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What is the Death Positive Library?

The aim of the Death Positive Library is to encourage conversations about death, dying and grieving.

All the books in these lists are recommended by the national Death Positive Library project team.

The titles embrace fiction, non-fiction and classics. You may find some books therapeutic, some even funny. Take your time, talk it out and if you need more practical advice, go to Essex County Council's page What to do when someone dies.

 

Having conversations about death

Andrew Anastasios Dying to know: bringing death to life 

Sue Brayne The D word: talking about dying: a guide for relatives, friends and carers 

Earl A Grollman  Talking about death: a dialogue between parent and child 

Michael Hebb Let’s talk about death (over dinner): the essential guide to life’s most important conversation 

 

Writing wills and getting things in order

Margareta Magnusson The gentle art of Swedish death cleaning: how to free yourself and your family from a lifetime of clutter 

 

Self-help and grief

Mitch Albom The five people you meet in heaven 

Gary Andrews Finding joy 

Sasha Bates Languages of loss: a psychotherapist’s journey through grief 

George A Bonanno The other side of sadness: what the new science of bereavement tells us about life after loss

Ram Dass and Mirabai Bush Walking each other home: conversations on love and dying

Megan Devine It’s OK that you’re not OK: meeting grief and loss in a culture that doesn’t understand

Helena Dolny Before forever after: when conversations about living meet questions about dying

Hope Edelman The aftergrief: finding your way on the long path of grief 

Philip Giddings and others, Talking about dying: help in facing death and dying 

Amy Wright Glenn Holding space: on loving, dying, and letting go

Joan Halifax Being with dying: cultivating compassion and fearlessness in the presence of death 

Richard Holloway Waiting for the last bus: reflections on life and death

David Kessler Finding meaning: the sixth stage of grief 

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Questions and answers on death and dying

Claire Leimbach and others The intimacy of death and dying: simple guidance to help you through 

Catherine Mayer and Anne Mayer Bird Good grief: embracing life at a time of death

Margaret Rice A good death

Ray Robertson How to die: a book about being alive 

Juliet Rosenfeld The state of disbelief: a story of death, love and forgetting

Julia Samuel Grief works: stories of life, death and surviving 

Sallie Tisdal Advice for the dying (and those who love them): a practical perspective on death 

Felicity Warner A safe journey home: a simple guide to achieving a peaceful death 

John Wyatt Dying well, dying faithfully 

Irvin Yalom Staring at the sun: being at peace with your own mortality: 

 

Funerals and memorialisation

Jeltje Gordon-Lennox Crafting meaningful funeral rituals: a practical guide

Josefine Speyer and others The natural death handbook 

Caitlin Doughty Smoke gets in your eyes 

Caitlin Doughty Will my cat eat my eyeballs? and other questions about dead bodies 

Thomas Lynch The undertaking 

Kenneth McKenzie and Todd Harra Mortuary confidential: undertakers spill the dirt 

Carla Valentine Past mortems: life and death behind mortuary doors