Grief & loss books & resources

Sometimes Someone We Know Dies

By Yanny Webb-Walker

Year: 2014

Subject: Losing a loved one

Sometimes someone we know dies is a picture book for people who struggle to understand the concepts of life and death, and what happens when a death occurs. It normalises the experience of death as part of life. The questions that occur when someone loses someone are addressed. The book is designed to aid the grieving process and assist people to accept their loss.

Location

CCL

Life After Loss

By Francis Macnab

Year: 1990

Subject: Rehabilitation

Sets out a positive approach to the quickest possible relief from the emotional pain caused by the death of someone close or the end of a marriage, the souring of a close friendship, separation from family, loss of home or income … Drawing on his vast counseling experience, Dr. Macnab focuses on getting distressed people to actively share in the process of rehabilitation and beginning again, rather than allowing them to see loss as something inflicted upon them, something that must be endured perhaps for years. Full of real-life anecdotes from Dr. Macnab’s wide experience and written in a highly readable style, ‘Life after loss’ will be of tremendous help to the grieving, those close to them and their counsellors.

Location

MHERC

We need to talk about Grief: How to be a friend to the one who’s left behind

By Annie Broadbent

Year: 2014

Subject: Personal journey

Talking about death and grief has become something of a modern taboo. Most of us would rather avoid the subject altogether because it makes us feel anxious and awkward. When Annie Broadbent’s mum died, one of the hardest parts of her experience was seeing her friends and extended family paralysed by their fear of saying or doing the wrong thing. Grief is an unavoidable part of life and we will all be called upon at some point to help a friend or loved one cope with the death of someone they love. We Need to Talk About Grief will help you do that. Frustrated and saddened by her own experience, Annie decided to share her story and the stories of others she has met, in order to shed light on the emotions felt by the bereaved and how best to support someone grieving for a loved one. The contributors differ in age, gender and background but all have experienced immediate loss, whether a child, parent, sibling, partner or close friend. Combined with expert advice from key charities, We Need to Talk About Grief will help you navigate the common pitfalls, such as choosing appropriate words of comfort, making practical gestures of help, how to react to crying, when to offer a hug and how often to stay in touch. This moving and enlightening collection of voices from the shores of grief is an invaluable guide that will help anyone wanting to comfort a grieving loved one.

Location

CCL

MHERC

SL

WL

Beyond Words: Grieving When Your child has Died

By Andrew Thompson

Year: 2012

Subject: Stories from bereaved parents

The death of a child is a heartfelt experience like no other. It makes more demands than most others ever realise. Many bereaved parents say that the only people who can ever genuinely begin to understand what it’s like for them are other bereaved parents. For this reason, Beyond Words is a handbook that features the honest words, perspectives and suggestions of many bereaved parents. It also offers useful information about managing grief, support options and ideas that may be helpful on the grief journey. It is comforting, encouraging, informative and practical.

Location

CCL

MHERC

SL

HL

What Abbie Taught Us

By L Hone

Year: 2016

Subject: Resilience

Lucy Hone’s beloved 12-year-old daughter Abi was killed in 2013 [i.e. 2014] in a devastating car accident in Canterbury that also claimed the lives of Abi’s friend Ella and Ella’s mother Sally. Lucy works in the field of resilience psychology, helping ordinary people

Location

CCL

MHERC

SL

All the Bright Places

By J Niven

Year: 2015

Subject: Grief & Loss

When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink.

Location

CCL

SL

WL

HL

When Sadness Comes to Call

By Eva Eland

Year: 2019

When Sadness arrives, try not to be afraid: give it a name, listen to it and spend some time together. Maybe all it wants is to know that it’s welcome. This beautiful debut by new author-illustrator talent Eva Eland takes a poignant but uplifting look at dealing with uncomfortable emotions.

Location

CCL

MHERC

WL

Remembering Ruby: For Families Living Beyond the Grief of a Pet

By Melissa Wells

Year: 2007

True story about a boy, his dog, and the close relationship that develops between them. When Ruby becomes terminally ill, the boy and his family must cope with their feelings along the way–and live beyond the loss. By finding ways to remember Ruby, they make it through … together

Location

MHERC

When Breathe Becomes Air

By Paul Kalanith

(SL only)  (CCL only)

Year: 2016

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 live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naive medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality. What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.

Location

CCL

SL

WL

HL

With the End in Mind – Dying Death and Wisdom in An Age of Denial

By Kathryn Mannix

(CCL only) (CCL only)

Year: 2017

Dr. Kathryn Mannix shares beautifully crafted stories from a lifetime of caring for the dying. Weaving her own experiences as a caregiver through stories of her patients, their families, and their distinctive lives, Dr. Mannix reacquaints us with the universal, but deeply personal, process of dying. With insightful meditations on life, death, and the space between them, this is a remarkably moving book that sheds a warm light on the beauty, dignity, and profound humanity of life coming to an end.

Location

CCL

MHERC

SL

WL