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The unwinding of the miracle : a memoir of life, death, and everything that comes after / Julie Yip-Williams.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Random House, [2019]Copyright date: ©2019Edition: First editionDescription: x, 315 pages ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780525511359
  • 0525511350
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Life -- The odds -- Seeing ghosts -- The warfare, and the weapons -- Deals with God -- Faith, a lesson of history -- CEA, pet, MRI -- The secret -- Moments of happiness -- An adventure with the Chinese medicine man -- The surly bonds of earth -- The crossroads of the world -- I am lost -- A nightmare -- The hand of God -- A love story -- Fate and fortune -- Numbers, a reassessment -- Take your victories where you can -- The cancer is in my lungs -- From darkness to strength -- "Keeping it in the stomach" -- A day in my life -- Invincibility -- Dreams reborn -- Solitude -- A game of clue -- The gift of grief -- In which the Yips become Americans -- Living -- Insanity -- Chipper -- Courage and love -- Hate -- Home -- Believe -- Pain -- Death -- Preparing -- Love -- The unwinding of the miracle.
Summary: "Born blind in Vietnam, Julie Yip-Williams narrowly escaped euthanasia by her grandmother, only to then flee the political upheaval of the late 1970s with her family. Loaded into a rickety boat with three hundred other refugees, Julie made it to Hong Kong and, ultimately, America, where a surgeon at UCLA gave her partial sight. Against all odds, she became a Harvard-educated lawyer, with a husband, a family, a life. Then, at age thirty-seven, with two little girls at home, Julie was diagnosed with terminal metastatic colon cancer, and a different journey began. The Unwinding of the Miracle is the story of a vigorous life refracted through the prism of imminent death. Motherhood, marriage, ambition, love, wanderlust, tennis, grief, jealousy, anger, comfort, pain, disease--there is simply nothing this book is not about. Growing out of a blog Julie has kept through the past four years of her life (undertaken because she couldn't find the guidance she needed through her disease), this is the story of a life lived so well, and cut too short. It is inspiring and instructive, delightful and shattering. It is a book of indelible moments, seared deep. With glorious humor, beautiful and bracing honesty, and the cleansing power of well-deployed anger, Julie Yip-Williams has set the stage for her lasting legacy and one final miracle: the story of her life"-- Provided by publisher.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library Biography Yip-Will J. Y51 Available 33111008934941
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Biography Yip-Will J. Y51 Available 33111009316528
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today * As a young mother facing a terminal diagnosis, Julie Yip-Williams began to write her story, a story like no other. What began as the chronicle of an imminent and early death became something much more--a powerful exhortation to the living.

"An exquisitely moving portrait of the daily stuff of life."-- The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review * Time * Real Simple * Good Housekeeping

That Julie Yip-Williams survived infancy was a miracle. Born blind in Vietnam, she narrowly escaped euthanasia at the hands of her grandmother, only to flee with her family the political upheaval of her country in the late 1970s. Loaded into a rickety boat with three hundred other refugees, Julie made it to Hong Kong and, ultimately, America, where a surgeon at UCLA gave her partial sight. She would go on to become a Harvard-educated lawyer, with a husband, a family, and a life she had once assumed would be impossible. Then, at age thirty-seven, with two little girls at home, Julie was diagnosed with terminal metastatic colon cancer, and a different journey began.

The Unwinding of the Miracle is the story of a vigorous life refracted through the prism of imminent death. When she was first diagnosed, Julie Yip-Williams sought clarity and guidance through the experience and, finding none, began to write her way through it--a chronicle that grew beyond her imagining. Motherhood, marriage, the immigrant experience, ambition, love, wanderlust, tennis, fortune-tellers, grief, reincarnation, jealousy, comfort, pain, the marvel of the body in full rebellion--this book is as sprawling and majestic as the life it records. It is inspiring and instructive, delightful and shattering. It is a book of indelible moments, seared deep--an incomparable guide to living vividly by facing hard truths consciously.

With humor, bracing honesty, and the cleansing power of well-deployed anger, Julie Yip-Williams set the stage for her lasting legacy and one final miracle: the story of her life.

Praise for The Unwinding of the Miracle

"Everything worth understanding and holding on to is in this book. . . . A miracle indeed." --Kelly Corrigan, New York Times bestselling author

"A beautifully written, moving, and compassionate chronicle that deserves to be read and absorbed widely." --Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies

"Born blind in Vietnam, Julie Yip-Williams narrowly escaped euthanasia by her grandmother, only to then flee the political upheaval of the late 1970s with her family. Loaded into a rickety boat with three hundred other refugees, Julie made it to Hong Kong and, ultimately, America, where a surgeon at UCLA gave her partial sight. Against all odds, she became a Harvard-educated lawyer, with a husband, a family, a life. Then, at age thirty-seven, with two little girls at home, Julie was diagnosed with terminal metastatic colon cancer, and a different journey began. The Unwinding of the Miracle is the story of a vigorous life refracted through the prism of imminent death. Motherhood, marriage, ambition, love, wanderlust, tennis, grief, jealousy, anger, comfort, pain, disease--there is simply nothing this book is not about. Growing out of a blog Julie has kept through the past four years of her life (undertaken because she couldn't find the guidance she needed through her disease), this is the story of a life lived so well, and cut too short. It is inspiring and instructive, delightful and shattering. It is a book of indelible moments, seared deep. With glorious humor, beautiful and bracing honesty, and the cleansing power of well-deployed anger, Julie Yip-Williams has set the stage for her lasting legacy and one final miracle: the story of her life"-- Provided by publisher.

Life -- The odds -- Seeing ghosts -- The warfare, and the weapons -- Deals with God -- Faith, a lesson of history -- CEA, pet, MRI -- The secret -- Moments of happiness -- An adventure with the Chinese medicine man -- The surly bonds of earth -- The crossroads of the world -- I am lost -- A nightmare -- The hand of God -- A love story -- Fate and fortune -- Numbers, a reassessment -- Take your victories where you can -- The cancer is in my lungs -- From darkness to strength -- "Keeping it in the stomach" -- A day in my life -- Invincibility -- Dreams reborn -- Solitude -- A game of clue -- The gift of grief -- In which the Yips become Americans -- Living -- Insanity -- Chipper -- Courage and love -- Hate -- Home -- Believe -- Pain -- Death -- Preparing -- Love -- The unwinding of the miracle.

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