Catherine Newman Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Catherine Newman is an American published author.

She is known for her memoir Catastrophic Happiness and other memoir Waiting for Birdy, as well as the middle school book One Mixed-Up Night, Stitch Camp, a kids’ craft book, How to Be a Person and the how-to book What Can I Say?, and more full length fictional novels, such as We All Want Impossible Things and the novel Sandwich.

She is the author of Crone Sandwich, a Substack newsletter. She has contributed on a regular basis to publications such as O, The Oprah Magazine, Real Simple, the New York Times, Cup of Jo, Taste, The Washington Post, and more.

The author was born in 1968 and resides in Amherst, Massachusetts. She attended the Bronx’s Fieldston High School and went on to attend Amherst College, graduating in 1990. She attended the University of California and got her Ph.D. in literature at the Santa Cruz branch.

She is Jewish and her favorite book is The Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne Rich. She has not only been writing but has worked in hospice care.

Her memoirs were received extremely well, and Waiting for Birdy received positive reviews from Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly. Her second memoir was less well-received by Kirkus, who called Catastrophic Happiness ‘overly sentimental’.

Her fictional debut for adults was We All Want Impossible Things in 2022 from Harper. In it, she tells the story of two friends who have known each other for a long time and dealing with one of them slowly dying from ovarian cancer. The author says that she was inspired to write the book after a good friend passed away. Kirkus Reviews did review this book positively, calling the book ‘warm and remarkably funny’ that will make readers ‘laugh through their tears’. It was also deemed a ‘moving adult debut’ by Publishers Weekly.

She has written many different books not only for adults but for children and is recognized for her many unique works in this genre! Catherine says that she has also penned the blog about cooking and lifestyle, Ben & Birdy.

In the course of her writing Newman has had the opportunity to write about a variety of topics and subjects, from food to love to loss, eating, gender, teens, adults, babies, sex, death, politics, parenting, foraging, books, travel, holidays and more for all types of publications.

Catherine worked at Real Simple for a decade as the etiquette columnist. She also edits the kids’ cooking magazine ChopChop, which is nonprofit and has won a James Beard Award. Newman has contributed to various books and anthologies as well.

She has done readings, talks, commentaries on public radio, consulting, workshops, and appearances on television. She has a PhD and works at Amherst College as the secretary of creative writing.

We All Want Impossible Things is the first fictional book for adults from Catherine Newman. This book was first released in 2022 for readers to enjoy.

When it comes to your life, your best friend knows everything about you. They are the person who knows what you want, what you’re scared of, what secrets you are keeping, and everything about yourself even though you are not perfect.

Ash and Edi have been best friends for a long time, ever since they were little kids. It’s been over forty years that they have been close and they have seen each other through all of the milestones that life has to offer.

They’ve even stolen booze from their parents together, gotten into trouble, experienced a phase where they were all about Madonna together, gone to concerts like REM, attended wakes that came out of nowhere, gotten married, experienced infertility, and had children. You name it, they’ve gone through it together.

Ash knows that they have experienced so much together that when it comes to memory, Edi’s is like a back-up hard drive for hers. But everything changes immediately when Edi is diagnosed as having cancer that is terminal.

Just like that, Ash’s world totally changes overnight along with her friend. Every thing that she does ends up taking shape around caring for her friend. She makes watermelon cubes and chipped ice for her to have, and goes through music therapy, taking her snacks and even going on random outings into the night.

The two have been friends for so long that Ash cannot imagine a world without her friend. Edi may have cancer, but they are going to do everything that they can to pull every inch of joy that they can out of life while they still share it together. Together they can make some more memories and maybe even get through this together. No matter what happens, they’ll always have their time together and their beautiful friendship and love. Read this sweet and tear-tugging novel to experience it for yourself!

Sandwich is the second adult fictional novel to come out from Catherine Newman. This is the funny story of a family who goes on summer vacation and ends up going on a journey of their own.

Rocky has always looked forward to going to Cape Cod. Every year, their family gets away to the beach town and has for two decades. They’ve always been able to set up in the rental and start making great memories together, hanging out in the sun, having awesome meals together, and making all types of messes and sharing new memories.

Rocky now is going on vacation with her family, which includes her kids who are almost grown and her parents who are surely getting older. They want to have a wonderful vacation this year, but Rocky’s hormones are also out of control as menopause knocks at the door and her life is slowly changing.

She starts yearning and reliving the past while in the middle of a wonderful week where everything seems stable and yet changing at the same time. When Rocky has to deal with the past and the future of her family, she must start to accept that it might be time to admit the secrets that she has been keeping to her family. How will it go, and will it be a vacation to remember? Read this book to find out!