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Everything Happens for a Reason
And Other Lies I've Loved
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4.2 • 280 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A meditation on sense-making when there’s no sense to be made, on letting go when we can’t hold on, and on being unafraid even when we’re terrified.”—Lucy Kalanithi
“Belongs on the shelf alongside other terrific books about this difficult subject, like Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air and Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal.”—Bill Gates
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY REAL SIMPLE
Kate Bowler is a professor at Duke Divinity School with a modest Christian upbringing, but she specializes in the study of the prosperity gospel, a creed that sees fortune as a blessing from God and misfortune as a mark of God’s disapproval. At thirty-five, everything in her life seems to point toward “blessing.” She is thriving in her job, married to her high school sweetheart, and loves life with her newborn son.
Then she is diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer.
The prospect of her own mortality forces Kate to realize that she has been tacitly subscribing to the prosperity gospel, living with the conviction that she can control the shape of her life with “a surge of determination.” Even as this type of Christianity celebrates the American can-do spirit, it implies that if you “can’t do” and succumb to illness or misfortune, you are a failure. Kate is very sick, and no amount of positive thinking will shrink her tumors. What does it mean to die, she wonders, in a society that insists everything happens for a reason? Kate is stripped of this certainty only to discover that without it, life is hard but beautiful in a way it never has been before.
Frank and funny, dark and wise, Kate Bowler pulls the reader deeply into her life in an account she populates affectionately with a colorful, often hilarious retinue of friends, mega-church preachers, relatives, and doctors. Everything Happens for a Reason tells her story, offering up her irreverent, hard-won observations on dying and the ways it has taught her to live.
Praise for Everything Happens for a Reason
“I fell hard and fast for Kate Bowler. Her writing is naked, elegant, and gripping—she’s like a Christian Joan Didion. I left Kate’s story feeling more present, more grateful, and a hell of a lot less alone. And what else is art for?”—Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love Warrior and president of Together Rising
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Kate Bowler's memoir—about being diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer at age 35—balances light and dark, humor and grief. The divinity scholar and author pays special attention to the reality that even those who live "good" lives have to deal with soul-crushing struggle—which goes against both the prosperity-gospel teachings Bowler wrote about in her first book (Blessed) and the American ideals of grit and perseverance. Bowler's knotty, questioning book offers a new perspective on living life to its fullest.
Customer Reviews
Amazing read
Kate is an extraordinary writer who weaves deep theology in with humor and practical experience of living with deep pain. This book is a beautiful moment of life and full of heart. Highly recommend!
Divinely written
Your story resonates with me as a nurse and a sister of a cancer patient. Eloquent and moving...I am not religious but I pray you can keep your magic cancer at bay and keep writing so I can hear more about you. I’m off to your podcasts now!
Much love Dear Kate ❤️
Compelling & Raw
This book gave me insight to the other side of a life coin I’ve never dealt with. It’s insightful, & every bit of of a ‘how to’ & ‘why’ as much as it is a ‘don’t even’ & ‘how come’ guide. Thanks for sharing your life, Kate. Many prayers for & your amazing crew❤️❤️🙏🏼🙏🏼🐾🐾