I did not upload the book before it was archived, so I cannot review this book on Netgalley or other platforms.

The amount of love I feel for this book.

Thank you for writing such a compelling and heartfelt story that will live with me forever. Simply thank you.

I was looking forward to reading this collection of essays, but instead, found myself dozing off after slogging through about six chapters. There were some lines that made me pause to reflect about my own eventual death, but mainly, this was dull and repetitive, with the author bringing up living in Nicaragua or that she was the CEO for a food bank project over and over again - probably because the chapters were originally blog posts, and this wasn't written as a cohesive book. I also was not into the religious tone and if I had known in advance it was written in that vein, I wouldn't have picked this up in the first place. The book didn't hold my interest and just wasn't for me.

One of those books I find really hard to give a review. How do you articulate the feelings such profound and deeply personal essays awaken in your soul?

In the book, the author captures her thoughts and feelings about living with a terminal illness. While it feels unbearably unfair, it is sadly an everyday situation for many people all around the Earth.

Her thoughts of leaving behind her husband and children break my heart. While deeply sad, I also find a lot of good in her words. With this book, the author has given me more understanding of what it takes to learn to accept.

I am honored to receive this book and be able to read the author's thoughts. I appreciate her honesty, and devoted time to putting this out in the world.

I would suggest this book to everyone facing such a terrifying prospect themselves or is letting someone go before time.

Yes, this will make you sad, and you might cry.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for providing an advanced copy in exchange for my review!

What We Wish Were True
The true story was about one woman's remembrances of her life; part of her journey thru dying.

This profound meditation on what it means to live and die young rocked my world. What a gift to readers! Read these reflections one at a time so that you can drink deeply from the wisdom of each chapter and reflect on your place in our world. There is work to be done and I am grateful for Tallu for sharing this last precious gift with us. May her memory continue to be a blessing.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the honor to read this book.

I finished this book awhile back, but could not even begin to write a review, so read it again, and will do my best to do proper justice to something of this power.
I found it impossible to put down the first time, but halfway through, with its intensity, I slowed down to digest what I was reading, reflect on it, and pray for her family and friends. The second time I read it, I allowed every bit of it to enter into my soul, so read it in very small sections. I know I will read this book many times more and see and feel something different each time.
This book, at times, was called “a series of essays”. I found it more an intimate collection of heartfelt, honest conversations with Tallu. She gave us humor when we most needed it, which I was most appreciative of.
Many parts of this book hit me hard and will stay with me. I have shared this particular excerpt with friends and bible study women: “In my mind’s eye, the path ends at a sturdy stone table in the wilderness, and what happens there is real and forever. There is no pain there, no hate, no walls, no shame. The people gather and bring their best because that is all they carry there, and all they have, and it is offered freely, wholly, and is real.”

Beautiful love and the goodness which we always believe is true? What happen if our belief are betrayed? How is your reaction to gain back the memoirs? Open the book and spend your time.

I recently finished my copy of What We Wish Were True by Tallu Schuyler Quinn. I was given an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I worried like some others that reviewed this book that the author's faith might make me not relate to her story but I was able to get past it and be happy for her that she has a strong faith in her God to comfort her in trying times. She was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at the age of 40. She ran a non-profit that helped those with food insecurities and got a lot of joy out of her work. She shared stories about her family that she loved dearly including her husband and young children. She shared some of her thoughts on living and dying, and this book was very deeply personal. It felt like the author was having a conversation with you more than reading like a memoir. According to her bio on Amazon, she died from the disease on February 17, 2022. Tallu was 42. The book is available on shelves on April 19, 2022.

A stunning collection of essays describing life and living and impending death as the writer faces incurable brain cancer. The writing is honest and smart and full of life as the author shares her experiences and wisdom, What We Wish Were True is heartbreakingly beautiful yet inspires hope and will fill your heart in unexpected ways.

Human as human could be. How can you live your life to the fullest, while also planning your own funeral? Planning the future of your business while also preparing your loved ones for the day that you will be gone, including loving your husband in the here and now and yet knowing that at some point in the future he will love someone else because you're gone. This is Tallu's story, told in an essay format, as she continues to live her life as much as she can after being diagnosed with stage IV glioblastoma cancer. It's heartbreakingly beautiful, and I can only imagine the woman she was in person from reading how she was in this book. Beautiful and yet heartbreakingly sad. May we all have her style and grace in every day of our living.
*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my own opinion*

This beautiful book is hard to rate and review because to do so feels like rating a person's thoughts and insights before death. The author, Tallu Schuyler Quinn, was a nonprofit leader, minister, and volunteer who founded the Nashville Food Project. At forty, she was diagnosed with a terminal cancer. Her writings are profound and sometimes feel disconnected in that they don't follow a linear pattern, but they are infused with the liminal space which she gracefully inhabited. It was sometimes hard to read, and I read it in portions rather than all at once. One of the best chapters was "Angels in the Architecture" where she writes about different ways of seeing, how as illness took her eyesight she was gifted with sight through meditation, dreams, and prayers. As well, she saw constant faces and figures in shadows, in tree branches, or along the road, and a more "complete" sight that included hindsight, foresight, and insight. Passages like this made me feel hopeful. Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC.

** spoiler alert ** For those familiar with "What We Wish Were True" author Tallu Quinn's life-changing work as founder and longtime director of The Nashville Food Project, the April release of the book has an extra layer of emotional resonance perhaps not initially felt by those who will simply pick up the book themselves unaware of her life and the fact that Quinn's journey with Stage IV Glioblastoma (brain cancer) ended only a few weeks before the book's publication.

That said, "What We Wish Were True" may very well not be the book that you expect it to be. While it is at times evident that Quinn is likely in her final days with this journey, the remarkable truth is that "What We Wish Were True" is as much about life as it is death. In fact, with the exception of a handful of reflections where Quinn quite explicitly talks about her likely impending death it wouldn't be unreasonable to call "What We Wish Were True" as much an autobiographical tale as it is her reflections on nurturing this unpredictable life and treating the facing of death with the same love and respect that one treats every other unexpected fork in the road.

Having only 2-3 months ago lost a dear friend to Glioblastoma and also watching from across the street as a dear and sweet neighbor spends her final days with the same diagnosis in the home where she raised her entire family, I am instead caused by "What We Wish Were True" to reflect upon my own unexpected life journey with spina bifida and a myriad of associated diagnoses that doctors expected would take my life at a mere three-days-old but instead has found me living into my 50's with a far higher quality of life than anyone ever expected.

As I watched my own brother pass away due to pancreatic cancer in the past year at the young age of 43, I can reflect upon my own times when I've tried bargaining with God and tried to grasp why I've been blessed with more time than expected while others with many more reasons to live have seen their journeys shortened. It's hard to grasp, I suppose, why such a vibrant and loving life as Quinn's is impacted by a diagnosis that is more common among older folks but instead occurs in the life of a woman impacting so many lives while also living in a happy marriage and with children far too young to lose their mother.

Quinn, at times, grapples with both big and small questions in "What We Wish Were True." However, at times, it is simply powerful in the simplicity with which she reflects upon her own life and a future that will likely exist without her and the painful wonderings if the children that she nurtured into this world will in a few years remember her physical presence and physicality.

At times, "What We Wish Were True" feels disconnected as Quinn reflects on her life and the points of reference that play out in her mind over and over and over again. At times, "What We Wish Were True" feels like deep reflections playing out against the backdrop of one of life's most challenging journeys. At other times, there's almost a randomness to the book as memories become triggers for deeper soul-searching and introspection. "What We Wish Were True" is not necessarily a sentimental journey - instead, it is a rather resolute and matter-of-fact one. It often finds Quinn coming to some degree of acceptance amidst fear of the future she knows lies ahead and the complete lack of knowing what it will mean for the people and the places around her.

It is likely best to experience "What We Wish Were True" without expectations, no small task given its larger than life subject matter and the ways that we've all had our own personal experiences with death even if, in all likelihood, they haven't resembled those of Quinn.

Instead, however, "What We Wish Were True" is likely best experienced as one woman's final gift to the world around her - the husband she adores, the children she can't fathom growing up without her, the people of Middle Tennessee whom she loves deeply, and the God she continues to believe in passionately even amidst this final unexpected journey.

"What We Wish Were True" is not the book I entirely expected it to be, yet it feels at its core like the book Quinn intended it to be. It is a simple yet powerful tribute to a life well-loved, people well-loved, and the painful truth that while death will will undeniably alter these truths it cannot possibly erase them.

I don’t even truly know where to start a review for a book like this . How can you review something so honest , so brutal, so powerful.

I’ll try but I don’t think I’ll be able to do it justice.
If I had to sum this book up in one word that would be mesmerising . This book cast a spell over me and I found it impossible to put down, in fact the only time I felt truly able to put it down was when I had to reflect on the words I had just read.
. Sometimes do you ever feel like an author is talking just to you? That’s how I felt. It felt as though I was reading something directly purely at me, so personal that it was impossible to look away.

It felt completely relatable even though the main subject of the book (a woman trying to find her way through her cancer journey) is luckily not personally relatable to most of us.

This book is brutally honest. You know you are reading something special.
It is a profound collection of essays that flow seamlessly together like a poetic memoir.

I must confess when I opened the book and saw how devout in faith the author was I was worried that i would not fully relate to the author but her strong faith only made me happy that she is content and gave me hope that her faith will ease her fears and continue to give her strength.
I don’t know how she is currently but I hope she is still experiencing many more happy moments with her family.

There were so many quotes that I jotted down to remind myself of in my day to day life but if I quote them all I feel this will be the longest review ever written. I will simply say I believe that there is something that everyone can take away from this book and I’ll be recommending it to everyone I know.
Thank you to the author for such an honest and beautiful book and thank you to the publishers for giving me the privilege of reading this.

To find your purpose in life and follow it with passion is for most, a dream. For Tallu Quin, she was living it every day working to end hunger around the world and in her home community. Then the unthinkable- glioblastoma, an aggressive incurable brain cancer. For many, this would then end the pursuit of passion at which time most of us would withdraw from society and spend our last days with family.

Tallu managed both, her family and her fight against hunger. She did all she could do to ensure that her projects would continue long past her time on earth.

This is a story told with grace, love, belief, and from the heart of a warrior. I can say it better than she did when she said “I think about how my purpose may be the same in death as it continues to be in life—surrendering to the hope that our weaknesses can be made strong, that what is broken can be made whole,” she writes.

A stunning collection of essays describing life and living and impending death as the writer faces incurable brain cancer. The writing is honest and smart and full of life as the author shares her experiences and wisdom. This sounds like a sad book. It is. But it also filled me with incredible peace and hope as a lot of smiles as the essays cover a wide range of topics and stories. Reading this felt like a gift. I underlined and sent screen shots to my son who is away at school - the writing is that sage and beautiful. Heartfelt thanks to Convergent Books for the advanced copy. I’m going to buy a copy to keep on a shelf. I won’t soon forget this book or Tullu Quinn. Read this one.

Tallu Quinn's memoir, What We Wish Were True, is wistful, lyrical, poignant, and devastating. By writing this book over the last months of her too-short life, Quinn left us all a legacy of hope, honestly, and courage -- not to mention gorgeous prose-- for all who are brave enough to read her words. She asks us all to sit down beside her with a cup of tea and shed some hard-earned tears as we realize through her experience the truth that is real for all of us: we all must face mortality in this midst of this achingly beautiful earth we call home. I feel honored to have been able to stand in that meadow with her while she ponders life, illness, and the death we will all face someday. This eloquent book is a gift to the world.

This felt like a really disjointed read. The synopsis says that it's a collection of essays about Quinn coming to terms with her terminal cancer diagnosis, but there are also a large handful of essays that are about other parts of Quinn's life. Those chapters don't tie in at all with the chapters that ARE on-topic. The writing is good; it flows and it's accessible. But I'm not sure I'd be handing this off to anyone else to read.

A short and powerful memoir that will stick with me for some time. I am so glad that I stumbled upon this insightful and thought-provoking non-fiction book. I will post a full review on Instagram closer to the release date.

What We Wish Were True by Tallu Schuyler Quinn was an unbelievably compelling book that ripped my heart into pieces. By the time I got to the last page, it was put it back together-but in a different way. I found myself thinking about things I'd never considered before, and seeing others in an entirely new light. I laughed, I cried, I wish I could read it all over again for the first time. Highly recommend.