Heartbreaking doesn't begin to describe the emotional territory navigated in this memoir of the life, illness and death of a vibrant young mother stricken with metastatic colon cancer at the age of 37. The miracle of the title refers to the author's survival and good fortune against all odds, as a baby born blind in Vietnam in the late 1970s, a country impoverished and in disarray. Escape to America, topnotch medical attention, and an Ivy League education furthered her miraculous life trajectory. A high-power legal career, love and motherhood completed the perfect picture. But too soon the unwinding began.

How can an intense, take-charge person deal with the loss of control imposed by incurable illness? How might a philosophical, articulate woman ponder the possibility of dying? How should a "tiger mom" prepare her young daughters for a future that most likely will not include her? Julie Yip-Williams became a blogger. Her blog evolved into a book that brings her vividly and lastingly to life. In it she recounts, with unflinching honesty and in great detail, the course of her illness. As she faced each challenge, I found myself examining my own life, my strengths and weaknesses, and my own beliefs about life and death.

A well-written and extraordinarily moving memoir by a talented and courageous writer, this is a book and an individual I know I won't forget.  Highly recommended.

I really loved this book. It reminded me a lot of When Breath Becomes Air. It is a book that you go into knowing you will like it but end with the life being sucked out of you and feeling so attached to the author and devestated they are gone.

I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. I feel sadness for her situation, of course. It seems so unfair.
However, I could not appreciate how she tells the story. I found myself weary of the retelling of her early childhood trauma with her eyesight..

This is almost too sad- but also too loving- to review. Julie Yip-Williams should not have gotten colon cancer, no she should not have. This woman overcame so much in her life and then was hit with this diagnosis even as she was in a good place with her young family. This is unflinching but it's also thoughtful. There's no poor me here, only clear desire to grow old with her family. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It's a very good and also humbling read.

Julie Yip-Williams was a 37-year-old with a successful career as a lawyer, married and the mother of two small daughters when she was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer. She was born in View Nam to Chinese parents after the war ended. She was born with congenital cataracts and her grandmother wanted the parents to take her to an herbalist for something to make her go to sleep permanently. Luckily, the herbalist said no. They escaped by boat and came to America where Julie had surgery for her cataracts but was declared legally blind due to very poor vision. This did not keep her from being a top student and finding love, marriage and motherhood. This book chronicles her struggles with the cancer diagnosis, multiple surgeries, treatments including chemotherapy and radiation, alternative treatments, setbacks and trying to take care of her family. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this very sad and inspiring book.

This book is a sobering, depressing, yet powerful testament to the author's experience with colon cancer. She tried every conceivable approach to beat it, but invariably it won. Yip- Williams is brutally honest, frank, and blunt with her experiences, emotions, breakdowns, and struggles. That's the most powerful part of her memoir. I loved reading about her personal history and her family's story. I hated reading about all her tests, procedures, and how progressively worse she was. Ultimately, her parting advice was live for the day and take those risks. Good advice to heed. There is a touching epilogue from her husband. This memoir is truly worth reading, if just to be grateful for what we each have.

#NetGalley #TheUnwindingOfTheMiracle Publication Date: January 8, 2019

This well-written story chronicles the author's struggles with metastatic colon cancer. Julie Yip-Williams was born in Vietnam to Chinese parents. Because she had extremely poor eyesight, her grandmother instructed the parents to do the right thing and end Julie's life. According to Grandmother, a blind baby would be most unhappy and a drag on the family.

Though the parents half-heartedly followed this advice, Julie's life was spared by circumstances and soon the family moved to the United States, where they find Julie has severe cataracts. She gets some medical help correcting her eyes, but is still left with extremely bad sight.

In time she earns a law degree at Harvard, travels, and hikes in Europe by herself (mostly to prove her independence and self-worth), and eventually marries.

Her diagnosis of cancer comes in 2013. A time when she has only enjoyed her marriage for a few years and has two very young girls. Because of Julie's determination, she immediately takes charge of the situation by doing research to fight her disease.

Her story takes the reader in all directions: religion, emotions, family, regrets, and much more.

My Thoughts

What Concerned Me: While the book is extremely well written, it did feel a little too long for the content.

What I Liked Most: Though Julie writes about the depth of her grief and unhappiness, she also manages to include things that cause the story to be uplifting and inspirational.


She demonstrates such determination during her short life, that her actions and attitude alone should help many of her readers, myself included, step out of their comfort zone and occasionally pity parties.

Given the subject matter, I feel terrible even writing this review - they say one should never speak unkindly of the dead. That's not what I wish to do here, anyway - I simply want to warn the living.

Unless you are greatly helped by reading any and all cancer memoirs, you can skip this one. My eyes were glazed over by the prologue. I stuck it out into chapter one but as the clichés continued to pile on, I found myself nose-first and drooling on my Kindle with no desire to continue.

Again, i realize that sounds so terribly harsh, but I'm merely offering feedback as an avid reader and "memoir junkie" as I like to refer to myself. I'm sure the author's loved ones appreciated this final gift and others may also have a totally different experience than I did. This may speak to them, too. It just didn't say anything to me.

I was thrilled to death for the opportunity to read an ARC of his new book. I was drawn in from the first chapter and could hardly put it down! Highly recommend!

I started reading this book with the understanding that it would be published after the author died, but I wasn’t prepared for the emotional journey the book took me on. As I read, I experienced wave after wave of emotions, including sadness, joy, surprise, and frustration. And I confess, I laughed and cried while reading this heartwarming and heartbreaking story.
In it, Julie Yip-Williams offers a balanced, well-rounded view of her experience with cancer and her preparation to die. She includes love, rage, despair, and triumphs and does not try to sugar-coat her experience.
I learned a lot about cancer treatment as I read. Also, I liked that she used initials to identify people.
I recommend this book for anyone suffering from cancer, including their loved ones. It’s also helpful for people who are curious about what it’s like to prepare for death.
To enhance the reading experience, I suggest reading each chapter as a personal essay that’s independent of the other chapters. Also, Mrs Yip-Williams tells her cancer story and the story of her life in bits and pieces rather than chronological order, and she does repeat some information several times in the book as she adds more depth and details to her experiences.
Overall, this book is an interesting memoir. It gave me more compassion and understanding for friends who are suffering with terminal cancer, and it prompted me to think about what I would do if I knew I only had a year to live. It’s an important book.

I received an advanced copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book had me on the edge of my seat the whole time! It was definitely a book that kept you thinking! I would definitely recommend this book to fellow readers. Thank you!

Julie Yip-Williams considered birth to be a Miracle and so her death was the unwinding of her birth. Julie was only thirty seven years old when she was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer. Julie was a successful lawyer, wife and mother of two little girls. This is her very honest journal of her struggles with the physical and emotional trials of living and fighting cancer. She is an exceptional writer and I felt a deep connection with her as I read her most intimate thoughts and feelings as she lived her daily life until her death five years later. Many of us have lost loved ones to cancer and I found her book to be a lovely tribute to her life and a generous sharing gift to anyone who has cancer or has a loved one who is facing their own death.

Once upon a time, a blind Vietnamese refugee toddler escaped by boat, languished in a camp in Hong Kong for a year, and then finally made it to the US and had surgery to restore a bit of sight. Through sheer grit she got a full scholarship to Williams College, spent a year in China to learn the Chinese language and her own ethnic heritage, and got into Harvard Law. She established a lucrative NYC career and met her soulmate at her large firm. They had two daughters and lived happily ever after.

Except that then Ms. Yip-Williams is diagnosed with colon cancer, and thus begins this book, and the greatest challenge of an already-challenging life. She sets herself the goals of fighting the cancer with the best doctors and most current information available, while living life fully with her family. When it becomes apparent that she will not survive she gets busy planning for her legacy for her daughters and the smoothest possible transition into life without her.

For some reason I have read quite a few of these end of life memoirs, and I think this is one of the best. Ms. Yip-Williams is good company: a woman of high standards, who is willing to share that she does not always live up to them. A person who is very thoughtful about meaning in life, and determined to live accordingly. Someone grappling with death, but with very little self-pity.

A wonderful book for anyone with mortality on the mind, and discussable for book clubs. This might be a difficult read for parents of young children, as much of the content involves a parent coming to terms with leaving children behind.

The author wants to relay the story of her life but more importantly her death. She is not yet 40 and has Stage IV colon cancer with metastases. She is a wife, a mother, a sister and now a cancer victim.

Her life had a rough start. She was born blind in Vietnam at a time when doctors and medical help wasn't exactly plentiful. Her family fled, and sought a new life in a new country. Eventually they came to America. She was given some vision and a new outlook. No one thought she would overcome, but she persevered. She took that same determination into every new battle and beat it. Until cancer.

This book was written over the course of her journey through diagnosis, through treatment, through rage, to acceptance and defeat. It's rambling and angry, whiny and self indulgent, superficial and redundant but it's allowed to be those things. She's facing her own mortality and the suffering of her family.

I felt like for all her writing though that she was never truly present, never on the page, or even honest with herself. She talks endlessly about things like list making and Costco runs but she never talks about the pain or the cost of treatment in real terms. At one point she is offered a treatment that will cost 15K out of pocket. She calls it a small amount and says they can afford it. She never compares it to real life, in real terms ie tuition for a year of school or a family vacation to Europe. She is a bit flat and it bothered me throughout.

She comes close to being open when she describes something she called "the event". I won't reveal it here but she comes close to being honest, passionate and alive. That passion finally comes out at about 80% of the book. She begins to get real. She talks about her tumors in physical ways. She describes the pain, the fear, she even makes peace with her demise. Until then, I felt more for the people that she had lost to the same disease than I did for the author.

She never really became emotional. There's no joy taken in a spring day, or happiness expressed over holidays. She does talk frankly of anger and arguments. She mostly talks about her doctors. They are more present than her husband.

I wanted to read this book because I am infinitely interested in learning how people gracefully accept death as it quickly approaches, especially those with cancer. My father died from cancer without taking a single treatment. He chose that avenue. I know that cancer could come caling for me tomorrow. I wanted to learn from her. I wanted her to impart some great wisdom. I was left with no concrete impression of her and no new knowledge gained. Mores the pity.

In the end, she lived the way she wanted and died the same way. What more can any of us ask for when our visit here on this plane has ended?

Julie’s life seemed almost like a miracle. Born in postwar Vietnam with congenital cataracts, her grandmother wanted her parents to obtain something” that makes the baby sleep forever” since she thought a blind child would be a useless burden. The herbalist refused, great grandmother overruled, and Julie was saved, although she didn’t learn this until she was 28. Another miracle—she and her family joined the boat people leaving Vietnam and made their way to California, where Julie was treated at UCLA Medical Center and had some sight restored, although she was still considered legally blind. The miracles continued—a scholarship to Williams College, graduating from Harvard Law, a prestigious corporate job in New York, marriage to her soul mate, 2 beautiful daughters. Then, at 37, she learned she had stage 4 colon cancer. She debates the options; people either seem to grasp at any straw to eke out a few more moments of life on earth, or opt for palliative care. She states, “The sense that we ever had control over any of this seems nothing but a mockery now, a cruel illusion. And also, a lesson: we control nothing. Well, that’s not exactly true. We control how good we are to people. We control how honest we are with ourselves and others. We control the effort we put into living. We control how we respond to impossible news. And, when the time comes, we control the terms of our surrender.” This was an intense and, at times, difficult book to read, especially her husband’s moving epilogue written after her death at 42.

What an amazing book! I cannot stop thinking about this and it has taken me a couple of days to put into words the impact this had on me. Part memoir, part biography, part love letter to her family, and part guide to living with integrity to the end. I read this in one day--could not put it down! It was sometimes very sad, always poignant and I even laughed at parts. Ms Yip-Williams has a strong voice which comes out loud and clear throughout this narrative. You will feel her frustration, love, sincerity and humanity in the face of five years of overwhelming circumstances. My best wishes go out to her family for peace and happy memories. Thank you to #netgalley for the chance to read #theunwindingofthemiracle ahead of publication in exchange for an honest review.

Julie is successful, has a loving husband and two small children. This fact alone is amazing because as a young child, she was to be "euthanized" in China because she is born blind (legally blind although not totally blind). The death did not take place until about 35 years later but this time cancer was the thief. This narrative is amazingly warm and at times objective. She relates the years she endures the chemo and the slow march (while hoping for a better outcome) to death. Her insights are marvelous - you know of her desperation, hope, and positive outlook all the while accepting the inevitable. Her courage is what makes the book outstanding. Besides, we all will face death at some point - hopefully with her outlook.

Julie Yip-Williams was only 37 when she was diagnosed with the colon cancer that would eventually kill her. Married, with a burgeoning law career and two young daughters, Yip-Williams spent the next five years coming to terms with what death means. Her goal was to embrace the inevitable. She knew her disease would kill her, sooner rather than later. She was heartsick at the thought of leaving her two young daughters motherless. At the same time, death is the ending that we all must face, and Yip-Williams wanted to stare death down with bravery and respect.

"To the degree that my book speaks truth about not just the cancer experience but the human experience in general, I want people to be able to find themselves in the writing. And in doing so, I want them to realize that they have never been alone in their suffering . . . I want them to find within the rich, twisted, and convoluted details of my life truth and wisdom that will bolster and comfort them through their joys and sorrow, laughter and tears."

I definitely saw myself in Julie. 35, with two young daughters as well, my biggest fear has always been to die when they still need me. I could relate to Julie's belief that no one can love them or parent them in the way that I do. It's a tragic scenario. In that, I was inspired by the way Julie handled death. She saw it coming for her, and she surrendered on her own terms, in the best way she could. She was thoughtful of every aspect of her death, and thoughtful of those she loved most. She was honest about the good things that arose from her diagnosis, but didn't shy away from the many, overwhelming negative aspects of her cancer.


I rarely keep books I've already read, and in this instance my copy is an ebook, but this is one of those books that demands a spot on your shelf. I plan on purchasing a copy for myself. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this book.

I rarely give five stars to a book, but this was breathtaking, poetic, and beautiful. I don't believe I will ever forget this account of a woman's last years of life; her honesty, and her fierce love for her family.

Truly, a love letter written to LIFE.