We thank Mr. Beaver for all his kindness and friendship through the making of the Deadwood Bible and afterwards! We tip the hat and bow to you kind sir! Thank you.

Even the hardest lessons contain great gifts.

Jim Beaver and his wife Cecily Adams appeared to have it all-following years of fertility treatments, they were finally parents and they were building their dream home and successful Hollywood careers. Life was good. But then their daughter, Maddie, was diagnosed as autistic. Weeks later, Cecily, a non-smoker, was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. Sadly, after 14 years of marriage, Jim became a widower and a single dad.

Faced with overwhelming grief, Jim reached out to family and friends by writing a nightly email-a habit he established when Cecily was first diagnosed. Initially a cathartic exercise for Jim, the prose became an unforgettable journey for his readers. Life's That Way is a compilation of those profound, compelling emails.

I'm no Job - though I think we went to the same school....So says Jim Beaver in this memoir.
In August 2003, Jim and his wife, Cecily, received what they thought was the worst news possible - their daughter, Maddie, was autistic. Then, six weeks later, the roof fell in - Cecily was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer.
Jim immediately began writing a nightly e-mail as a way to keep 125 family and friends up-to-date about Cecily's condition. Soon four thousand people around the world were reading it. Initially a cathartic exercise for Jim, the prose turned into an unforgettable journey for his readers. Life's That Way is a compilation of those e-mails; yet what started out as nightly missives makes for a unique and compelling, wholly original reading experience.
Life's That Way is not an author looking back on his experience with the advantage of hindsight - there is an immediacy to this book that is singular. While highly personal, Beaver's experience is at the same time universal for anybody who has lost a loved one.
But Life's That Way is not solely about loss. It is a day-by-day account of what it's like to discover the joy of a child, to be on the receiving end of unthinkable kindness, and to navigate life anew. As Beaver says, these are hard-won blessings. Then again, life's that way.

From Publishers Weekly

Review

"Life's That Way is a gift of a book and one that will join Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking as a classic exploration of love and grief. It removes the clinical and focuses on the personal, revealing that "there's no end to the new ways one can experience such a cataclysm," and shows that, unbelievable as it is, life does go on. And we go with it. "I can't recommend this book highly enough. It will give you pause to reflect on your own relationships and experiences and to think about what your commitments really mean, and it will remind you that even in the worst of situations, people have a wonderful way of reaching out to help and support each other in astonishingly simple and profound ways. 5 out of 5." --Rebecca @ The Book Lady's Blog, May 5, 2009

About the Author

Jim Beaver is an actor best known for his roles on HBO's Deadwood, the CW's Supernatural, and FX's Justified. Beaver is also a playwright, screenwriter, film historian, and Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam. He is the author of Life's That Way, a memoir in the form of emails sent to family and friends during the most challenging time of his life.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Putnam Adult; First Edition (April 16, 2009)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0399155643
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0399155642
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.11 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.3 x 1.22 x 9.3 inches