Books About Death or Grieving: Nonfiction

True stories of loss and recovery, plus science and support

Updated June 7, 2023
LINCC (Libraries in Clackamas County)Milwaukie Ledding Library
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Bittersweet : how sorrow and longing make us whole
Cain, Susan
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * The author of the bestselling phenomenon Quiet explores the power of the bittersweet personality, revealing a misunderstood side of mental health and creativity while offering a roadmap to facing heartbreak in order to...
Blue nights
Didion, Joan.
From one of our most powerful writers, a work of stunning frankness about losing a daughter. Richly textured with bits of her own childhood and married life with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and daughter, Quintana Roo, this new book by Joan Didion examines her thoughts, fears, and doubts...
The elements : a widowhood
Lister, Kat
What does it mean to become a widow at 35?In her mid-thirties Kat Lister lost her husband to brain cancer. After five years of being a wife and one of being a carer, in love and in and out of hospitals, she became a widow.In the year following his death Kat seeks refuge in stories of grief...
Hello grief : I'll be right with you
Olanow, Alessandra
The author of the bestselling I Used to Have a Plan is back with more balm for the soul, offering advice, inspiration, and solace for everyone who has lost something or someone special. After losing her mother to cancer, Alessandra Olanow was overwhelmed by the sadness and...
In love : a memoir of love and loss
Bloom, Amy
Amy Bloom began to notice changes in her husband, Brian: He retired early from a new job he loved; he withdrew from close friendships; he talked mostly about the past. Suddenly, it seemed there was a glass wall between them, and their long walks and talks stopped. Their world was altered forever...
It's ok that you're not ok : meeting grief and loss in a culture that doesn't understand
Devine, Megan
As seen in THE NEW YORK TIMES * READER'S DIGEST * SPIRITUALITY & HEALTH * HUFFPOST   Featured on NPR's RADIO TIMES and WISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO When a painful loss or life-shattering event upends your...
Living with grief after sudden loss : suicide, homicide, accident, heart attack, stroke
Doka, Kenneth J.
First published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Notes on grief
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi
From the globally acclaimed, best-selling novelist and author of We Should All Be Feminists, a timely and deeply personal account of the loss of her father: "With raw eloquence, Notes on Grief ... captures the bewildering messiness of loss in a society that requires serenity,...
The truth about grief : the myth of its five stages and the new science of loss
Konigsberg, Ruth Davis.
The five stages of grief are so deeply imbedded in our culture that no American can escape them. Every time we experience loss--a personal or national one--we hear them recited: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The stages are invoked to explain everything from how we will...
When breath becomes air
Kalanithi, Paul
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST * This inspiring, exquisitely observed memoir finds hope and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds as an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question, What makes a life worth living? ...
The wild edge of sorrow : rituals of renewal and the sacred work of grief
Weller, Francis
The work of the mature person is to carry grief in one hand and gratitude in the other and be stretched large by them. As seen on All There Is withAndersonCooper Noted psychotherapist Francis Weller provides an essential guide for navigating the deep...
The year of magical thinking
Didion, Joan.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion that explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage--and a life, in good times and bad--that will speak...
You can't catch death : a daughter's memoir
Brautigan, Ianthe.
In all of the obituaries and writing about Richard Brautigan that appeared after his suicide, none revealed to Ianthe Brautigan the father she knew. Through it took all of her courage, she delved into her memories, good and bad, to retrieve him, and began to write.You Can't Catch Deathis...

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