Books

Explore books written by the Rarely Ordinary Collection's creator, Baylie Phillips, along with links to helpful books on various conditions and support books.

Author Baylie Phillips sitting on a bench reading Hope Overcomes Pain Overtime book.
Author Baylie Phillips sitting on a bench reading Hope Overcomes Pain Overtime book.

HOPE: Hope Overcomes Pain Everytime A Short Memoir of a Girl With 14 Disorders

Author: Baylie Phillips
Published April 26th, 2025

In this raw, brutally honest first-part memoir, Baylie Phillips (now Phillips McClernan) shares her story of living with 14 chronic medical conditions - each one a challenge, each one a battle. HOPE isn't just about fighting; it's about finding the courage to keep fighting, even when the world doesn't see your struggle.

Inside HOPE you'll discover:

  • A Story of Unbreakable Resilience

  • The Power of Vulnerability

  • A Wake-Up Call for Awareness

  • Inspiration to Rise Above

  • The Warrior Inside You

  • Empathy and Understanding

  • A Call for Change

HOPE sat at the #1 spot for New Releases for 9 days and the #3 spot for Best Sellers for 3 days, both in the Dreams category on Amazon. Don't let this powerful story pass you by. Whether you are living with a chronic illness or you know someone who is, HOPE will provide you insight, inspiration, and the courage to keep fighting. Join me in raising awareness for chronic illnesses, rare diseases, and disabilities. Every purchase helps spread the message that those living with invisible battles deserve to be seen, heard, and supported.

Order HOPE: Hope Overcomes Pain Everytime and take the first step towards understanding, compassion, and connection.

Available on Amazon Marketplace and Kindle.

Amazon ISBN: 979-8281469197

“ There were days when hope was the quiet decision to keep breathing, even when my body felt like it was failing me. No one saw those battles, but they shaped everything I became. ”

— Baylie Phillips, HOPE: Hope Overcomes Pain Everytime

“ Invisible illness does not mean invisible suffering. It means fighting battles that are constantly questioned, minimized, or ignored — and choosing to speak anyway. ”

— Baylie Phillips, HOPE: Hope Overcomes Pain Everytime

Invisible Light Within: 365 Days of Guided Reflection for the Chronically Ill

Author: Baylie Phillips
Published February 2026

Living with chronic illness means fighting battles no one else can see. Invisible Light Within is a deeply compassionate, trauma-informed guided journal created for those navigating chronic illness, disability, medical trauma, and long-term uncertainty. With 365 thoughtfully crafted prompts, this book offers a full year of reflection, validation, grief, resilience, and meaning-making—one day at a time. This is not a gratitude journal that bypasses pain. This is not toxic positivity. This is a space where your truth is welcome.

Written by chronic illness advocate Baylie Phillips, Invisible Light Within walks beside you through every phase of the chronic illness journey—from diagnosis and medical gaslighting, to grief and identity loss, to rebuilding purpose, redefining worth, and learning how to live in the in-between.

Inside this book, you’ll find:

  • 365 guided prompts designed specifically for chronically ill and disabled lives

    • Gentle space to process medical trauma, burnout, anger, hope, faith, fear, resilience, and rest

    • Prompts that honor both survival and softness

    • A judgment-free journal you can use daily—or return to whenever you need it

  • 11 themed sections, including:

  1. Life Before and After Illness

  2. Grief, Loss, and Redefining Dreams

  3. Diagnosis, Medical Systems, and Advocacy

  4. Emotional Survival and Coping

  5. Support, Relationships, and Boundaries

  6. Invisible Illness and Identity

  7. Rebuilding Purpose and Creative Living

  8. Faith, Legacy, and Near-Death Reflections

  9. Self-Worth, Wholeness, and the Ongoing Fight to Stay

  10. Reflection, Meaning, and Inner Wisdom

  11. Living in the In-Between — Integration, Identity, and Everyday Courage

This journal is for you if:

  • You live with chronic illness, disability, pain, or fatigue

  • You’ve experienced medical dismissal, gaslighting, or diagnostic trauma

  • You’re grieving the life you thought you’d have

  • You’re learning to rest without guilt

  • You want language for what you’ve survived

  • You want a place where your story doesn’t need to be explained or justified

You don’t need to “stay positive.” You don’t need to be inspiring. You don’t need to be productive. You just need a place where your experience is honored.

Invisible Light Within is that place.

Book cover of Invisible Light Within, with flowers and butterflies
Book cover of Invisible Light Within, with flowers and butterflies

To every warrior holding buying journal—this journal is for you. For the days when pain is louder than hope. For the nights when silence echoes with unanswered questions. For the mornings you rise anyway, even when the world can’t see what it costs you.

This is for the ones who have been dismissed, doubted, or overlooked—yet continue to show up for their lives with quiet courage. These pages are yours—to grieve, to rage, to remember, to heal. To speak the truths no one has asked for, and to reclaim the narrative that was always yours to write. Thank you for being here. Your story matters more than words can ever hold.

With love,

Baylie Phillips

Founder of Rarely Ordinary Collection

Recommended Books

Nonfiction and Memoirs

The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness — Meghan O'Rourke
A deeply researched blend of memoir and reportage that examines autoimmune disease, post-treatment Lyme, and long COVID, revealing how medicine struggles to name and treat chronic illness. O’Rourke weaves personal experience with expert interviews to challenge how illness is understood and validated.

What Doesn't Kill You: A Life with Chronic Illness — Tessa Miller
A journalist’s sharp, compassionate account of living with Crohn’s disease that exposes medical gaslighting, systemic failures, and the emotional toll of chronic illness. The book offers solidarity and practical wisdom for surviving both illness and the healthcare system.

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted — Suleika Jaouad
This memoir traces Jaouad’s leukemia diagnosis at 22 and the often-overlooked struggle of rebuilding life after treatment ends. It focuses on identity, uncertainty, and the long road of “re-entry” into a changed body and world.

How to Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide — Toni Bernhard
Drawing on Buddhist philosophy, this guide offers practical tools for cultivating peace, patience, and self-compassion while living with chronic illness. It speaks to both patients and caregivers navigating long-term suffering.

Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist — Judith Heumann
A powerful memoir chronicling Heumann’s lifelong fight for disability rights, from childhood discrimination to landmark civil rights victories. It provides an essential history of modern disability activism through lived experience.

Disability Visibility — edited by Alice Wong
An anthology of first-person essays that amplifies disabled voices and perspectives often excluded from public discourse. The collection celebrates disability culture while confronting systemic ableism and access barriers.

Disability Works: Performance After Rehabilitation — Patrick McKelvey
A cultural history exploring how disability and performance intersect after medical rehabilitation. The book examines how disabled bodies reshape art, identity, and public space.

Chasing My Cure — David Fajgenbaum
A gripping memoir about a physician racing to save his own life from a rare, deadly disease while advancing medical research. It is a story of urgency, hope, and the power of patient-driven science.

You Don't Look Sick! — Joy H. Selak
This book addresses the emotional and social challenges of living with invisible chronic illness. It validates unseen suffering while offering tools for self-advocacy and resilience.

A Still Life — Josie George
A lyrical, candid memoir about living with a debilitating illness that reshapes daily life and identity. George writes with honesty and hope about grief, adaptation, and quiet endurance.

Raising a Rare Girl — Heather Lanier
A tender, accessible memoir about raising a daughter with a rare genetic deletion. Lanier offers insight for families and friends seeking to understand disability, love, and adaptation.

A Zebra's Tale: The Fight of My Life — Zeda Ray
A recent memoir chronicling the long fight for diagnosis within complex chronic illness, including EDS, POTS, and MCAS. It exposes systemic medical failures while emphasizing perseverance and self-trust.

All's Well — Mona Awad
A darkly comic, surreal novel centered on a woman living with chronic pain. It explores rage, injustice, and bodily autonomy through sharp satire and psychological intensity.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow — Gabrielle Zevin
A sweeping novel about friendship, creativity, and video game design that features a disabled protagonist. It examines ambition, love, and how disability shapes relationships over time.

The Farseer Trilogy — Robin Hobb
A fantasy series in which the protagonist lives with chronic pain, disability, and emotional trauma. Hobb portrays suffering with realism and depth rarely seen in epic fantasy.

Get a Life, Chloe Brown — Talia Hibbert
A warm, funny romantic comedy featuring a heroine with fibromyalgia. The novel balances joy and realism, portraying chronic illness as part of a full, vibrant life.

Always Only You — Chloe Liese
A heartfelt romance that authentically depicts life with rheumatoid arthritis. The story centers love, consent, and accommodation without minimizing disability.

The Bridge Back to You — Riss M. Neilson
A forthcoming novel by a disabled author featuring a disabled main character. It focuses on identity, healing, and connection through an authentic disability lens.

The Recovery Run — Melissa Whitney
A notable 2026 release exploring recovery, resilience, and chronic illness through fiction. The novel is widely anticipated within disability communities for its representation.

The Moth Girl — Heather Kamins
A young adult novel that uses metamorphosis as a metaphor for chronic illness. Frequently recommended in the EDS community, it explores bodily change and self-acceptance.

The Chronic Illness Workbook — Patricia A. Fennell
A comprehensive workbook addressing the physical, psychological, and social dimensions of chronic illness. It draws on decades of clinical experience to support long-term adaptation.

The Autoimmune Wellness Handbook — Mickey Trescott & Angie Alt
A practical, seven-step framework for managing autoimmune conditions through nutrition, rest, movement, and medical collaboration. Designed for hands-on, sustainable lifestyle changes.

You Are More Than Your Body — Dr. Caspari
An evidence-based guide offering over 30 strategies for living meaningfully despite physical limitations. It emphasizes identity, autonomy, and psychological resilience.

Rethinking Disability
A disability-studies-based guide for educators focused on inclusive classroom practices. It challenges teachers to rethink assumptions about ability and assessment.

Rare Disease from A to Z — Hailey Adkisson
An alphabetical guide explaining 26 rare diseases in an accessible, scientifically accurate way. Especially helpful for children, siblings, and peers.

Never Pay the First Bill — Marshall Allen
A practical guide to navigating medical bills and insurance systems. It empowers patients to reduce financial strain and advocate for fair costs.

Demystifying Disability — Emily Ladau
An approachable handbook covering disability history, language, and allyship. It equips readers to engage respectfully and challenge ableism in everyday life.

Living a Healthy Life with Chronic Conditions — Kate Lorig et al.
Based on extensive research, this guide teaches readers to become active self-managers of chronic illness. It covers nutrition, movement, stress management, and emotional empowerment.

Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness — Ilana Jacqueline
A practical guide for navigating dating, work, and healthcare with invisible illness. It blends lived experience with actionable strategies.

Chronic: The Hidden Cause of the Autoimmune Epidemic — Dr. Steven Phillips & Dana Parish
An exploration of how hidden infections like Lyme and COVID-19 may drive autoimmune and psychiatric conditions. The book challenges conventional models of chronic disease.

Complete Resource Guide for People with Chronic Illness
A comprehensive 950-page reference covering 89 chronic illnesses, their symptoms, and treatments. Designed as an all-in-one educational tool.

Rare Mamas — Nikki McIntosh
A practical resource empowering mothers and caregivers navigating their child’s rare disease. It focuses on advocacy, organization, and emotional sustainability.

Barriers to Breakthroughs — John Patrick Muller Jr.
A comprehensive guide to understanding and navigating the rare disease landscape. It addresses diagnosis, research access, and systemic barriers.

Rare Disease Parent Journal — Allie White
A structured journal designed to track symptoms, appointments, and medical data. It supports organization and long-term care planning.

Disjointed: Navigating hEDS and HSD — ed. Diana Jovin
A 688-page specialist resource covering genetics, autonomic dysfunction, and pain management in hEDS and HSD. Widely regarded as one of the most comprehensive texts available.

The EDS and Hypermobility Handbook — Patrick G.E. Harris
A forthcoming guide offering daily routines, strengthening strategies, and joint-protection tools. Designed for long-term management of hypermobility conditions.

Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Your Family — Dr. Elizabeth J. Parker
An updated, research-backed guide for families affected by EDS, including new diagnostic developments. It translates emerging science into practical, real-world guidance.

Fiction
Educational