Books about grief, loss, illness, and hope for adults
Loss of Spouse
For those who find themselves widowed, losing the one you married because you couldn't imagine life without them is sometimes unimaginable.
Grief Observed
by C. S. Lewis*
Written with love, humility, and faith, this brief but poignant volume was first published in 1961 and concerns the death of C. S. Lewis's wife, the American-born poet Joy Davidman. In her introduction to this new edition, Madeleine L'Engle writes: "I am grateful to Lewis for having the courage to yell, to doubt, to kick at God in angry violence. This is a part of a healthy grief which is not often encouraged. It is helpful indeed that C. S. Lewis, who has been such a successful apologist for Christianity, should have the courage to admit doubt about what he has so superbly proclaimed. It gives us permission to admit our own doubts, our own angers and anguishes, and to know that they are part of the soul's growth."
Beyond the Darkness: A Gentle Guide for Living with Grief and Thriving After Loss
by Clarissa Moll*
In 2019, Clarissa Moll's husband, Rob, died unexpectedly while hiking, leaving her to raise their four children alone. Drawing from this personal tragedy, Moll offers a tender and practical guide for those navigating the complexities of grief. The book is structured into three sections:
- Preparation for the Journey: Addresses the initial shock and societal misconceptions about grief.
- Tools for Survival: Provides practical advice on self-care, community support, and spiritual practices to aid in healing.
- The Path Ahead: Encourages readers to find hope and purpose beyond their loss.
Moll emphasizes that grief is not something to "get over" but a journey to walk through, with faith as a guiding companion.
It’s OK That You’re Not OK: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn’t Understand
by Megan Devine
Megan Devine’s bestselling book is a powerful blend of personal narrative and grief theory. After the sudden death of her partner, Devine — who was a psychotherapist at the time — realized how unprepared our culture is to deal with deep grief. Her book challenges common platitudes and encourages readers to make space for pain rather than trying to fix or minimize it. Devine offers validation, practical advice, and a new model for grief support that honors the individual experience of loss. (Although C.S. Lewis is my favorite author, this is the book that I personally take to those who find themselves in this club that we never wanted to join.)
Finding Your Way after Your Spouse Dies
by Marta Felber
If you have suffered the death of your spouse, you have experienced one of the most painful and disorienting experiences life can offer. In the days immediately following the loss, you may need everything from advice on finances to a home-cooked meal. But there is nothing you need more than the warm, reassuring voice of one who has traveled this path before and survived. In Finding Your Way After Your Spouse Dies, Marta Felber offers just such a voice. Having experienced her own spouse's death, Felber is never glib or simplistic. She knows the grief her readers are feeling, and she encourages them to give it full expression. At the same time, she offers sound, practical suggestions on how to navigate difficult days.
Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss and Love
Matt and Liz Logelin were high school sweethearts. After years of long-distance dating, the pair finally settled together in Los Angeles, and they had it all: a perfect marriage, a new home, and a baby girl on the way. Liz's pregnancy was rocky, but they welcomed Madeline on March 24, 2008. Just twenty-seven hours later, Liz suffered a pulmonary embolism and died instantly. In this memoir, Matt shares bittersweet and often humorous anecdotes of his courtship and marriage to Liz; of relying on his newborn daughter for the support that she unknowingly provided; and of the extraordinary online community of strangers who have become his friends. In honoring Liz's legacy, heartache has become solace.
No One Dies Alone: A Memoir of Loving and Losing
by Bob Moll
Bob Moll's book is a deeply personal memoir that reflects on the death of his wife and the emotional journey of caregiving, loss, and healing. With a compassionate tone, Moll shares his experiences of accompanying his spouse through terminal illness, offering insights into anticipatory grief, the importance of presence, and finding meaning in the pain of parting. It's both a tribute to love and a guide to embracing vulnerability during the darkest times.
Getting to the Other Side of Grief: Overcoming the Loss of a Spouse*
This sensitive and biblically oriented book offers a roadmap for bereaved spouses on the journey through grief to resolution.
The Year of Magical Thinking
by Joan Didion
A National Book Award-winning memoir chronicling Didion’s first year after the sudden death of her husband, blending raw emotion with intellectual reflection.
Levels of Life
by Julian Barnes
Combining essays on love and loss, Barnes reflects on the death of his wife, offering a poignant meditation on grief.
I’m Grieving as Fast as I Can
by Linda Feinberg
Addresses the unique challenges faced by young widows and widowers, offering coping strategies and support.
Healing a Spouse’s Grieving Heart
by Alan D. Wolfelt
Provides 100 practical ideas to help cope with grief, emphasizing self-care and healing after the loss of a spouse.
Comfort for the Grieving Spouse’s Heart*
by Gary Roe
Offers emotional and spiritual support, drawing from the author’s experience as a grief counselor to assist those mourning a spouse.
Widow to Widow
by Genevieve Davis Ginsburg
A compassionate guide offering practical advice and shared experiences to help widows navigate the challenges of loss.
Healing a Spouse’s Grieving Heart
by Alan D. Wolfelt
Provides 100 practical ideas to help cope with grief, emphasizing self-care and healing after the loss of a spouse.
Comfort for the Grieving Spouse’s Heart
by Gary Roe
Offers emotional and spiritual support, drawing from the author’s experience as a grief counselor to assist those mourning a spouse.
Loss of a child
I am personally blessed that I do not know this pain. I truly cannot imagine it.
Once More We Saw Stars
by Jayson Greene
Jayson Greene recounts the tragic loss of his two-year-old daughter in this deeply moving memoir. His narrative provides an intimate look at the grieving process and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable tragedy.
I Promise It Won't Always Hurt Like This: 18 Assurances on Grief
by Clare Mackintosh
Author Clare Mackintosh shares her journey through grief after the loss of her infant son. Through 18 heartfelt assurances, she offers comfort and hope to others navigating the painful path of bereavement.
How to Survive the Loss of a Child
by Dr. Catherine M. Sanders
Sanders, a psychologist and bereaved parent herself, offers a compassionate and practical guide to help parents cope with the devastating loss of a child. Drawing from her professional expertise and personal experience, Sanders provides insights into the emotional and psychological processes of mourning.
Shattered: Surviving the Loss of a Child
by Gary Roe*
Written by hospice chaplain and grief specialist Gary Roe, this book provides compassionate guidance for parents dealing with the overwhelming emotions following the loss of a child. It offers practical advice on navigating grief, addressing family dynamics, and finding a path toward healing.
You Are the Mother of All Mothers
by Angela Miller
This heartfelt book serves as a gentle reminder to grieving mothers that they are not alone. Through brief yet powerful messages, it affirms that the loss was not their fault and that their love endures. This beautifully designed book is often recommended as a comforting gift for bereaved mothers.
An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination
by Elizabeth McCracken
In this poignant memoir, novelist McCracken shares her personal experience of losing her first child, who was stillborn. With honesty and grace, she explores the depths of grief and the journey toward healing, offering solace to others facing similar losses.
Anticipating your own loss
Walking bravely into God's Arms or ....
The Last Lecture
A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave—"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"—wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment . It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living. In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form.
Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson
by Mitch Albom
Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher. Someone older who understood you when you were young, who helped you see the world as a more profound place, and gave you advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago. Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of your mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded. Mitch Albom had a second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Tuesdays With Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie's lasting gift to the world.
When Breath Becomes Air
by Paul Kalanithi
A poignant memoir by a neurosurgeon diagnosed with terminal cancer, reflecting on life, purpose, and the transition from doctor to patient. Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
by Atul Gawande
A surgeon examines the limitations of modern medicine in end-of-life care, advocating for a focus on quality of life and personal autonomy.
The Art of Dying: The Only Book for Persons Facing Their Own Death
by Patricia Weenolsen
A practical guide addressing the emotional, spiritual, and logistical aspects of preparing for death, offering comfort and actionable advice.
Nothing to Fear
by Julie McFadden
Drawing from her experience as a hospice nurse, McFadden demystifies the dying process, offering practical advice and emotional insights to help individuals and families navigate end-of-life with understanding and peace.
Loss
Many times, loss comes at us from many sides.
Chicken Soup for the Grieving Soul: Stories about Life, Death and Overcoming the Loss of a Loved One
by Jack Canfield
Written by authors who have lost loved ones, these stories offer comfort, peace and understanding to those going through the grieving process. One of the key messages of
Chicken Soup for the Grieving Soul is that togetherness and sharing are the keys to moving on. In these stories people share their experiences with coping and they share deep memories. Each one has found that putting thoughts and feelings into words is not only cathartic, it allows them to reconnect with their loved one and others.
A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows through Loss
Loss came suddenly for Jerry Sittser. In an instant, a tragic car accident claimed three generations of his family: his mother, his wife, and his young daughter. While most of us will not experience such a catastrophic loss in our lifetime, all of us will taste it. And we can, if we choose, know as well the grace that transforms it.
A Grace Disguised plumbs the depths of sorrow, whether due to illness, divorce, or the loss of someone we love. The circumstances are not important; what we do with those circumstances is. In coming to the end of ourselves, we can come to the beginning of a new life---one marked by spiritual depth, joy, compassion, and a deeper appreciation of simple blessings.
The Long Goodbye
by Meghan O’Rourke
O'Rourke provides a portrait of the anguish of grief and the enduring power of familial love. After her mother died of cancer at the age of fifty-five, O'Rourke found that nothing had prepared her for the intensity of her sorrow. In the first anguished days, she began to create a record of her interior life as a mourner, trying to capture the paradox of grief-its monumental agony and microscopic intimacies-an endeavor that ultimately bloomed into a profound look at how caring for her mother during her illness changed and strengthened their bond. With lyricism and candor, The Long Goodbye conveys the moments of joy that make up a life, and the way memory can lead us out of the jagged darkness of loss.
