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