Everything Happens for a Reason

Everything Happens for a Reason

Author: Kate Bowler

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2018-02-06

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 0399592075

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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


No Cure for Being Human

No Cure for Being Human

Author: Kate Bowler

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2021-09-28

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 0593230787

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The bestselling author of Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I’ve Loved) asks, how do you move forward with a life you didn’t choose? “Kate Bowler is the only one we can trust to tell us the truth.”—Glennon Doyle, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Untamed It’s hard to give up on the feeling that the life you really want is just out of reach. A beach body by summer. A trip to Disneyland around the corner. A promotion on the horizon. Everyone wants to believe that they are headed toward good, better, best. But what happens when the life you hoped for is put on hold indefinitely? Kate Bowler believed that life was a series of unlimited choices, until she discovered, at age thirty-five, 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. With dry wit and unflinching honesty, Kate Bowler grapples with her diagnosis, her ambition, and her faith as she tries to come to terms with her limitations in a culture that says anything is possible. She finds that we need one another if we’re going to tell the truth: Life is beautiful and terrible, full of hope and despair and everything in between—and there’s no cure for being human.


The Wise Women

The Wise Women

Author: Gina Sorell

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2022-04-05

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 0063111861

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A Good Morning America Buzz Pick and one of Read With Jenna's Most Anticipated Books of 2022 "I laughed and shook my head in recognition as the three Wise women crashed through love relationships, terrible advice, and delightful moments of connection. The Wise Women is a smart and tender novel about how hard—and vital—it is to find the place where we belong." —Amanda Eyre Ward, New York Times bestselling author of The Jetsetters and The Lifeguards A witty and wildly enjoyable novel, set in New York City, about two adult daughters and their meddling advice columnist mother, for readers of Meg Wolitzer, Cathleen Schine, and Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney. Popular advice columnist Wendy Wise has been skillfully advising the women who write to her seeking help for four decades, so why are her own daughters’ lives such a mess? Clementine, the working mother of a six-year-old boy, has just discovered that she is actually renting the Queens home that she thought she owned, because her husband Steve secretly funneled their money into his flailing start-up. Meanwhile, her sister Barb has overextended herself at her architecture firm and reunited semi-unhappily with her cheating girlfriend. When Steve goes MIA and Clementine receives an eviction notice, Wendy swoops in to save the day, even though her daughters, who are holding onto some resentments from childhood, haven’t asked for her help. But as soon as Wendy sets her sights on hunting down her rogue son-in-law, Barb and Clementine quickly discover that their mother has been hiding more than a few problems of her own. As the three women confront the disappointments and heartaches that have accumulated between them over the years, they discover that while the future may look entirely different from the one that they’ve expected, it may be even brighter than they’d hoped.


Twelve Lessons

Twelve Lessons

Author: Kate Spencer

Publisher:

Published: 2015-10-28

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 9780993441653

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What if you had one year to bring your life back from the brink? Stephanie Slater appears to have it all, the house, the car, the fairy tale marriage and the new start she so desperately needed. No one knows yet she is secretly living a lie, but with mounting debts, a cheating husband and an obsession to do better than the Jonses, her perfect facade is about to shatter. When her life begins to unravel at the seams, Stephanie is given no choice but to turn to the one person she knows has seen through her fragile disguise. As the cards are turned and the Twelve Lessons revealed, Stephanie wonders if she will ever be able to piece back together the wreckage of her life in time? When you really hit rock bottom, a Psychic might be your only hope..... Twelve months, Twelve Lessons, one chance to rewrite destiny.


How to Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned from Things Going Wrong

How to Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned from Things Going Wrong

Author: Elizabeth Day

Publisher: Fourth Estate

Published: 2020-07-17

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 9780008434595

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Inspired by her hugely popular podcast, How To Fail is Elizabeth Day's brilliantly funny, painfully honest and insightful celebration of things going wrong. This is a book for anyone who has ever failed. Which means it's a book for everyone. If I have learned one thing from this shockingly beautiful venture called life, it is this: failure has taught me lessons I would never otherwise have understood. I have evolved more as a result of things going wrong than when everything seemed to be going right. Out of crisis has come clarity, and sometimes even catharsis. Part memoir, part manifesto, and including chapters on dating, work, sport, babies, families, anger and friendship, it is based on the simple premise that understanding why we fail ultimately makes us stronger. It's a book about learning from our mistakes and about not being afraid. Uplifting, inspiring and rich in stories from Elizabeth's own life, How to Fail reveals that failure is not what defines us; rather it is how we respond to it that shapes us as individuals. Because learning how to fail is actually learning how to succeed better. And everyone needs a bit of that.


Trust Life

Trust Life

Author: Louise Hay

Publisher: Hay House, Inc

Published: 2018-10-02

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 140195605X

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365 affirmations and reflections drawn from the inspirational work of Louise Hay. Queen of the New Age . . . A founder of the self-help movement . . . The closest thing to a living saint . . . Louise Hay was called all this and more, and her work inspired millions worldwide, but she never set herself up as a guru with all the answers. She urged every attendee at her workshops and conferences, every reader of her dozens of books, to remember that it is you who has the power to heal your life. She was just here to guide you on the path of remembering the truth of who you are: powerful, loving, and lovable. In honor of Louise's life, you now hold in your hands this compilation of her most inspiring teachings from her greatest works. Our hope is that the 366 entries within this book allow you to carry the wisdom of Louise with you each and every day, and inspire you to trust the process of Life. As Louise said: "Very simply, I believe that what we give out, we get back; we all contribute to, and are responsible for, the events that take place in our lives--both the good and the so-called bad. We create our experiences based on the words we say and the thoughts we think. When we create peace and harmony in our minds and think positive thoughts, we will attract positive experiences and like-minded people to us. In essence, what I'm saying is that what we believe about ourselves and about Life becomes true for us."


Body Talk

Body Talk

Author: Katie Sturino

Publisher: Clarkson Potter

Published: 2021-05-25

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 0593232127

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Learn to love yourself and your body with this interactive guide from the “shame-free, fun, cheerful, and no-nonsense” (Bustle) body acceptance advocate and influencer who founded Megababe beauty. “Brilliant, hilarious, adorably illustrated.”—Goop Can you imagine how much free time you’d have if you didn’t spend so much of it body shaming yourself? Katie Sturino knows all too well what it’s like to shit talk yourself. She spent thirty years of her life feeling ashamed of her body and its self-determined wrongness. Now she doesn’t care what anyone thinks of her; she only cares that she’s happy and comfortable with herself. Body positivity and size inclusivity is still a relatively new phenomenon, but Sturino has dedicated her life to unlearning all that beauty standard BS and uses her blog, Instagram, podcast, and non-toxic, solution-oriented beauty products to share the message that changed her life: YOUR BODY IS NOT THE PROBLEM. With Body Talk, an illustrated guide-meets-workbook, Sturino is here to help you stop obsessing about your body issues, focus on self-love, and free up space in your brain for creative and productive energy. Complete with empowering affirmations, relatable anecdotes, and actionable takeaways, as well as space to answer prompts and jot down feelings and inspirations, Body Talk encourages you to spend less time thinking about how you look and what you eat and more time discovering your inner fierceness.


Moments of Clarity

Moments of Clarity

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2013-12-12

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9780615930435

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A list of affirmations that the author has heard, or are her own creation, that guide her conduct of life.


Find Your Mantra

Find Your Mantra

Author: Aysel Gunar

Publisher: Rock Point

Published: 2019-09-10

Total Pages: 147

ISBN-13: 1631066226

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Be mindful and present in your daily life with these 75 uplifting messages, organized by theme. Founder of MantraBand Aysel Gunar provides an inspiring introduction on the importance of positive, meaningful mantras in your life. Whether your focus is peace, love, happiness, strength, or your journey—you'll find the perfect mantra for every day of your life. Some of the positive messages you'll find: Be Present: Be present, free of past and future, and enjoy this moment, that is filled with love, awareness, peace, and joy. Love and Light: May love and light always find you, and may you be a vessel of love and light. Let these powerful forces pull you away from your fears and open you to the understanding of oneness. Choose Joy: A phrase so simple, yet so powerful that it changes one's outlook on life. It helps us realize the power of our minds and the power of our attitude. A simple step in the path to a more positive life and a constant reminder to choose happiness. Blessed: You are greatly blessed and deeply loved. Count your blessings, not your troubles. I am awake, I am alive, I am blessed. By reading these affirmations—one a day, several at a time, or just by opening the book at random—you're taking the first step toward building a more rewarding life.


Radically Content

Radically Content

Author: Jamie Varon

Publisher: Rock Point

Published: 2022-04-12

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 0760375283

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*Named Book of the Week by Maria Shriver’s The Sunday Paper* “If you’ve spent the last couple years untangling yourself from Hustle Culture, and trying to find who you are outside of your achievements and productivity, then we've got just the book for you. Fans of Untamed, this is your next favorite read.” —POPSUGAR “I’ve fallen in love with Jamie’s words and how she so effortlessly can make us feel united with them. She has a true gift of helping us realize that all of our ‘human’ moments are what make us so special. She is a real light in this world.” —Lucy Hale, Award-Winning Actress from Pretty Little Liars, The Hating Game, and more Blending memoir, sharp social insights, and unique practical tools, author Jamie Varon is your guide to radical contentment—a satisfied life outside the bounds of societal expectations. Too many of us are waiting for our lives to begin, putting our happiness on layaway for some future version where it all lines up, when we’ve accomplished it all, when we have the perfect career, bodies, partners, and when our lives finally feel “good enough.” But what is good enough? Who gets to decide? And when do we ever reach it? Jamie takes a sharp, incisive look at the industries that are constantly telling us to do more, be more, and keep striving, pushing, and hustling—and shows you how to radically opt out of societal conditioning. We’ve learned to be terrified of contentment, thinking it will lead us to complacency. Yet, being content in a world that profits off our dissatisfaction is not complacency. It’s revolutionary. Radically Content makes the case for a new framework of living. Exploring themes like guilt, I’ll be happy when…, anxiety, settling, control, healing, shame, self-trust, and being our own worst enemies—not only will you unlearn the dogma of that discontent, but learn practical tools to create a more satisfied life for yourself, including: Cultivating real self-trust Defining your own version of “success” Living with intention Rewriting your personal narrative Creating consistent and healing rituals Packed with revelatory insights, Radically Content is an exhale. A respite from the chaos of our current world. A calm place to land when you’ve had enough with trying to be enough.