People experience and process grief in any number of ways. We hope these titles bring comfort and support.
The Pure Lover
David Plante
Written in response to the death of his life partner, Nikos Stangos, from brain cancer, this memoir explores Stangos's childhood in Nazi-occupied Greece; his college life in the U.S.; his happy days in London, when he and the author met and beca
Read More View in CatalogA Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius
Dave Eggers
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultan
Read More View in CatalogThe Widower's Notebook
Jonathan Santlofer
Written with unexpected humor and great warmth, The Widower's Notebook is a portrait of a marriage, an account of the complexities of finding oneself single again after losing your spouse, and a story of the enduring power of familial love. &quo
Read More View in CatalogBlue Nights
Joan Didion
From one of our most powerful writers, a work of stunning frankness about losing a daughter. Richly textured with memories from her own childhood and married life with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and daughter, Quintana Roo, this new book by Joan
Read More View in CatalogLove Is a Mix Tape
Rob Sheffield
In a poignant memoir of love, loss, and music, a rock and pop culture critic shares the story of his romance and marriage to Renée, a young woman with whom he had little in common except for the music that brought them together, and Renée's tr
Read More View in CatalogThe Long Goodbye
Meghan O'Rourke
What does it mean to mourn today, in a culture that has largely set aside rituals that acknowledge grief? After her mother died of cancer at the age of fifty-five, Meghan O'Rourke found that nothing had prepared her for the intensity of her sorr
Read More View in CatalogA Mother's Reckoning
Sue Klebold
The acclaimed New York Times bestseller by Sue Klebold, mother of one of the Columbine shooters, about living in the aftermath of Columbine. On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Ov
Read More View in CatalogThe Year of Magical Thinking
Joan Didion
From one of America's iconic writers, a portrait of a marriage and a life – in good times and bad – that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child. A stunning book of electric honesty and passion.
View in CatalogMaking Toast
Roger Rosenblatt
When his daughter, Amy, collapses and dies from an asymptomatic heart condition, Rosenblatt and his wife leave their home on Long Island to move in with their son-in-law and their three young grandchildren. He peels back the layers on this most perso
Read More View in CatalogWar
Sebastian Junger
Junger turns his brilliant and empathetic eye to the reality of combat--the fear, the honor, and the trust among men in an extreme situation whose survival depends on their absolute commitment to one another. His on-the-ground account follows a singl
Read More View in CatalogSaturday Night Widows
Becky Aikman
Describes the author's experiences as a young widow and the pivotal relationships she forged with five other widows, recounting the stories of their losses and bravery as exchanged throughout a year of monthly Saturday night meetings, during whi
Read More View in CatalogTruth & Beauty
Ann Patchett
What happens when the person who is your family is someone you aren't bound to by blood? What happens when the person you promise to love and to honor for the rest of your life is not your lover, but your best friend? In Truth & Beauty, her
Read More View in CatalogH Is for Hawk
Helen Macdonald
Fierce and feral, her goshawk Mabel's temperament mirrors Helen's own state of grief after her father's death, and together raptor and human "discover the pain and beauty of being alive." H Is for Hawk is a genre-defying debu
Read More View in CatalogYou Don't Have to Say You Love Me
Sherman Alexie
Family relationships are never simple. But Sherman Alexie's bond with his mother Lillian was more complex than most. She plunged her family into chaos with a drinking habit, but shed her addiction when it was on the brink of costing her everythi
Read More View in CatalogOrdinary Light
Tracy K. Smith
In Ordinary Light, Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Tracy K. Smith tells her remarkable story, giving us a quietly potent memoir that explores her coming-of-age and the meaning of home against a complex backdrop of race, faith, and the unbreakable bond
Read More View in CatalogWild
Cheryl Strayed
A powerful, blazingly honest, inspiring memoir: the story of a 1,100 mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe--and built her back up again.
View in CatalogGrief Observed
C. S. Lewis
Written after his wife's tragic death as a way of surviving the "mad midnight moment," A Grief Observed is C.S. Lewis's honest reflection on the fundamental issues of life, death, and faith in the midst of loss. This work contains
Read More View in CatalogMen We Reaped
Jesmyn Ward
In five years, Jesmyn Ward lost five young men in her life-to drugs, accidents, suicide, and the bad luck that can follow people who live in poverty, particularly black men. Dealing with these losses, one after another, made Jesmyn ask the question:
Read More View in CatalogWave
Sonali Deraniyagala
A brave, intimate, beautifully crafted memoir by a survivor of the tsunami that struck the Sri Lankan coast in 2004 and took her entire family. On December 26, Boxing Day, Sonali Deraniyagala, her English husband, her parents, her two young sons, and
Read More View in CatalogWhen Breath Becomes Air
Paul Kalanithi
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to liv
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