Joyful Anyway (Kate Bowler)

 

When I heard about this book, I had to go buy it right away. It was just what I was looking for. My word of the year for 2026 is shine, as in, "...this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine!" I have felt like there is so much that is hard. Education right now is a hard place. There is frustration with the government and teacher's rights, funding and growing misunderstandings with teachers and the government. My school is a hard place. We have had tragedy occur and despite many professing that we are one happy family, there is pettiness and cliques and heartache as fall out and I'm not sure how it'll get fixed. And then there are all the regular life struggles....but I'm supposed to feel joy, right? This book felt like a manual to finding that joy and showing it. 

Kate Bowler is a wise woman. This is a book I will read again and again until I really get it. I will read it again and again until I can really live it. I felt like a lot of this book was written like parables. They need pondering and time. There were a lot of great tidbits to grab and hold on to. I bet every story would speak differently to every person.

Goodreads says:

The bestselling author and Duke University professor discovers the true magic of it appears when we least expect it—and even if we don’t feel happy, we can be joyful, anyway.

Life aches. Joy is the cure.

After surviving a stage-four cancer diagnosis, Kate Bowler knew she was supposed to be grateful. Alive. Blessed. But she still ached—for more connection, more surprise, less resentment on an ordinary day.

So she went looking for joy. Not the toxic positivity kind. Not a 5-step plan. But the type that sneaks in unexpectedly, seemingly out of nowhere. A lemur sunbathing. A belly laugh at a funeral. A dive into the Atlantic with a shark wrangler.

In Joyful, Anyway, Bowler takes us on a hilarious and tender journey through big questions and small delights. With wry wit and deep honesty, she explores how joy can surprise us even in the middle of pain, boredom, and longing.

This is not a book about fixing your life. It is about how we can all find more—feel more—by making room for small extraordinary moments. 

For anyone who has ever felt stuck, who is achy for meaning, who feels undone by loss, who feels that joy is just out of reach, who wants, simply, to have more fun, Joyful Anyway is a delicious, insightful tour through the questions that sit in the deepest part of our souls. It proves that for every time we Is this it? Joy will there is more.