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240 reviews for:
Do ostatnich dni. Zapis życia, choroby i wszystkiego, co przychodzi później
Julie Yip-Williams
3.99 AVERAGE
240 reviews for:
Do ostatnich dni. Zapis życia, choroby i wszystkiego, co przychodzi później
Julie Yip-Williams
3.99 AVERAGE
In the face of death, the author chronicled her journey. No need to critique her writing or story.
A devastating memoir of her battle with Stage IV colon cancer. Yet I often find that the most tragic of books can also be the most life-affirming. Indeed, Yip Williams implores readers to “Live while you’re living, friends” as she lays out the incredible story of her life: born blind in Vietnam and narrowly escaping euthenasia, immigrating to the United States, graduating from Harvard Law, and settling into a loving family life with a husband and two girls. The Unwinding of the Miracle is adapted from the blog she kept while undergoing cancer treatment and is a candid and poignant meditation on life.
4.5 stars.
I was a hot mess by the time I finished this memoir. Julie Yip-Williams, born with cataracts and almost killed as an infant, survived to move to the United States, receive corrective eye surgery, succeed academically, travel the world, marry, and have children of her own, only to receive a Stage IV colon cancer diagnosis in her 30s. And this is just the setup. What follows is her own writing about the dark journey that is living with cancer—she is candid, explicit, and completely honest, and as a result it is easy to feel like you're right there experiencing all of it with her.
Memoirs in general are a genre I enjoy, and I've read my share that focus on cancer like this one does. But none have felt quite so immediate as Yip-Williams's, or as raw and truthful. She has a whole chapter (likely what was originally its own blog post, since a lot of the book was composed posthumously from her online writing) entitled "Hate," about all the people she finds herself loathing as she continues farther down the road of cancer treatments and scans and bad news. I appreciated this so very much; of course, it's awful to see just how damaging this disease can be to a person's life, not only physically, but emotionally, mentally, and relationally, but it was also refreshing to see a true picture of these effects and not simply be handed the same tired and disingenuous message of unfailing optimism and certainty that "I'm going to beat this thing!"
My heart breaks for what Julie and her family went through (and are still going through, in the case of her family), but I am grateful that she left behind these words. This is a sad book, to be sure, but an important, poignant, and in some ways, joyful one, too. I highly recommend it.
I was a hot mess by the time I finished this memoir. Julie Yip-Williams, born with cataracts and almost killed as an infant, survived to move to the United States, receive corrective eye surgery, succeed academically, travel the world, marry, and have children of her own, only to receive a Stage IV colon cancer diagnosis in her 30s. And this is just the setup. What follows is her own writing about the dark journey that is living with cancer—she is candid, explicit, and completely honest, and as a result it is easy to feel like you're right there experiencing all of it with her.
Memoirs in general are a genre I enjoy, and I've read my share that focus on cancer like this one does. But none have felt quite so immediate as Yip-Williams's, or as raw and truthful. She has a whole chapter (likely what was originally its own blog post, since a lot of the book was composed posthumously from her online writing) entitled "Hate," about all the people she finds herself loathing as she continues farther down the road of cancer treatments and scans and bad news. I appreciated this so very much; of course, it's awful to see just how damaging this disease can be to a person's life, not only physically, but emotionally, mentally, and relationally, but it was also refreshing to see a true picture of these effects and not simply be handed the same tired and disingenuous message of unfailing optimism and certainty that "I'm going to beat this thing!"
My heart breaks for what Julie and her family went through (and are still going through, in the case of her family), but I am grateful that she left behind these words. This is a sad book, to be sure, but an important, poignant, and in some ways, joyful one, too. I highly recommend it.
I wish I could have given this memoir a higher rating, however it felt quite repetitive and disjointed. I appreciate Julie’s honestly and ability to be upfront with her feelings. I wish she had discussed her earlier life in greater detail.
Julie Yip-Williams speaks beautifully about the experience of having a terminal illness and preparing to die, and I feel honored to have read her words.
Here goes. This book was terrible. There. I said it. It feels like I shouldn't considered the topic and author's outcome, but this was painful to get through. 315 pages of rambling, repetitive, disconnected thought. While the chapters went forward by year, the writing and stories didn't. It was difficult to follow her thought process and I often had to go back and reread sentences or paragraphs because they were so run-on I couldn't remember what the point was. Everything was terribly disjointed.
What's really unfortunate is that I feel like the author had a great story to tell. Her life beginning in Vietnam, her journey to America, gaining sight, her incredible success. But she only ever touched on those things between talking about cancer treatments and scan results.
I had a really, really hard time with her continued bashing of the "slutty second wife", her disdain for cancer groups and ribbons, and her applauding suicide in depressed individuals, likening it to discontinuing treatment for a terminal illness. That kind of thinking is dangerous and slippery. While the author did sometimes have meaningful things to say, it was completely drowned out by the negativity.
I would absolutely not recommend this book.
What's really unfortunate is that I feel like the author had a great story to tell. Her life beginning in Vietnam, her journey to America, gaining sight, her incredible success. But she only ever touched on those things between talking about cancer treatments and scan results.
I had a really, really hard time with her continued bashing of the "slutty second wife", her disdain for cancer groups and ribbons, and her applauding suicide in depressed individuals, likening it to discontinuing treatment for a terminal illness. That kind of thinking is dangerous and slippery. While the author did sometimes have meaningful things to say, it was completely drowned out by the negativity.
I would absolutely not recommend this book.
The Unwinding of the Miracle is a former "Read with Jenna" book that is a memoir of life, death and everything that comes after. In a video interview I watched, author Julie Yip Williams said, "I know this is dark and depressing, but I promised I would be honest with you." And that's why I'm sharing her story here.
Williams is a young wife and mother facing a terminal cancer diagnosis. With a jaw-dropping background facing insurmountable odds, including being born blind in post-War Vietnam to a family that wanted to end her life and an unbelievably tumultuous months-long escape, she had surgery that restored part of her sight and eventually became a Harvard trained lawyer who traveled to all seven continents on her own. It's hard to imagine that a terminal cancer diagnosis followed at the age of thirty-seven.
Seeking clarity, Williams began to write the story of her life. In The Unwinding of the Miracle, she walks the reader through the day to day emotional journey of living and dying with cancer: shock, loneliness, sadness, despair, anger, hope. She's candid and real, and the miracle of her life forever touched my heart.
You can find this book and more on my list of Jenna Bush Hager's book club picks (with personal thoughts and recommendations): https://julesbuono.com/jenna-bush-hagers-book-club-list/
Williams is a young wife and mother facing a terminal cancer diagnosis. With a jaw-dropping background facing insurmountable odds, including being born blind in post-War Vietnam to a family that wanted to end her life and an unbelievably tumultuous months-long escape, she had surgery that restored part of her sight and eventually became a Harvard trained lawyer who traveled to all seven continents on her own. It's hard to imagine that a terminal cancer diagnosis followed at the age of thirty-seven.
Seeking clarity, Williams began to write the story of her life. In The Unwinding of the Miracle, she walks the reader through the day to day emotional journey of living and dying with cancer: shock, loneliness, sadness, despair, anger, hope. She's candid and real, and the miracle of her life forever touched my heart.
You can find this book and more on my list of Jenna Bush Hager's book club picks (with personal thoughts and recommendations): https://julesbuono.com/jenna-bush-hagers-book-club-list/
3.75* This was a beautiful sad story about a women who knew she was dying and what comes with that. It wasn’t easy to read but I do think the conversations that came from it were so important
Here goes. This book was terrible. There. I said it. It feels like I shouldn't considered the topic and author's outcome, but this was painful to get through. 315 pages of rambling, repetitive, disconnected thought. While the chapters went forward by year, the writing and stories didn't. It was difficult to follow her thought process and I often had to go back and reread sentences or paragraphs because they were so run-on I couldn't remember what the point was. Everything was terribly disjointed.
What's really unfortunate is that I feel like the author had a great story to tell. Her life beginning in Vietnam, her journey to America, gaining sight, her incredible success. But she only ever touched on those things between talking about cancer treatments and scan results.
I had a really, really hard time with her continued bashing of the "slutty second wife", her disdain for cancer groups and ribbons, and her applauding suicide in depressed individuals, likening it to discontinuing treatment for a terminal illness. That kind of thinking is dangerous and slippery. While the author did sometimes have meaningful things to say, it was completely drowned out by the negativity.
I would absolutely not recommend this book.
What's really unfortunate is that I feel like the author had a great story to tell. Her life beginning in Vietnam, her journey to America, gaining sight, her incredible success. But she only ever touched on those things between talking about cancer treatments and scan results.
I had a really, really hard time with her continued bashing of the "slutty second wife", her disdain for cancer groups and ribbons, and her applauding suicide in depressed individuals, likening it to discontinuing treatment for a terminal illness. That kind of thinking is dangerous and slippery. While the author did sometimes have meaningful things to say, it was completely drowned out by the negativity.
I would absolutely not recommend this book.
This was fine, however, I found myself wanting to know more about the other stories in Yip-Williams' life: what it was like to grow up legally blind, what traveling alone to all seven continents was like, how she came to be a lawyer, etc. She touches on all those things, but I wanted more.
As far as a memoir of living with and dying from cancer, this couldn't live up to When Breath Becomes Air.
As far as a memoir of living with and dying from cancer, this couldn't live up to When Breath Becomes Air.