I was given this book by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am pretty sure that I wanted to read this book because Jenn Lawson endorsed it. But maybe not. And I feel slightly awful for rating it two stars when it is about her horrific cancer journey and how she learned to fight on, but it just did not do it for me. I had a hard time seeing a continuity to her story. It just seemed to go from point A to point Q with some random stops along the way.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, and Kate Bowler for providing me a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This review should have been written last September, when I actually received and read the book! Yes, I’m kinda late to the game here so my review will be less detailed, and more my overall impression.

Kate Bowler has probably been one of my favourite humans to follow on social media, and I would happily volunteer to be counted as best bud or something. I first heard about Bowler while studying theology at a college in Vancouver, BC. She was there to teach about Prosperity Gospel. I wasn’t really to concerned or interested in the topic or course, but kept hearing positive snippets from friends. I encountered Bowler again several years later through a conference I attended. I found Bowler to be intelligent (she’s a uni prof), funny, likeable, and extremely down-to-earth “normal”. Normal, except for when you start to read her book and learn of the struggle of facing stage 4 colon cancer.
“No Cure For Being Human” is memoir that highlights the reality of so many that are faced with a medical diagnosis that changes your life, and the life of those closest to you. Having read one of her previous books and being somewhat underwhelmed by the writing, I found this one a step up. It engaged me from the very beginning and I found myself both laughing and crying at the same time as Bowler wrote of her various medical experiences.
This book is worth the read and I’ve recommended this, and Bowler’s other works to several friends. Though it deals with a difficult subject, it highlights the ongoing damage of toxic positivity - so Take this book and read it once a day to counteract the effects!!

Kate Bowler provides comments on her life while facing treatment for Stage Four colon cancer. Bowler is thoughtful and positive, using her divinity background to give readers insight into faith when faced with a deadly illness. The appendix "Cliches We Hear and Truths We Need" is especially delightful. No Cure for Being Human is a book sticks with the reader.

No Cure for Being Human by Kate Bowler was not the book I expected to read. I heard the author speak about this book on a podcast and I found her delightful and honest and full of hope. However, I found none of that in this book. Instead, this book tells the real story of a horrible cancer diagnosis and offers little hope other than stop trying so hard. It was difficult to read and had little conclusion. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

No Cure for Being Human by Kate Bowler is a thoughtful memoir about her experiences being diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer in her mid-thirties. She takes us on an introspective, sometimes meandering journey about what it’s like being a wife and mother to a young child with such a devastating diagnosis. Bowler is a college professor and the intellectual and philosophical ruminations reminded me of the writing of Ann Lamott (Bird by Bird) and Katherine May (Wintering). She considers what we find important in our lives and what makes life worth living. Can we ever truly savor the moments we have? How do we live in the moment and grapple with our own mortality especially when others see us as separate objects on a tragic path? What legacy do we want to leave and what role does our professional career play in it? I enjoyed this thought-provoking, gentle memoir.

Thank you Random House and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I don't think that this was the time for me to read this book. I could not concentrate on if there was a point to this tale of cancer and change.

I continue to be amazed at the deftness with which Kate Bowler can go from a deeply researched theological subject to the much more intimate subject of her life. She carefully lets you into the most sacred spaces and times in her life with such a light, yet careful touch. Not many authors manage that line of giving insight into the darkest season of their life while bringing tears and laughter at the same time. I am thankful for voices like Kate Bowler's who wade into the hard spaces and guide us along with them.

What a fantastic and thought provoking read. Well written and engaging, the memoir of a young woman with her whole life ahead of her until one say it wasn't. Themes related to terminal illness and cancer. Great read.

Our COVID crazy world needs voices of hope and truth. Kate Bowler is one such voice. Her new book, “No Cure for Being Human”, speaks deeply to the fragility of our times.

I found myself laughing, crying, nodding, and sighing as I resonated with her account of what it means to be fully human. Diagnosed with stage 4 cancer at 35, Kate is searingly honest and hilariously funny, as she confronts her own mortality and reminds us of ours. She lovingly lays bare our illusions of invincibility, sharing her own wrestle with the uncertainties of life and complexities of faith.

“Before when I was earnest and clever and ignorant, I thought, life is a series of choices. I curated my own life until, one day, I couldn’t. I had accepted the burden of limitless choices only to find that I had few to make. I was stuck in this body, this house, this life.”

Many of the well-intentioned books offered to our family or friends facing cancer have focussed on either the miraculous or the morbid. They seek to resolve the uncertainty that life threatening illness brings into our lives by exhorting us to either, “claim our miracle” or “prepare to die”.

In contrast, Kate’s invites us to live humbly, honestly, and hopefully in the tension of an uncertain future, whether we have cancer or not. Her Christian faith sustains and informs her journey, typified in the pastoral prayer of her good friend Will as she heads into high-risk surgery:

“Lord Jesus, bless these surgeons and the work of their hands. Bless her care and her healing. And bless this precious daughter of yours.”

I stare up at him, blinking tears, but his eyes are squeezed tight.

“God, if you please, keep this one alive. Her best work is yet to come.”

It’s a prayer I echo daily with thanksgiving for the gift of Kate Bowler

Thanks @randomhouse for the free copy sent in exchange for my honest review.

I kept telling myself, “It all works out. I know it does. She wrote the book,” but her descriptions were so poignant and every incident so deeply effecting, it was impossible not to be shattered by the unfairness of her diagnosis. I loved the way she wove her medical story, her biography and her personal journey into one powerful story. Bowler is a writer of such intellect and humanity, I wanted to rush to the end and savor every word simultaneously. Her story holds out hope for the hopeless and yet she was such an active participant in her recovery, I wonder how many have the discipline to take on that challenge. She clearly demonstrates how important it is to question medical wisdom.
For those who are reluctant to say goodbye at the end of this book, the author can be found on Instagram sharing her thoughtful message of love and balance.

This is my first book from Kate Bowler. I wanted to enjoy the first hand experience of someone dealing with cancer. However, her upper middle class white privilege access to health care, as well as her Christian perspective, was off putting. Not really sure of the value of this book or why it needs to be told. So, not for me, I guess.

ARC from the publisher via NetGalley, but the opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, and Kate Bowler for providing me a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

No Cure for Being Human? Where can I possibly start? I became curious about it after Anne Lamott, one of my all-time favorite nonfiction authors, recommended it on Instagram. I can say that her recommendation did not disappoint, and I can add my own alongside hers. The book chronicles Kate Bowler, a religious scholar, writer, and new mother, as she is diagnosed with and in treatment for colorectal cancer. Her perspective is unlike the typical "carpe diem" exhortations common in inspirational writing; it is bitingly tender and flavored with wisdom that can only be gained from being so close to one's own mortality. One of Bowler's most salient points, in fact, is that we are ALL close to our own mortality, walking the edge of this world and the next, between the life we all think we have control over and one single unfortunate diagnosis. What I love most about Bowler is her voice-- she is funny and warm, acerbic and honest, and reading her words is like having a rousing philosophical discussion over tacos and margaritas (a life choice Bowler has lived and approved).

If you're looking for something somehow deep and light-hearted, something that grows you, makes you laugh, makes you cry, makes you want to hug all the people you love and eat every taco you can? This is it. Whole-heartedly recommend.

I love the message that Kate is putting out into the world with her book (and podcast), and I feel that it is an urgent and necessary one for our day. We, as humans, are fragile, and we must face the unbearable truth that life is both truly wonderful and truly horrific, often at the same time. We cannot will and quick-fix our way out of our struggles, as much public, capitalist, toxic positivity messaging would have us believe.

Her voice as a writer is witty, intelligent, and totally accessible. I think anyone who picks up this book could find something to relate to or learn from it.

This is a beautiful book that all humans should read. It is contemplative and heartbreaking, thought provoking and joyous. The whole realm of being human is here. There's no cure for it. Highly recommended for libraries serving adults.

I do like Kate Bowler. She is earnest; perhaps too earnest. Her writing is often sickening sweet. She has wonderful epiphanies, but ruins it with gooey sentiment. I think I will stick to her podcasts in the future. There she has a guest that can balance her out. Thanks to NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

I’m currently suffering through a chronic illness and so have been reading other books along the topic. Kate Bowler is an author I’ve read before, follow on social media and had seen this recommended many times. It was deep and simple at the same time mixing personal thoughts, spirituality and sort of light medical information. It all worked well together and I’d recommend it to anyone going through a health crises.

Kate Bowler believed that life was a series of unlimited choices, until she discovered, at age 35, that her body was wracked with cancer. In No Cure for Being Human, she searches for a way forward as she mines the wisdom (and absurdity) of today’s “best life now” advice industry, which insists on exhausting positivity and on trying to convince us that we can out-eat, out-learn, and out-perform our humanness. We are, she finds, as fragile as the day we were born.

Six years later, the author reflects on her journey since her diagnosis and all the questions it raised about life and time, relationships and perspective. It is raw and heart breaking and the author is very relatable for any type A A person will understand the terror of being told that the life you’ve always controlled and directed is now running fast down a track you didn’t choose. With raw emotion and sincerity Bowler reflects on the in-depth treatments, the struggles of hers and her families. This book will easily draw tears to many eyes and cause many hearts to swell.

In the interest of full honesty, I must say there was a downside to this for me which is the impression given that the author is still far too close to her own pain to be objective, opening the door for some contradictions in the overall message of the story.

I'd rate it just under four stars so I rounded up, and I do recommend this to anyone struggling and overwhelmed with traditional self help culture, or currently experiencing any sense of existential crisis.

Thank you to net galley and publisher for providing a free e-copy for me to read and share my honest opinion. I am grateful for the opportunity to experience and speak about this book.

In 2018 (coincidentally, the year I received an unfortunate medical diagnosis), I happened to read Kate Bowler’s Everything Happens For A Reason (And Other Lies I’ve Loved). It hit me at just the right time, as her ability to describe the experience of battling cancer helped me face my own journey. Described as a “Christian Joan Didion,” prior to her diagnosis, Bowler had a successful career as professor at Duke Divinity School specializing in the study of the prosperity gospel. This basically sees good fortune as direct evidence of being blessed by God and misfortune as a mark of God’s disapproval. I was pleased to receive a copy of her followup book No Cure For Being Human (And Other Truths I’ve Needed to Hear), thanks to Random House and NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

Ms. Bowler had always believed that a person’s life was comprised of a limitless series of choices, but then she received her diagnosis…so was this evidence of her being out of favor with God? (TBH I am neither a Christian nor a believer, but I read everything, especially recently as I have read more and more books about cancer in particular and wellness in general, with an open mind).

For years, she had believed that the perfect life was just out of reach, and that hard work and God’s approval would make it happen. Once she was sick, she had to grapple not only with her disease but also with the advice industry, with its endless focus on positivity and the belief that if god is smiling down on us it would allow us to somehow overcome our humanness. (Spoiler alert: it’s not possible).

Everyone with a serious illness has to deal with their limitations and challenges. Bowler’s bottom line is acceptance of the fact that we need one another, that life is both beautiful and terrible, and that there really is no cure for being human. For me, it wasn’t the terrific experience that reading her previous book was…but that could be where I am in my own health journey. She is still funny, open, honest, willing to be vulnerable, and inspirational. Three stars (which is probably unfair).

I learned about Kate Bowler from her podcast and I'm so happy I did because this book is life changing! Her ability to capture human frailty and persistence in the same chapter is incredible! I would recommend this book to everyone who needs a window of inspiration. It is a wonderful addition to anyone's bookshelf.

This memoir is unlike any health memoir I’ve read. It brings a unique and informative perspective due to the author’s knowledge and expertise.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an early release in exchange for a fair and honest review.