Grief Books

Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying

Maggie Callanan, Patricia Kelley

Amazon Price: $11.56 List Price: $17.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Bantam Amazon Marketplace: 122 new & used starting at $4.38

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> Grief & Bereavement
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 164 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A blessing 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Final Gifts is a blessing for anyone going through the experience of sharing "nearing death" end of life with a loved one. This book was given to me by Hospice nurses and it opened my eyes and helped me to understand some of the communications that my mother was trying to convey. I recommend this book to anyone who has a terminally ill loved one.

Editorial Review:

Five years after its first publication, with more than 150,000 copies in print, Final Gifts has become a classic. In this moving and compassionate book, hospice nurses Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley share their intimate experiences with patients at the end of life, drawn from more than twenty years experience tending the terminally ill.

Through their stories we come to appreciate the near-miraculous ways in which the dying communicate their needs, reveal their feelings, and even choreograph their own final moments; we also discover the gifts—of wisdom, faith, and love—that the dying leave for the living to share.

Filled with practical advice on responding to the requests of the dying and helping them prepare emotionally and spiritually for death, Final Gifts shows how we can help the dying person live fully to the very end.

Here If You Need Me: A True Story

Kate Braestrup

Amazon Price: $11.19 List Price: $13.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Back Bay Books Amazon Marketplace: 70 new & used starting at $5.66

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Religious
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Memoirs
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Specific Groups -> Women

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 82 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

No Depth - Reader's Digest 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Well written. Prose was warm, welcoming, open... like a chaplain. The author strikes me as thoughtful, introspective - a seeker. I liked her voice, her sensibility, her intelligence, her pragmatism, her joy and her sense of humor. Being a widower myself, I was especially interested in her book - though I rarely read spiritual (i.e. inspirational) stories. And I learned a few things. For example, I never considered the discrimination chaplains endure (regarded as part cop, part clown) or the intangible authority they posses (collar, prayer). But though sometimes engaging, the book left me flat. Sense the author intended to write about a spiritual quest, yet her story read more like a sermon (complete with parables featuring Samaritans and villains, triumphs and tragedies, morals and psalms). And like most sermons, there was insight - even wisdom - but no soul searching, no epiphany. In short, the author did not get personal. I was left feeling I did not really know anyone - not her family, friends, old husband, new husband, or even the game wardens. She mentions, but does not explore, why so many of her fellow students in seminary school had just suffered personal loss like her. Nor does she explore how or when she decided to start dating... the awkwardness of being a middle-aged mother & widow looking for a partner, sleeping with another man, and having to tell her kids about her new friend -- excruciating moments for most single parents. Finally it would have been interesting to delve deeper into the paradox of her new life. The author freely admits she would not be a chaplain if not for her husband's death. What if going back in time and saving her husband's life meant she would must go back to her old life and remain a full-time mom (no seminary, no new friends, no new relationships, no new husband) - would she give it all up? Or what if her husband suffered a coma (instead of death), then made a full recovery and insisted she go back to being a full-time Mom? Or what if the future was revealed and the author secretly learned her job would lead to an early death (e.g. accident)? Would she condemn her kids to face yet another tragedy? Or would she opt for a safer (and less fulfilling) job? I suspect the author would remain a chaplain in all of these scenarios. Is that righteous? Or selfish? What does that say her? And all of us?

Don't get me wrong, it's a decent book. But it could have been much more. The author quips she likes being a chaplain since it allows her to be interested in her ministry, but not invested. That's how she seems to have approached her book. She's interesting... but not invested.

Editorial Review:

HERE IF YOU NEED ME is the story Kate Braestrup's remarkable journey from grief to faith to happiness - as she holds her family together in the wake of her husband's death, pursues his dream of becoming a minister, and ultimately finds her calling as a chaplain to search-and-rescue workers. It is dramatic, funny, deeply moving, and simply unforgettable--an uplifting account offinding God through helping others, and of the small miracles that happen every day when a heart is grateful and love isrestored.

On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, David Kessler

Amazon Price: $10.20 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Scribner Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $6.93

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> Grief & Bereavement
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 37 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Lost three parents - this is the best book on grief 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I have lost three parents in the past year. My mother, father and stepfather and there is no better book that relates to what I have been feeling. I bought several other books on the topic and they don't even come close. There is a reason this is given 5 stars, it is because Kubler Ross knows her subject better than anyone. She invested so much time on the subject.

Buy it for yourself or friends who have lost someone.

Editorial Review:

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's On Death and Dying changed the way we talk about the end of life. Before her own death in 2004, she and David Kessler completed On Grief and Grieving, which looks at the way we experience the process of grief.

Just as On Death and Dying taught us the five stages of death -- denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance -- On Grief and Grieving applies these stages to the grieving process and weaves together theory, inspiration, and practical advice, including sections on sadness, hauntings, dreams, isolation, and healing.

Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives

Jim Sheeler

Amazon Price: $15.26 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin Press HC, The Amazon Marketplace: 65 new & used starting at $7.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> Grief & Bereavement
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Grief
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 41 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning story, Jim Sheeler’s unprecedented look at the way our country honors its dead; Final Salute Is a stunning tribute to the brave troops who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan and to the families who continue to mourn them

They are the troops that nobody wants to see, carrying a message that no military family ever wants to hear. It begins with a knock at the door. “The curtains pull away. They come to the door. And they know. They always know,” said Major Steve Beck.

Since the start of the war in Iraq, marines like Major Beck found themselves thrown into a different kind of mission: casualty notification. It is a job Major Beck never asked for and one for which he received no training. They are given no set rules, only impersonal guidelines.

Marines are trained to kill, to break down doors, but casualty notification is a mission without weapons. For Beck, the mission meant learning each dead marine’s name and nickname, touching the toys they grew up with and reading the letters they wrote home. He held grieving mothers in long embraces, absorbing their muffled cries into the dark blue shoulder of his uniform. He stitched himself into the fabric of their lives, in the simple hope that his compassion might help alleviate at least the smallest piece of their pain. Sometimes he returned home to his own family unable to keep from crying in the dark.

In Final Salute, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Jim Sheeler weaves together the stories of the fallen and of the broken homes they have left behind. It is also the story of Major Steve Beck and his unflagging efforts to help heal the wounds of those left grieving. Above all, it is a moving tribute to our troops, putting faces to the mostly anonymous names of our courageous heroes, and to the brave families who have made the ultimate sacrifice for this country. Final Salute is the achingly beautiful, devastatingly honest story of the true toll of war. After the knock on the door, the story has only begun.

I Wasn't Ready to Say Goodbye (Updated Edition): Surviving, Coping and Healing After the Sudden Death of a Loved One

Pamela Blair, Brook Noel

Amazon Price: $10.87 List Price: $15.99 By: Sourcebooks, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $10.84

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> Grief & Bereavement
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 75 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This updated edition of the best-selling bereavement classic (more than 75,000 copies in print) explores tragic and sudden loss, authored by two women who have lost someone firsthand. Featured on ABC World News, Fox and Friends and many other shows, this book acts as a touchstone of sanity through difficult times. I Wasn't Ready to Say Goodbye covers such difficult topics as the first few weeks, suicide, death of a child, children and grief, funerals and rituals, physical effects, homicide and depression.

With new material covering the unique circumstances of loss, men and women's grieving styles, religion and faith, myths and misunderstandings, I Wasn't Ready to Say Goodbye reflects the shifting face of grief.

Each year about eight million Americans suffer the death of a close family member. Such incomprehensible loss must be dealt with daily-for those who face the challenges of a sudden death, I Wasn't Ready to Say Goodbye can be a comforting hand to hold.

A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows through Loss

Jerry Sittser

Amazon Price: $11.55 List Price: $16.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Zondervan Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $9.70

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> General AAS
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Grief

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

El Mejor Libro Sobre La Perdida ; Best Book on Grief & Loss 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Hace dos anhos fallecio nuestra hija y entre los muchos libros que leimos sobre la perdida este fue el que mas nos ayudo. Se lo hemos recomendado a muchas personas.

After our daugher's accidental death two years ago, my husband and I read many books on grieving and loss. Sittser's book was the most helpful to us in processing our own grief, offering not pithy platitudes, but thought-provoking reflections out of the author's own catastrophic loss. We have bought many copies of this book for friends going through difficult times because it is relevant to those who suffer loss of any kind.

Peggy Reynoso

A Grace Disguised 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Excellent, cannot say enough about how this man explains the grieving psyche. Moves beyond everything else that is written. Although my loss was not as terrible as his I could identify with everything he said. It is so good to have someone confirm that it is something that we go through and, perhaps more importantly, what we can get through.

Would recommend this to all who have undergone loss in any form.

Editorial Review:

A revised edition, this book plumbs the depths of our sorrows, whether due to illness, divorce, or the loss of someone we love. In coming to the end of ourselves, we can come to the beginning of a new life. Includes a new preface and epilogue.

Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss, Second Edition

Hope Edelman

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Da Capo Press Amazon Marketplace: 69 new & used starting at $3.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> Grief & Bereavement
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 104 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Painfully Beautiful 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This book did what 34 years of therapy with expensive and highly degreed therapists could not do. I lost my mother emotionally at the age of 12. While this book starts out addressing the physical death of a mother, it very well includes all kinds of losses that damage the mother-daughter relationship. My mother went from a warm, loving, nurturing parent who baked all the time and kept a clean house to a paranoid, delusional,slovenly woman who was never home, and who was physically abusive when she was; a woman who could not criticize me deeply and thoroughly enough. There were probably lots of reasons for that, none of them having anything to do with me. But at 12, how was I to know? I just thought she didn't love me anymore. I could not please her. At 16, I stopped trying, ran away from home and learned how to live on the streets.

This loss colored my life for the rest of my life, and it took every ounce of strength, energy and intellect to untangle the mess. This book shed some very crucial light on the deepest wound my soul carries. I know a closeness with my mother because of that painful bond that is a combination of pleasure and pain that is part and parcel of who I am. Today, thanks to Hope Edelman, I understand that bond (and the bond I have with my daughter)so much better.

Editorial Review:

Edelman shares her own painful story and the stories of many other women who, as children or adults, lost their mothers. She explains the stages of grief and adjustment. She considers the secondary effects that can occur: the girl-child filling the lost mother's role at home for father and younger siblings. If you've lost your mother, you no longer have to face it alone.

La última lección + DVD

Randy Pausch

Amazon Price: $14.93 List Price: $21.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Grijalbo Amazon Marketplace: 36 new & used starting at $13.09

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Professionals & Academics -> Scientists
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

¡Incluye un DVD de la presentación de Randy Pausch subtitulado en español!

Después de recibir la noticia que padece un cáncer terminal, el autor da una última conferencia en la que reflexiona sobre las cosas importantes que ha aprendido en la vida.

El 18 de septiembre de 2007 Randy Pausch, profesor de informática, se levantó delante de 400 personas de la Universidad de Carnegie Mellon para dar su última conferencia titulada, Como realizar los sueños de tu infancia. Cincuenta días después, más de 25 millones de personas conocían al profesor Randy Pausch y se inspiraban en sus palabras.

La conferencia se enmarcó en el ciclo titulado Journeys (Viajes), una serie de charlas en las cuales los conferenciantes comparten sus pensamientos y percepciones personales y profesionales a lo largo del viaje de su vida. Randy fue el primer invitado del ciclo y decidió compartir con su audiencia la sabiduría que quería legar al mundo. En su caso no fue una situación hipotética: para Randy era de verdad su último discurso, ya que a sus 46 años se le acababa de descubrir un cáncer terminal que, según sus médicos, acabará con él en pocos meses.

Randy Pausch es un gran orador y su discurso se ha comparado con el último de Martín Luther King y con varios discursos memorables de John F Kennedy. Ilustró la charla con 140 diapositivas, fotos de familia, de sus héroes, de sus trabajos, hasta imágenes escaneadas de sus tumores.

La conferencia entera de setenta minutos está en YouTube y recibe unos 80.000 hits diarios ¿ Porqué sus palabras han inspirando a tantos millones de personas? Quizás la respuesta es dual:
1) Nos recuerda que incluso de adultos nuestro placer máximo se encuentra en la realización de nuestros sueños y que lo mejor que podemos hacer es trabajar para lograrlos y para que otros logren los suyos
2) Randy tiene un cáncer de hígado que le matará en pocos meses. Sin embargo, rechaza totalmente la autocompasión y la compasión de los demás. Va a vivir sus días con humor, con energía, con confianza, con alegría. Su vida será corta, y la nuestra también. Su destino es igual que el nuestro, pero el suyo se ha acelerado.

.........................................................................................................................................

“No sé cómo no divertirme. Me estoy muriendo y me voy a seguir divirtiendo hasta el último día”

“Las paredes de ladrillos se interponen en nuestro camino por una razón, para demostrarnos con qué determinación podemos hacer algo”

“No se pueden cambiar las cartas que nos dieron, pero sí como jugarlas”

Estás son algunas frases que forman parte de la conferencia de Randy Pausch que ya ha dado la vuelta al mundo y se ha convertido en un fenómeno mediático.

Esta charla ampliada por el autor formará la parte principal del libro que publicaremos y se estructurará en tres capítulos principales:
•Lo más importante en la vida es realizar tus sueños de infancia.
El autor explica cuáles eran los suyos (jugar al fútbol americano, trabajar para Disney…) y cómo, poco a poco, con gran esfuerzo, los fue consiguiendo.
•Ayudar a los demás a realizar sus sueños de infancia: El autor explica su carrera profesional como consultor y profesor de universidad americana, y de cómo ha tenido la oportunidad de participar en muchos proyectos que han significado un desarrollo personal para muchos de sus amigos y colaboradores. Este es su mayor orgullo.
•Consejos varios: cosas que él ha aprendido en su vida, como la importancia del trabajo duro, de no desanimarse, de esforzarse en sacar lo mejor de los demás.
En el libro, también se incluirán temas que Randy no mencionó en su charla por temor a emocionarse demasiado delante de su público: Hablará de como conquistó a su mujer (siendo soltero y viviendo con sus padres a los 39) la educación de sus hijos (5, 2 y 1 año) y asegura que pueden ser más duros a aguantar que un cáncer.

Las palabras de Pausch contagian la alegría de vivir y una actitud positiva ante la adversidad, nos ayudan a no quejarnos, a no compadecernos. Son un vendaval de optimismo y vida, son especiales, y por eso han dado la vuelta al mundo, porqué son lo que las personas queremos y necesitamos oír.


Datos del autor:
Randy Pausch es profesor universitario de informática, interacción humana con ordenadores y diseño tecnológico de la Universidad Carnegie Mellon. Ha colaborado con Disney, Google y Electronic Arts. Es autor y coautor de 5 libros y más de 70 artículos en su especialidad.
Vive con su esposa Jai y tres niños en Virginia.

Jeffrey Zaslow es periodista del Wall Street Journal y colaborará con Randy en la redacción del libro.

Empty Cradle, Broken Heart, Revised Edition: Surviving the Death of Your Baby

Deborah L. Davis

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Fulcrum Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 73 new & used starting at $3.94

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> Grief & Bereavement
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 35 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Wonderful! Nice to see feelings in print! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Our first child, our son Wyatt, was stillborn and it has been the most devastating event of our entire lives. I bought this book after a fellow angel parent recommended it and absolutely loved it. It is so "nice" to see all the thoughts and feelings you have after losing a child right there in print. It makes you realize you're not going crazy, that those thoughts and feelings are legitimate, and that you are not alone. I carried this book everywhere with me and would highlight phrases that were personal to me. It really helped me understand the loss of our son and give me strength and courage to go on with our lives while still keeping his memory alive. I'm so sorry to those of you having to look at this book, but I hope it can help you as much as it has helped me.

Editorial Review:

The heartache of miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant death affects thousands of U.S. families every year. Empty Cradle, Broken Heart offers reassurance to parents who struggle with anger, guilt, and despair after such tragedy. Deborah Davis encourages grieving and makes suggestions for coping. The book includes information on issues such as the death of one or more babies from a multiple birth, pregnancy interruption, and the questioning of aggressive medical intervention. There is also a special chapter for fathers as well as a chapter on "protective parenting" to help anxious parents enjoy their precious living children. Doctors, nurses, relatives, friends, and other support persons can gain special insight. Most importantly, parents facing the death of a baby will find necessary support in this gentle guide. If reading this book moves you to cry, try to accept this reaction. Your tears merge with those of other grieving parents. You are not alon! e.

Good Grief: Healing Through the Shadow of Loss

Deborah Morris Coryell

Amazon Price: $12.89 List Price: $18.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Healing Arts Press Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $9.12

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> Grief & Bereavement
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A compassionate guide to the experience of loss as an essential growth process

• Explores the nature of loss as a profound mystery shared by all human beings

• Offers sensitive and practical advice for experiencing grief and preparing for the healing journey that follows

• Includes CD of the author reading selections from the text

We grieve only for that which we have loved, and the transient nature of life makes love and loss intimate companions. In Good Grief professional grief educator Deborah Morris Coryell describes grief as the experience of not having anywhere to place our love, of losing a connection, an outlet for our emotion. To heal grief we have to learn how to continue to love in the face of loss.

In this compassionate guide, Coryell gives inspiring examples of how embracing our losses allows us to awaken our most profound connections to other people. Though our society tends to rank losses in a “hierarchy of grief,” she reminds us that all losses must be grieved in their own right and on their own terms, and that we must honor the “small” losses as well as the “big” ones. Paying attention to even the most minute experiences of loss can help us to be more in tune with our responses to the greater ones, allowing us to once again become part of the rhythm of life from which we have become disconnected. This 10th anniversary edition includes a 60-minute CD of the author reading select passages from the text.