THE ANTI-BUCKET LIST

An examination of the biggest existential question we all face: how do I spend my time? Written from a well of hard-won wisdom, Kate intends to explore the personal, historical and cultural dimensions that are embedded in the variety of prevailing theories over how we measure and manage, value, our finite time here on earth.

THE ANTI-BUCKET LIST follows Kate's life suddenly lived inside the clock, with a set number of minutes and pressing decisions to be made about how to spend each one. Moving through the outrageously different formulas that permeate popular culture about how to manage our time: ruthless efficiency, bucket lists, divine planning, retrospection, maximization, living in the moment, the book will explore each of these formulas as Kate tries to embody the best of each one, while navigating the biggest decisions of her life.

She has come to a place of viewing these formulas as the monsters of modernity. We are told to "live our best lives"-- an edict to squeeze life for every last drop but what Kate found is that these exhaustive calls are really expressions of our culture's painful delusions about personal agency. Surviving, it turns out, is not under our control.

This promises to be a beautiful, big idea book, written with Bowler's unique blend of intelligence, warmth and earned wisdom.

Kate Bowler is an assistant professor at Duke Divinity School. A graduate of Yale Divinity School and Duke University, Bowler is the author of Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved and Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel.She lives in North Carolina with her husband and son.