exactly what to say. Ash’s voice is sharp and hilarious, even in the face of unbearable grief. It’s a book that reminds you how precious friendship is, how love lives on in the moments we share, and how even the impossible things—like letting go—can hold moments of joy. I finished it feeling both gutted and grateful.
Both of these books ask you to sit with the hard stuff: grief, loss, injustice, and love in all its complicated forms. They’re messy, tender, and so beautifully human. If you’re looking for stories that make you feel everything, Looking for Jane and We All Want Impossible Things are the books for you. Five stars for both—because life is too short to read bad books.