"Thirty-five-year-old Kate Bowler was a professor at the school of divinity at Duke, and had finally had a baby with her childhood sweetheart after years of trying, when she began to feel jabbing pains in her stomach. She lost thirty pounds, chugged antacid, and visited doctors for three months before she was finally diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer."

A very honest sharing of Kate's journey through a stage 4 cancer diagnosis and how it affected not only her life but also her family and friends too. Cancer affects the whole universe around the sufferer and it was great that someone actually acknowledged this in book form.

Very hard to read in places and not one for a joyful summer's afternoon, unfortunately.

I like the author's style of writing and found much of the book quite compelling. To me, she is a good, maybe even gifted, writer. I am unable to determine, though, where her beliefs lie. She rightly places some doubt on the prosperity gospel but what about the true gospel that doesn't promise that life will always be a bed of roses.

So, not exactly a book I would read for spiritual encouragement.

Although I appreciated some of the insight and advice in the book, I would not say I enjoyed it. I think some of the prosperity gospel information was what threw me off.

Bowler is funny and honest about just how terrible cancer can be. I so appreciated her perspectives on faith and how toxic positivity in the face of mortality can be anything but encouraging.

This is a memoir about the author’s life after she is diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. She tells about her life before, her family, her close friends, her beloved husband and their cherished little boy. She talks about her long struggle to even get a diagnosis. She talks about what it was really like and her thoughts and feelings in a candid way with some humor added in.

Kate Bowler a divinity professor who has everything in her life that she wants including a husband she loves and a young son. After suffering for some time with stomach pain, she is diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer.

This was an interesting read for me. First off I rarely read non fiction. Secondly, I loved reading how she processed her diagnosis specifically coming from a religious background. It definitely gives you things to think about. It’s hard not to wonder how you would feel if placed in similar circumstances.

This was a very sad and depressing book to read due to the content (a young mom with a baby dying from Stage 4 cancer), but I'm glad I read it. I'm about to turn 35 next month and have four kids, so it really hit home. My brother passed away suddenly last month in his 20s so I also felt it from the perspective. I really liked the appendices at the back (what to say/what not to say) because they were applicable to that situation as well. I found myself praying for Kate while reading the book and I hope God grants her a miracle so she can see her son grow up.

I found it very hard to relate to the author. I admire her faith and that it gives her great strength and comfort, but it's not really my cup of tea. When you remove the religion aspect, the book doesn't quite stand on it's own.

This was very interesting to read. It was especially interesting to read as a Jew who doesn't have as much exposure to Christianity. Good read.

I had one of my reviewers, Thea Leunk, cover this one:

Kate Bowler has cancer—stage IV colon cancer to be precise. A theology professor, a church historian, a wife, and the mother of a baby boy, she reels from her unexpected diagnosis. As she puts it in her memoir Everything Happens for a Reason (and Other Lies I’ve Loved), “One moment I was a regular person with regular problems. And the next, I was someone with cancer.” She goes on to share that her first response was to plead daily with God to save her: “a God of Maybe, who may or may not let me collect more years. It is a God I love, and a God that breaks my heart.”
Kate the human being is honest about her questions, her anger, and her fears. But this is not a book meant to provoke only our tears of sympathy; it will also provoke our tears of laughter. The author’s honest account of the reactions of others and their well-meaning words and prayers, as well as her stories of the amazing and clumsy things people do to support her, invite us to laugh along with her even as our hearts ache for her.
More importantly, Kate the theologian struggles with her—and our—desire, as people who believe in a loving and omnipotent God, to find a “good” reason for the tragedies in our lives. As a scholar of the prosperity gospel, she realizes that all of us want to claim just a slice of that same gospel; we want to know there is a holy and hidden logic behind this horrible thing that is happening to us. The heart of this book is about that struggle, and her conclusion is that there is no “good” reason for why bad stuff happens to us—that’s a lie, a lie we love to believe. God is not using us to prove anything.
There is no miraculous healing in this book; Kate ends her story not knowing what will happen next. All she knows is that “I will die, yes, but not today.” This book is for those of us who know someone with cancer and for those of us who don’t. This is a book for all of us who struggle with understanding why bad things happen to good people. This is a book that will make you cry and laugh in the same breath. This is a book for all of us who will die—just not today. (Random House)

This was a really interesting memoir about facing our mortality, very much like Paul Kalanithi's When Breath Becomes Air. Kate Bowler is diagnosed with stage IV cancer and must come to terms with the fact that she might very well die and that it is God's plan for her to do so. I love that she sort of questions a lot of the common stereotypical thoughts in the evangelical faith. Some believe that God blesses those who pray and ask, so why do some people die from horrible diseases and not others. Why are some suffering and others aren't? This book is thought-provoking and full of dark humor and I really enjoyed going on this journey with Bowler. *ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Given her Stage 4 cancer diagnosis, Kate Bowler could have written a gut-wrenching tear jerker. But she didn’t. She wrote a book that captures—with wit and wisdom—how her world has been turned upside down and inside out by cancer. What makes this book different (and hard to put down!) is the author’s strong and likable voice; it comes through clearly on every page. Even though the subject matter is grim, Bowler handles it well, infusing her story with spiritual insights that most anyone could understand. This reader appreciated the two appendices with examples and explanations of what not to say to someone who’s suffering (e.g., “In my long life, I learned that . . .”), as well as helpful suggestions for walking alongside a hurting friend.

Recommend!

A great spiritual memoir: funny, true, deeply challenging. It would be a great book club read for a church.

Everything Happens for a Reason by Kate Bowler is a startling memoir about courage, hope, and one woman's reaction to receiving the news that she has stage IV colon cancer.

First off, this book was emotionally hard to read! Kate is in her 30s and has a husband and child. I'm also in my 30s and am happily married with two kids. It's hard to imagine being told your life could be over because of a cancer diagnosis. Honestly, I can't even imagine it--it's the thing of nightmares. I can't fathom not being there to watch my kids grow up--I don't want to miss all of their firsts and big moments. Guess what? Neither does Kate. 

This memoir was well-written and hard to put down. Kate leads an interesting life. She grew up in the Prosperity gospel and teaches as a divinity professor. Yet when her body is wracked with cancer and well-wishers make comments like "everything happens for a reason" and "God has a plan," she struggles. For what reason does she has cancer, and what exactly is God's plan? She has a hard time coming to terms with what her faith says about death and dying versus her new reality.

I appreciated the book's raw sincerity. Kate is honest, transparent, and even a bit snarky and sarcastic at times. She's very real, and reading this almost felt as though you were having a chat with her over a cup of coffee. 

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book. It was poignant, insightful, and also inspirational. Kate is a fighter, and she's not willing to back down from the fight until all options have been explored. If I were to face similar news, I can only hope I would be just as commanding in my decision to battle onward. 

Should you read this book? If you appreciate memoirs, this was a great book to read. If reading about cancer makes you anxious, it's best to steer clear. 

Thank you to NetGalley for providing the Kindle version of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This review will be posted on my blog on April 6, 2018: https://thriftybibliophile.com

I'd like to thank the publishers for giving me a digital copy of this book through netgalley.

I found her story and courage to be inspiring. I admire her for sharing what has to be one of the hardest times of her life. I did not, however, like the book. It was confusing and hard to read- it seemed to skip around in a way that didn't make sense and left somethings unfinished and unresolved. I didn't see the point of some of the stories she included from her past- it wasn't clear why they were included in her story- did they teach her something, bring about some resolution or insight? I don't know. It was obvious she has a strong religious background and testimony, but I'm also not sure of what. Sometimes it seemed very positive and strong about her choice of religion, at other times it seemed to discount it. I was just left confused by the book- but still in admiration of her.

I do not have words for this gift Kate Bowler has given us of her truth and her words. If you have not read this book, you simply must.

This book was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for a review. Don't want to give a thing away. Read this book. Now!! SO great! You won't be able to put it down! Loved! I'd give it 10 stars if I could!!

WOW! When I got this galley, I didn't know how much emotion this book would bring out of me. Kate told her story so beautifully and she had me laughing and crying many times throughout the book. This memoir stands up to the likes of When Breath Becomes Air and The Bright Hour. Definitely a must-read for fans of Kalanithi and Riggs.

Kate Bowler’s memoir Everything Happens For A Reason is quite simply the most powerful book that I have read in the past year—and I read hundreds of books. I would even go so far as to say it has transformed my life, and the way that I think about the kingdom of God.

Bowler is a thirty something professor at Duke Divinity School, graduate of Yale and Duke, published author, and a loving wife and. mother of a two-year-old son when she finds out that she has incurable cancer. How Bowler deals with her situation is recounted in this memoir. The memoir is filled with clarity, humor, pain, hope, wisdom, and so many other things. It is truly a gift.

Bowler began writing it while undergoing chemotherapy: “I start to write. In bed, in chemo chairs, in waiting rooms, I try to say something about dying in a world where everything happens for a reason.”

The resulting memoir contains so many profoundly expressed descriptions of life, faith and the people around her:

“At a time when I should have felt abandoned by God, I was not reduced to ashes. I felt like I was floating, floating on the love and prayers of all those who hummed around me like worker bees, bringing notes and flowers and warm socks and quilts embroidered with words of encouragement. They came in like priests and mirrored back to me the face of Jesus. When they sat beside me, my hand in their hands, my own suffering began to feel like it had revealed to me the suffering of others, a world of those who, like me, are stumbling in the debris of dreams they thought they were entitled to and plans they didn’t realize they had made“

“Everything feels strange and slow. On pain medication and without clocks, I can’t say for sure if it is still the same day as my diagnosis, the day of my surgery, or if they are one and the same. The first indication I have that it has been two days since my diagnosis is that the church is keeping vigil. This will turn out to be one of the great advantages of working at Duke Divinity School—all my friends are pastors. My colleagues teach pastors, my friends are pastors, and my students are going to be pastors. There is a flood of pastors not only in my room but in the nearby waiting room and in the divinity school’s own chapel, where the community had decided to come together and pray me through my surgery. They gathered in the warm wood sanctuary and sang hymns and read Scripture and prayed thick, layered prayers in a way that only desperate people can. When the main service ended, they came to the hospital and traded off like relay runners, each praying for me until relieved. Some are close friends and some are acquaintances, and most are much, much smarter than I am. So it pleases me to no end to find out later that the most serious scholars I have ever known—authors of weighty books and owners of many velvet smoking jackets—have cried snotty tears as they pleaded with God to extend my life. They are teaching me the first lesson of my new cancer life—the first thing to go is pride.”

Her words about her son are moving:

“Every morning I live the same moment. I can hear Zach over the baby monitor, squawking and mewing, and murmuring the first words, “Mama! Papa! Da-doo!” which, roughly translated, mean, “Mother, father, tractor, save me from this prison.”

It used to be the beginning of my favorite part of the day. I wake to the sounds of my son, and as I lift him out of his crib, warm milk waiting beside the change table, I have reinvented the world. I have rescued twenty pounds of chubby arms, legs, and cheeks and set him free to move about the house to identify toy tractors and bring fleece onesies back into fashion.

Ever since the diagnosis there has been a moment, in the minute between sleeping and waking, when I forget, when I have only a lingering sense that there is something I am supposed to remember. In the warmth of my bed, I am caught in webs of dreams. And then there is the flood. I am dying. I am dying. I am my son’s first goodbye. I am not the start of a great new day. I am a bright sunset.”

What is truly amazing is that Bowler intersperses a healthy dose of humor in with the sadness— like the section where she describes the movie version of a phase of her treatment:

“He is standing beside me now, and I grab his arm, pull him toward me, and say in a low, serious voice: “I had better not die looking into your eyes.” The nurses roar. I have mentally decided that when the Lifetime movie version of my life is made, the doctor will be played by Matthew McConaughey with firm instructions to always chew gum and be looking into the middle distance just past me. And I am Winona Ryder, and a thousand emotions will always flit over my perfect face.”

What a gift Bowler has given to the world in the form of this memoir. I highly recommend it. It was an honor to read and review it. Thank you Random House and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book.

I loved reading about Kate Bowler's journey, her reckoning with the future and rejecting the prosperity gospel in a time of her life where it's the easiest to accept. The view she offers as a cancer patient grappling with month-by-month uncertainty is eye-opening and uncomfortable to read. I was impressed with how Bowler managed humor and logical conclusions despite what she faces.

I enjoyed the idea of this book more than the book itself and was hoping that the author would tackle the prosperity gospel more than she did. I understand that she does this in another book of hers, but this was still a well-marketed and prime opportunity to break down, at least a little bit, why the prosperity gospel is a lie—even and especially as she fights cancer. I suppose where some reviewers thought the book was "too religious," I thought it could've gone there even more in a powerful way. The writing was also a bit scattered. Nonetheless, it's a great memoir that is well worth checking out (3.5 stars). I'd also recommend many of the articles she has written for the NY Times and others that provide additional context around much of what she says in the book.

*This review is based on a free digital advance copy provided by the publisher. The opinions expressed are my own.