I Should Wake Before I Die: Field Notes from the Valley of the Shadow (with Snacks!) - Paperback

When linguist and educator Elisa Everts was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer, she was told she had less than a year to live (spoiler alert: she's still alive). She responded by saying, "Hold my beer," called her friends, planned her funeral, and wrote her heart out-somehow managing to laugh nearly as much as she cried.

Part memoir, part love letter to life, I Should Wake Before I Die is a radiant, witty, soul-stretching collection of reflections from the brink-blending dark humor, narrative insight, and spiritual wonder. Everts doesn't glorify suffering, but she does believe that it is a crucible for the sacred and that the human spirit is astonishing.

From grief to gratitude, rage to reverence, this book explores what it means to die well and live better. Whether you're facing a diagnosis, supporting someone who is, or simply trying to wake up before your own story ends, these "joyful dispatches" will make you laugh, cry, and maybe even look death straight in the eye... and wink.

"The shadow of death is not black; it's technicolor. I would that you, too, would suddenly see the world in technicolor 3-D... to find the miraculous in the mundane." -Elisa L. Everts, Author of I Should Wake Before I Die