About the book
Three women. Three generations. One impossible year.
Sometimes Shells Make Sand follows three generations of women — exactly twenty-five years apart in age (25, 50, 75) — as they struggle to navigate the physical, mental, and emotional toll the disease of ALS takes on their lives.
The three women take the reader through their adventures together: miscalculated edibles, relationship wrangling, and random conversations and awkward situations — all while dodging the devastation of ALS.
It is a story about learning to love the dysfunctional family you have and honoring the ones you have lost. Most of all, it is about remembering that life is ever-changing and beautiful — just like the hard shells that fade into soft, powdery sand.
Genre
Memoir
Publisher
Coming 2026
Author
Julie Doyle Cullen
From the book
We're walking down the beach on a sunny, breezy afternoon. Our bare feet are trying to avoid all the small, scattered shells with the sharp edges, but we step on one every now and then that hurts a little.
We are looking down as we walk because you never know what treasure you might find half-buried in the sand or rolling up with the surf. The pelicans are flying a few inches off the water looking for an early dinner, their throats noticeably swallowing as they scoop up fish. Those cute yellow-footed birds you love are gathered in groups running frantically in and out of the waves catching minnows.
We notice a dolphin surface between the whitecaps, and we stop to see if it will come up again. There are low-roaring boat motors and children chattering while playing in the background behind us. The soft breeze and the rhythm of the surf have us in a beautiful beach trance.
There is an elaborate shell-encrusted sandcastle up ahead, and we walk toward it as we hold hands and think about how lucky we are to be in such a beautiful place together.
Read press coverage"A memoir that earns every laugh and every tear. Julie Doyle Cullen writes about impossible circumstances with a lightness that never minimizes — it illuminates."