35 year old Kate Bowler lives a very blessed life until she receives the diagnosis of stage 4 cancer.
Her memoir is an incredibly moving account of her journey of living with cancer. I found it moving, honest and powerful. She examines how to live her life now that she has limited time. Found this a very thought provoking read

Sorry for my late late review, New Author to me, I found this book quite hard to follow, interesting but hard, Funny in places and hollow in others. Life can change at the drop of a hat..

Such a beautiful insightful book. Raw & honest. Thank you to both the publishers and NetGalley for gifting me the book . I highly recommend it

A humbling read, a book about the author coming to terms with her cancer, and the life lessons she has learned, that apply to us all.

Kate Bowler tells a story that none of us want to experience. But it’s important that we understand what it’s like to be told you’re terminally ill and there’s little that can be done. Cancer is horribly common and if we have knowledge, we can support our family or friends better. Ms Bowler is erudite, caring, emotionally aware, and honest. She shows the problems of meeting with experts who don’t explain (she didn’t know if stage 4 meant good news or bad news and no one had thought to tell her). In the mix is a beautiful baby boy, a loving husband, and family and friends all trying to help without knowing what to do or say.

Allowed on to an immunosuppressive trial gives hope but it is also hugely punishing and raises ethical questions of its own.

I won’t spoil the book but if you want an honest, yet life affirming look at facing death, this is recommended.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley

No cure for being human- Kate Bowler

Sorry didn’t get to finish so can’t give a fair review unfortunately

A honest account of a life altering event. It really makes you think about how you would handle such a diagnosis.
Brutally open and truthful - a must read.

A very honest account of what it’s like to be diagnosed with, and living with, cancer. This was a really great read.

My thanks to #Netgally and #Rider publishing for the opportunity to readthis author’s account of her experience of diagnosis , treatment and living with cancer.
A poignant reminder of how fragile life is. A beautiful read that makes you want to hold your love ones closer.

Hailed by Glennon Doyle as 'the Christian Joan Didion', Kate Bowler used to accept the modern idea that life is an endless horizon of possibilities, a series of choices which if made correctly, would lead us to a place just out of our reach. A beach body by summer. A trip to Disneyland around the corner. A promotion on the horizon. But then at thirty-five she was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer, and now she has to ask one of the most fundamental questions of all: How do we create meaning in our lives when the life we hoped for is put on hold indefinitely?

In No Cure for Being Human, Kate searches for a way forward as she mines the wisdom (and absurdity) of our modern 'best life now' advice industry, which offers us exhausting positivity, trying to convince us that we can out-eat, out-learn and out-perform our humanness. With dry wit and unflinching honesty she grapples with her cancer diagnosis, her ambition and her faith and searches for some kind of peace with her limitations in a culture that says that anything is possible.

A very personal account of a diagnosis of stage four bowel cancer and the unintended effects this has on your perception of life, love, survival, death, motherhood, work and all the elements in between.

It is hard not to be moved by personal stories as they mean so much to the author. That being said I do think the chapters did not always follow a logical order and this detracted from the impact of this book.

I feel like this book is more needed than many of us would like to admit. It's frank, moving, and wise. I think everyone can relate to their life being suddenly put on hold. At least, I can, so this book was very timely for me. Thank you, Kate Bowler, and thanks to the publisher for this ARC! I highly recommend it!

Kate Bowler's book takes the reader through the ups and downs of a life lived with incurable cancer. I found it an interesting read over all, but it also seemed to jump a bit from place to place and I didn't think the purpose of each chapter or musing was always clear.

But Kate Bowler has a lightness of touch when dealing with difficult and, at times, deeply personal things. I sometimes listen to Kate's podcast in which she also touches on life's challenges in a open and honest way. If you want to be able to spend some time thinking about the harder things of life, but in a hopeful way then I would recommend this book.

An honest, realistic, humorous and heart felt look at life with a terminal cancer diagnosis. Great insights on how to deal with your own mortality and the impact this has on your friends and family. A sharp and thought provoking read that I would recommend to others.

Hands down one of the best, most heartfelt memoirs I have ever read. I am in awe of Kate’s strength and courage not only in telling her story in a book, but also in accepting death and living everyday with a thought that it might be her last. The smart insights and witty remarks make this heartbreaking story this much lighter. I would highly recommend this memoir to anyone looking for motivation to do the things they always have been putting off to “later”.
I would like to thank Penguin Random House for providing a free electronic copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This book at the beginning had moments where I enjoyed reading it, but sadly they were few and far between with the book being too all over the place for me. I rarely cannot finish a book but towards the end of this book I found I wasn't even interested anymore in finding out how it ended, so gave up. Quite a few religious bits to the book too which I didn't enjoy and the way the writer wrote about the doctors seemed very odd as they all sounded like they had no idea what they were doing.

This is a memoir written by Kate Bowler who, at 35, was happily married to a husband she loves, with a toddler she adores and a successful career as an associate Professor at Duke Divinity School. However, after a long period of feeling ill and demanding she is taken seriously and that scans are done, she is diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.

This memoir is honest and heart-wrenching, with Kate swinging between despair and hopelessness to strength and fight, which is totally understanding when she details everything she goes through, the failings of the health system and the love and support of her family and friends.

It’s difficult to say too much without giving too much away - this is a relatively short book and is quick to get through. However, I recommend it for anyone - whether they have experienced significant illness or loss within their lives or not.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

A must read for anyone whose life has suddenly changed. I know it’s happened to me. Reading this book was thought provoking.

My Shelf Awareness review: In her bittersweet second memoir, a religion professor finds the joys and ironies in a life overshadowed by advanced cancer.

When Kate Bowler, an associate professor at Duke Divinity School, was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer at age 35, her chances of surviving two years were just 14%. In her wry, touching follow-up to her 2018 memoir Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I’ve Loved) and its associated podcast, she continues to combat unhelpful religious/self-help mantras as she ponders what to do with the extra time medical breakthroughs have given her.

After multiple surgeries, a promising immunotherapy drug trial gave Bowler hope that she would live to see her 40th birthday and her young son starting kindergarten. Working on her bucket list, she found that small moments outshined large events: on a trip to the Grand Canyon, what stood out was a chapel in the ponderosa pinewoods where she added a prayer to those plastering the walls. In the Church calendar, “Ordinary Time” is where most of life plays out, so she encourages readers to live in an “eternal present.”

The chapters function like stand-alone essays, some titled after particular truisms (like “You Only Live Once”). The book’s bittersweet tone finds the humor as well as the tragedy in a cancer diagnosis. Witty recreated dialogue and poignant scenes show the type-A author learning to let go: “I am probably replaceable,” she acknowledges, but here in the shadow of death “the mundane has begun to sparkle.” These dispatches from the “lumpy middle” of life and faith are especially recommended to fans of Anne Lamott. (3.5 stars)

Brave, honest and inspiring

Doctors tell us that half of us will get cancer in our lives but no-one wants to be told that they have the disease. None of us can know how we’ll react to such a diagnosis and Kate pulls no punches in sharing her diagnosis and story with us.

Kate is open, honest and brave about her experience and feelings to the benefit of us all. But the most important point she fully embodies is where there’s life there’s hope. Kate shows the importance of positive thinking and perseverance in the darkest of times.

Her book is well worth reading and is interesting and useful on many levels. Reading how she coped and responded can help us all to deal with cancer, whether it’s our own personal battles or to help us understand and support loved ones dealing with it. Whether we’re dealing with cancer on a personal level or just interested in her story Kate reminds us that life is precious and we should live each day to the full.