|
To
Ease the Journey by Gary Malkin
Graceful
Passages, a small book with music and spoken-word CDs, was created to
help people come to terms with death. Used in many hospice situations,
patients and family members have found it opens a way for them to talk
to each other about life and death, forgiveness and accepteance, and the
process of letting go. The words of wisdom from spirtual thinkers such
as Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Ram Dass, Arun Ghandi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi
Zalman Schacter-Shalomi and others appear in the book and are spoken aloud
on CDs as an offering of thoughts, prayers, chants or stories of comfort
and reflection.
Heal
Your Grieving Heart, 100 Practical Ideas by Alan D. Wolfelt PH.D.
When
someone loved dies, we must express our grief if we are to heal. In other
words, we must mourn. But knowing how to mourn doesn’t always come
naturally. This book offers 100 practical ideas to help you practice self-compassion.
Some of the ideas tech you the principles of grief and mourning. The remainder
offer practical, action-oriented tips for embracing your grief. Each also
suggests a carpe diem, which will help you seize the day by helping
you move toward healing today.
Alison's Gift by
Pat Hogan
Alison's
Gift: Song of a Thousand Hearts Opening is the true story of in-home after-death
care that changed the lives of a family and a community. In her book,
Something More, Sarah Ban Breathnach relates, "I have known many
sacred encounters in my life, but the two holiest encounters I have ever
been blessed to know and shall ever know were bringing my child into this
world and helping another woman's child leave." That other child
was Alison and this is the story of her life and death and the unique
legacy she left behind. This is a story of courage and compassion, bitterness
and beauty, and love and loss. Alison's Gift portrays a mother, family,
and community coming to grips with the sudden death of a beloved child.
More importantly, it demonstrates the value of community and courage in
facing death, and handling the details of the loss of a loved one.
Send $21.00 (includes S & H) to:
Crossings
P.O. Box 721
Silver Spring, MD 20901
www.crossings.net
crossingcare@earthlink.net
(301) 593-5451
A Caregiver's
Challenge by Maryann Schacht
Maryann Schacht was
writing a manual on how to care for a terminally ill loved one when her
husband Bob was diagnosed with cancer. Suddenly, she was no longer just
the sympathetic social worker dispensing useful advice for her clients;
she was a woman tending to the man who had beenher rock of support for
25 years. After his death, she continued working on the book, pouring
into it both her personal ordeal and the practical guidance she'd always
offered others. A Caregiver's Challenge: Living, Loving, Letting Go
is now available in paper back.
A Grief Observed
by C.S. Lewis
It's an oldie, but
it is one of my favorites. It says more about grief than so many other
books. The movie "Shadowlands" was inspired by it. (Reviewed
by Todd Little, Bereavement Service Professional)
A Time to
Mourn, A Time to Dance: Help for the Losses in Life by Margaret
Metzgar
I think this book
is probabaly the best grief book I've ever read. It just has almost everything
in it that I would try to tell people. First of all, it's got beautiful
pictures; it's like a coffee table book that really touches on what grief
is and how to understand what you're experiencing. I've told people when
I've given it to them, "It's my whole support group in one book."
It touches on every loss you can name-pet death, traumatic death, death
of a child, loss of heath. It's a book about life, really, and it's truly
comforting. (Reviewed by Todd Little, Bereavement Service Professional)
Gili's Book:
A Journey Into Bereavement for Parents and Counselors by Henya
Kagan Klein
It's interesting on
a number of levels, because she writes not only as someone who helps people
deal with their grief, but also from the perspective of a grieving parent.
It's the story of her daughter and what she went through in losing her,
the feelings she struggled with afterward. (Reviewed by Todd Little, Bereavement
Service Professional)
The Gift of
Significance: Walking People Through a Loss by Doug Manning
This is one of my
all-time favorites; it's the real story of grief. It talks about grief,
the way people feel, and gives real down-to-earth ideas about how to understand
the experience you are going through.(Reviewed by Todd Little, Bereavement
Service Professional)
Authentic
Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential
for Lasting Fulfillment by Martin Seligman
This isn't a grief
book at all, but it's one I have really taken to heart and found a lot
of value in. I think for grieving people this is a great book, because
it talks about how to find true happiness, about how you don't necessarily
have to have happy circumstances to be able to have a good life or a meaningful
life, one richer and better than you would have by looking for "happiness."
(Seligman also wrote "Learned Optimism.") (Reviewed by Todd
Little, Bereavement Service Professional)
Thoughts for
the Lonely Nights: A Conversation About Grief by Doug Manning
It's a unique book
because it comes with a CD and it's more of a journal. You get to hear
Doug's very calming, soothing, nice Southern drawl on the CD, and you
have room to write down your own thoughts and feelings in the journal.
He also reads portions of the book, so when you don't feel like reading,
you can simply lie in bed in the dark and listen. (Reviewed by Todd Little,
Bereavement Service Professional)
Surviving
the Death of a Sibling : Living Through Grief When an Adult Brother or
Sister Dies by
TJ Wray
I live far away from
my family and had no one to share my grief with when my sister died. After
reading this book I no longer felt so alone with my pain. It felt like
the author took my hand and helped me understand all that I was feeling.
Each page was a hug. The writing style is warm and conversational and
the content is amazingly pertinent to every nuance of feeling.
(Reviewed by Kathy Duby Mill Valley, CA)
Awakening
from Grief: Finding the Way Back to Joy, by John Welshons
A compassionate guide
to making your way through grief. This book is the perfect companion when
death has turned your life upside-down, or when someone near you has lost
a loved one. (Reviewed by Lisa Baertlein, San Francisco, CA)
The Next Place
by Warren Hanson
This nondenominational
book reads more like a poem than a book. It is illustrated and is nice
for both adults and children. When my father passed away recently my son
read this book out loud to my mother while she was taking a break at the
service and it really seemed to help. I would strongly recommend this
book. (Reviewed by Karen Holmes, Jessup, PA)
Exit Strategy
by Michelle Cromer
This Southern author
wants people to think outside the box- or outside the casket as she provides
many examples beyond the traditonal funeral. From having one's remains
shot into outer space or turned into a piece of jewelry to being spread
across the sky in a fireworks display or scattered on a mountainside.
All these innovative funerals, Cromer said, "represent an effort
to make the passage from life to death more personal and connected with
the rest of our lives. And they remind us that physical death and physical
decay are natural processes, without which there could be no new life."
A Season of
Grief by Bill Valentine
This book chronicles Valentine's emotional descent after the violent death
of his partner of 21 years from an airline crash. Ric Newton, a California
funeral director said, "This poignant journal demonstrates the complexity
of acute loss and grief. His testimony reflects the value of meaningful
ritual and the need to express grief in order to heal. A Season of Grief
shows how difficult it is to grieve openly in a society where many people
offer platitudes and trite expressions of sympathy in their desire to
assuage the grieving."
Remember Me:
A Lively Tour of the New Americn Way of Death by Lisa Cullen
"Cullen is a gifted storyteller, and she's at her best recreating
the lives of loved ones lost, often via a detailed description of their
memorial...She's written a highly readable account of an industry that's
changing rapidly and profoundly, and that will at some point touch upon
us all. Remember Me is a new look at what may be one of the least-examined
parts of our lives." —Bess Lovejoy, KGBBarLit.
Planning a
Celebration of Life: A Simple Guide for Turning a Memorial Service into
a Celebration of Life by Mary Hickey 30 pgs.
At last, a complete book to help guide you through creating a memorable
and personalized life celebration event. From suggestions on where to
hold the event, to a selection of recommended current music and poems
this book is full of ideas that will make planning a life celebration
easier.
A Passage Through Grief by Barbara Baumgardner
It is a journaling guide that has helped many people come to grips with
their sorrow through writing.It was recommended by Vikki Sheerer
Have any books been
helpful to you? If so, please share your recommendations with us at info@nextgenmemorials.com
To find
current a great collection of memorial poems and verses click here.
If you're
looking for interesting memorial products to personalize a life celebration
click here.
|
