Being Mortal - Atul Gawande

In Being Mortal, author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending

Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit. Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients into railed beds and wheelchairs. Hospitals isolate the dying, checking for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot. Doctors, committed to extending life, continue to carry out devastating procedures that in the end extend suffering.

Gawande, a practicing surgeon, addresses his profession's ultimate limitation, arguing that quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families. Gawande offers examples of freer, more socially fulfilling models for assisting the infirm and dependent elderly, and he explores the varieties of hospice care to demonstrate that a person's last weeks or months may be rich and dignified.

Grief Ally: Helping People You Love Cope with Death, Loss, and Grief - Aly Bird

Someone you love has faced a traumatic loss—how to help them cope, heal, and survive.

Your best friend has lost their spouse, your spouse has lost a parent, or someone close to you has lost a child. It doesn’t matter what has happened—the loss is deep, heavy, and seemingly impossible. You want to help, but … how? Unfortunately, we’re not trained in the human art of knowing how to support a loved one in their darkest hour.

InGrief Ally, Aly Bird rips the curtain away on this inevitable dynamic called grief. After her husband’s untimely death, Aly gradually learned to cope with constructive support from loved ones. However, she soon realized she was one of the lucky ones with unwavering friends and family in her corner. In this empowering guide, she gives you solid step-by-step advice on how to support “your person”—what they’re experiencing, what you can do, and what you can’t control.

Let’s Talk About Death (Over Dinner) - Michael Hebb

Let's Talk About Death (over Dinner) offers keen practical advice on how to have these same conversations—not just at the dinner table, but anywhere. There's no one right way to talk about death, but Hebb shares time—and dinner—tested prompts to use as conversation starters, ranging from the spiritual to the practical, from analytical to downright funny and surprising. By transforming the most difficult conversations into an opportunity, they become celebratory and meaningful—ways that not only can change the way we die, but the way we live.

Moving On Doesn't Mean Letting Go: A Modern Guide to Navigating Loss - Gina Moffa, LCSW

Whether it’s the death of someone you love, the end of a friendship, a breakup, or an ambiguous loss, grief visits each of us in time. But even though it’s one of our most universal human journeys, grieving isn’t something most of us know how to do… until now.

In Moving on Doesn’t Mean Letting Go, I will give you an honest look at how grief affects our lives and give you a heartfelt, practical map through the dark terrain of loss— one that aims to shift the pain of your grief even when things feel unpredictable and overwhelming.

Talking About Death Won’t Kill You: The Essential Guide to End-of-Life Conversations

This practical handbook will equip readers with the tools to have meaningful conversations about death and dying

Death is a part of life. We used to understand this, and in the past, loved ones generally died at home with family around them. But in just a few generations, death has become a medical event, and we have lost the ability to make this last part of life more personal and meaningful. Today people want to regain control over health-care decisions for themselves and their loved ones.

Talking About Death Won’t Kill You is the essential handbook to help Canadians navigate personal and medical decisions for the best quality of life for the end of our lives. Noted palliative-care educator and researcher Kathy Kortes-Miller shows readers how to identify and reframe limiting beliefs about dying with humor and compassion.

Love Notes To Grievers - Angela E. Morris

While you grieve, what do you find the most exhausting? Feeling forced to make my grief more palatable for others.

Grief is a universal experience and there is a demand for books that offer understanding and direction. Everyone needs support, whether in initial grief, years later, somewhere in the middle, or decades beyond. Love Notes to Grievers helps readers grieve, without the confines of other people’s timelines and expectations.

Love Notes to Grievers is a collection of poetic notes by Angela E. Morris, written following the death of her father, friend, and beloved grandmother, all within a short period. She shares them with other grievers as love notes to remind us to honour your love, and make space for your grief. Angela offers raw, heartfelt reflections in the midst of complexity, and of passing through these life-changing events.

Grief can leave you breathless, aching, and seeking. Morris’ losses left her on a quest to understand and make sense of grief, and the only way was to write her way through it. In Love Notes to Grievers you can flip to any page and feel supported in what you are feeling, especially if the people around you don’t seem to understand.