Book recommendation: Life's That Way

[growyourwings]

Most (likely all) SPN fans know that Jim Beaver, the actor who plays Bobby Singer on SPN, has just had his book "Life That's Way" published.

As a good SPN fan and a big fan of Jim as well, I had the book pre-ordered on Amazon and it arrived at my home a couple of weeks ago.  But I didn't get around to reading it until about 2 days ago.

I haven't yet met Jim in person as he hasn't been at any of the Cons I've been at.  He's scheduled to be the Con in Vancouver in August, so *crosses fingers* I should get to see him then.  All Con reports have been very positive about Jim and he's a fan favorite not just because of his character but because he's a genuinely nice person.

This book moved me very deeply. 

Jim's wife was diagnosed with cancer shortly after the birth of their first child.  Within a year she lost the battle with cancer.  During the time of her struggle, Jim started writing nightly emails to keep everyone up-to-date on what was happening to them.  The email distribution grew to about 4,000.  This book is all those emails, mostly unedited from when they were first composed. 

I cannot tell you how moved I was by it.  Jim has an amazing way with words.  It grabbed me from the first moment.

I'm not done with the book yet, but I have read through to the time of his wife's death.

On a whim I started reading the book out loud to my husband the other night.  When we got to the part where his wife was dying, I was bawling my eyes out.  I had to pause every few words to try to compose myself.  When we got through those moments I was very moved to see how very affected my husband was by what Jim had written.  Bob and I ended up talking for a few hours afterwards about some traumatic points in our lives.  It was a wonderful and moving conversation that I'm not sure would have occured if it wasn't for Jim's book. 

So I feel like I owe Jim some kind of special thank you.  I'm hoping I don't break down crying when I finally do meet him in person.  I know I'm going to want to hug him and I rarely hug people.

Jim displays such a vast depth of feeling in this book about his family's difficult journey through this time.  And while the subject matter is sad, I was also uplifted by it as well.

If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend that you do.