Welcome to Litsy!

It‘s hard to “enjoy” reading this kind of memoir of a terminal illness but I was glad to have read this one.

#PersonVsIllness #ConflictedWords

I don‘t love reading books that are just sad sad sad, but I have cried while reading. Here a few more recent books that caused me to cry. These are either true stories or they have a basis in reality. #WeepingWednesday #MagnificentMarch

This book was a memoir written by a terminally-ill cancer patient, and explores her feelings, thoughts, fears, and revelations as she comes to the realization that she is dying. Her insights were poignant and strong, and it made me tear up thinking about what it would be like to die and leave my own children and husband behind. Some of the existential thoughts and processing were a bit much for me though.

I‘m so grateful that this woman had the time and strength to write a memoir, after almost being killed at a few months old in Vietnam for being blind, escaping to the us, becoming a lawyer and being diagnosed with terminal cancer. How many opportunities do you have to learn from someone with those experiences? Her writing about accepting not surviving cancer and living with that knowledge was so heart rending but wonderful to read.

Wonderful and wrenching memoir about a woman‘s struggle with terminal cancer. Her book was unique to me for its unvarnished and honest personal perspective. Shrinking from the “You can beat it! You have to fight!” drumbeat, the book discusses the pain, what motivates a patient to keep living or not, and the miracle of both life and death.

😢😭 oh my goodness. I thought this was beautiful, heartbreaking, inspirational, bittersweet, and so informative. Julie Yip-Williams was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer in her late 30s as a wife and mother with two very young girls. This is her memoir as put together from blog posts she authored while living with the disease. I cried and I am inspired. I see the world, my life, through a whole different perspective. #tearjerker

Newest read. Heartbreaking but beautiful. This took some incredible strength to write.

There are some beautiful and heart rending parts. But they are interspersed among tedious descriptions of doctor visits and potty training a dog. I feel bad saying that knowing the author passed. Get the book from the library. Read the passages on her family and immigration to the U.S., her grandmother urging her parents to kill her as an infant because she was blind. And the epilogue from her husband. Don‘t do the audio! Too hard to skip!

Unfortunately, this book has to go back to the library today. I started it and it seems great but I wasn‘t in the right head space to read such a serious book. It‘s just too much. Will have to put it on hold again.

Too sad . Come back later

This book is a legacy of bravery to the author‘s children. There is a lot of anger here—-and why not? Maybe too angry for me... but this was Julie‘s truth and kudos to her for her expression. Some profound moments amid all of this in her search to tell her story and find meaning.

This looks like a total gut punch of a book. (Screenshot from Joanna Goddard on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/p/BtePRlcA7C-/.)

A life well lived a woman who accomplished so much beat all the odds but sadly could not beat the final diagnosis.

This is a good companion to When Breath Become Air. Julie Yip-Williams was diagnosed with colon cancer at 37. She had two young daughters, a loving husband, and a law career. She spent the last five years of her life grappling with her impending death, both what it meant for her but also what it meant for her family.

I was very inspired by her openness and honesty. #netgalley #septemberdanes #crucifymyheart