Advice for Future Corpses by Sallie Tisdale

Former NEA fellow and Pushcart Prize-winning writer Sallie Tisdale offers a lyrical, thought-provoking, yet practical perspective on death and dying in Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them). Informed by her many years working as a nurse, with more than a decade in palliative care, Tisdale provides a frank, direct, and compassionate meditation on the inevitable

From the sublime (the faint sound of Mozart as you take your last breath) to the ridiculous (lessons on how to close the sagging jaw of a corpse), Tisdale leads us through the peaks and troughs of death with a calm, wise, and humorous hand. Advice for Future Corpses is more than a how-to manual or a spiritual bible: it is a graceful compilation of honest and intimate anecdotes based on the deaths Tisdale has witnessed in her work and life, as well as stories from cultures, traditions, and literature around the world.

Tisdale explores all the heartbreaking, beautiful, terrifying, confusing, absurd, and even joyful experiences that accompany the work of dying, including:

A Good Death: What does it mean to die "a good death"? Can there be more than one kind of good death? What can I do to make my death, or the deaths of my loved ones, good?

Communication: What to say and not to say, what to ask, and when, from the dying, loved ones, doctors, and more.

Last Months, Weeks, Days, and Hours: What you might expect, physically and emotionally, including the limitations, freedoms, pain, and joy of this unique time.

Bodies: What happens to a body after death? What options are available to me after my death, and how do I choose - and make sure my wishes are followed?

Grief: "Grief is the story that must be told over and over...Grief is the breath after the last one."

Beautifully written and compulsively readable, Advice for Future Corpses offers the resources and reassurance that we all need for planning the ends of our lives and is essential reading for future corpses everywhere. "Sallie Tisdale's elegantly understated new book pretends to be a user's guide when in fact it's a profound meditation" (David Shields, bestselling author of Reality Hunger).

The Art of Dying Well by Katy Butler

The Art of Dying - written by the New York Times bestselling author of Knocking on Heaven's Door - is a reassuring and thoroughly researched guide to maintaining a high quality of life-from resilient old age to the first inklings of a serious illness to the final breath.

Packed with extraordinarily helpful insights and inspiring true stories, award-winning journalist Katy Butler shows how to thrive in later life, how to get the best from our health system, and how to make your own "good death" more likely. This handbook of step by step preparations - practical, communal, physical, and sometimes spiritual - will help you make the most of your remaining time, be it decades, years, or months.

The Art of Death by Edwidge Danticat

"She wanted something in between, just enough time to put her affairs in order and get a few things off her chest. She got her wish. Not everyone gets theirs."

A moving reflection on a subject that touches us all, by the bestselling author of Claire of the Sea Light

Edwidge Danticat's The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story is at once a personal account of her mother dying from cancer and a deeply considered reckoning with the ways that other writers have approached death in their own work. "Writing has been the primary way I have tried to make sense of my losses," Danticat notes in her introduction. "I have been writing about death for as long as I have been writing." The book moves outward from the shock of her mother's diagnosis and sifts through Danticat's writing life and personal history, all the while shifting fluidly from examples that range from Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude to Toni Morrison's Sula. The narrative, which continually circles the many incarnations of death from individual to large-scale catastrophes, culminates in a beautiful, heartrending prayer in the voice of Danticat's mother. A moving tribute and a work of astute criticism, The Art of Death is a book that will profoundly alter all who encounter it.

Bearing the Unbearable by Joanne Cacciatore

When a loved one dies, the pain of loss can feel unbearable-especially in the case of a traumatizing death that leaves us shouting, "NO!" with every fiber of our body. The process of grieving can feel wild and nonlinear-and often lasts for much longer than other people, the nonbereaved, tell us it should.

Organized into fifty-two short chapters, Bearing the Unbearable is a companion for life's most difficult times, revealing how grief can open our hearts to connection, compassion, and the very essence of our shared humanity. Dr. Joanne Cacciatore-bereavement educator, researcher, Zen priest, and leading counselor in the field-accompanies us along the heartbreaking path of love, loss, and grief. Through moving stories of her encounters with grief over decades of supporting individuals, families, and communities-as well as her own experience with loss-Cacciatore opens a space to process, integrate, and deeply honor our grief.

Not just for the bereaved, Bearing the Unbearable will be required reading for grief counselors, therapists and social workers, clergy of all varieties, educators, academics, and medical professionals. Organized into fifty-two accessible and stand-alone chapters, this book is also perfect for being read aloud in support groups.

A Beginner's Guide to the End

The first ever practical, compassionate, and comprehensive guide to dying-and living fully until you do.

"There is nothing wrong with you for dying," palliative care doctor B.J. Miller and Shoshana Berger write in A Beginner's Guide to the End. "Our ultimate purpose here isn't so much to help you die as it is to free up as much life as possible until you do."

Theirs is a clear-eyed and big-hearted action plan for approaching the end of life, written to help readers feel more in control of an experience that so often seems anything but controllable. Their book offers everything from step-by-step instructions for how to do your paperwork and navigate the healthcare system to answers to questions you might be afraid to ask your doctor, like whether or not sex is still okay when you're sick. You'll be walked through how to break the news to your employer, whether to share old secrets with your family, how to face friends who might not be as empathetic as you'd hoped, and to how to talk to your children about your will. (Don't worry: if anyone gets snippy, it'll likely be their spouses, not them.) There are also lessons for survivors, like how to shut down a loved one's social media accounts, clean out the house, and write a great eulogy.

An honest, surprising, and detailed-oriented guide to the most universal of all experiences, A Beginner's Guide to the End is the one book that everyone needs.

The Best Care Possible by Ira Byock, MD

Dr. Ira Byock, a doctor on the front lines of hospital care, illuminates the most important and controversial social issues of our time in The Best Care Possible.

One of the foremost palliative-care physicians in the country, Dr. Ira Byock argues that how we die represents a national crisis. To ensure the best possible elder care, Dr. Byock explains we must not only remake our healthcare system but also move beyond our cultural aversion to thinking about death.

The Best Care Possible is a compelling meditation on medicine and ethics told through page-turning life-or-death medical drama. It has paved the way for a national conversation.

Do Death by Amanda Blainey

Death has a 100 per cent success rate. We can't escape its inevitability, nor can we deny its existence. So, when someone close to us dies or we are confronted by our own mortality, why are we utterly unprepared?

In Do Death, social activist Amanda Blainey seeks to transform our lives through our relationship with death. By inviting us to accept death as a natural part of life, she encourages us to think about what really matters - and live more consciously. With uplifting wisdom from leaders and visionaries, Do Death will:

• Help us rediscover the power of human connection
• Inspire us to think and talk about death more openly
• Offer sage advice on how to navigate grief, and talk to children
• Empower us to be better prepared, both practically and emotionally


Death can be our greatest teacher. This book is a manual for living, at any stage in life.

The Empty Room by Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn

Ted is Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn's older brother, best friend, and the "ringmaster of her days." On a September morning when she is six, she wakes up and Ted is gone. Her parents explain that he went to the hospital for a while. "A while" turns out to be eight years in a plastic "bubble, where he dies of a rare autoimmune disease at age seventeen. The Empty Room is DeVita-Raeburn's unflinching, often haunting recollection of life with Ted, woven into a larger exploration of the enormous - and often unacknowledged - impact of a sister's or brother's death on remaining siblings.

With an inspired blend of life experience, journalistic acumen, and research training, DeVita-Raeburn draws on interviews of more than two hundred survivors to render a powerful portrait of the range of conditions and emotions, from withdrawal to guilt to rage, that attend such loss. Finding little in professional literature, she realizes that those who suffer are the experts. And in the end, it is DeVita-Raeburn and her experts who present a larger, more complex understanding of the sibling bond, the lifelong impact of the severing of that bond, and the tools needed to heal and move forward.

The Empty Room is a fascinating literary hybrid in which Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn seamlessly fuses deeply affecting remembrance with a pragmatic, lucidly written exploration of the healing journey.

Final Gifts by Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley

In this moving and compassionate classic, hospice nurses Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley share their intimate experiences with patients at the end of life, drawn from more than twenty years' experience tending the terminally ill.

Filled with practical advice on responding to the requests of the dying and helping them prepare emotionally and spiritually for death, Final Gifts shows how we can help the dying person live fully to the very end.

The Four Things That Matter Most by Ira Byock, M.D.

Four simple phrases - "Please forgive me," "I forgive you," "Thank you," and "I love you" - carry enormous power to mend and nurture our relationships and inner lives. These four phrases and the sentiments they convey provide a path to emotional wellbeing, guiding us through interpersonal difficulties to life with integrity and grace.

Dr. Ira Byock, an international leader in palliative care, explains how we can practice these life-affirming words in our day-to-day lives. Too often we assume that the people we love really know that we love them.

Using the Four Things in a wide range of life situations, we can experience emotional healing even in the wake of family strife, personal tragedy, divorce, or in the face of death. With practical wisdom and spiritual power, The Four Things That Matter Most gives us the language and guidance to honor and experience what really matters most in our lives every day.

From Scratch by Tembi Locke

A poignant and transporting cross-cultural love story set against the lush backdrop of the Sicilian countryside, where one woman discovers the healing powers of food, family, and unexpected grace in her darkest hour.

It was love at first sight when Tembi met professional chef, Saro, on a street in Florence. There was just one problem: Saro's traditional Sicilian family did not approve of him marrying a black American woman, an actress no less. However, the couple, heartbroken but undeterred, forges on. They build a happy life in Los Angeles, with fulfilling careers, deep friendships and the love of their lives: a baby girl they adopt at birth. Eventually, they reconcile with Saro's family just as he faces a formidable cancer that will consume all their dreams.

From Scratch chronicles three summers Tembi spends in Sicily with her daughter, Zoela, as she begins to piece together a life without her husband in his tiny hometown hamlet of farmers. Where once Tembi was estranged from Saro's family and his origins, now she finds solace and nourishment - literally and spiritually - at her mother in law's table. In the Sicilian countryside, she discovers the healing gifts of simple fresh food, the embrace of a close-knit community, and timeless traditions and wisdom that light a path forward. All along the way she reflects on her and Saro's incredible romance - an indelible love story that leaps off the pages.

In Sicily, it is said that every story begins with a marriage or a death - in Tembi Locke's case, it is both. Her story is about loss, but it's really about love found. Her story is about travel, but it's really about finding a home. It is about food, but it's really about chasing flavor as an act of remembrance. From Scratch is for anyone who has dared to reach for big love, fought for what mattered most, and needed a powerful reminder that life is...delicious.

Let's Talk About Death Over Dinner by Michael Hebb

Of the many critical conversations we will all have throughout our lifetime; few are as important as the ones discussing death. Yet few of these conversations are happening. Inspired by his experience with his own father and countless stories from others who regret not having these conversations, Michael Hebb cofounded Death Over Dinner-an organization that encourages people to pull up a chair, break bread, and talk about the one thing we all have in common

Death Over Dinner has been one of the most effective end-of-life awareness campaigns to date. it has provided the framework and inspiration for more than a hundred thousand dinners focused on having end-of-life conversations.

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. By transforming the most difficult conversations into an opportunity, they become celebratory and meaningful in ways that not only can change the way we die, but the way we live.

On Death & Dying by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, M.D.

One of the most important psychological studies of the late twentieth century, On Death and Dying grew out of Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross's famous interdisciplinary seminar on death, life, and transition. In this remarkable book, Dr. Kubler-Ross explores the now-famous five stages of death: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Through sample interviews and conversations, she gives readers a better understanding of how imminent death affects the patient, the professionals who serve that patient, and the patient's family, bringing hope to all who are involved.

This edition includes an enlightening introduction by Dr. Ira Byock, a prominent palliative care physician and the author of Dying Well.

On Living by Kerry Egan

As a hospice chaplain, Kerry Egan discovered she'd been granted a powerful chance to witness firsthand what she calls the "spiritual work of dying" - the work of finding or making meaning of one's life. Instead of talking, she mainly listened to stories of hope and regret, shame and pride, mystery and revelation and secrets held too long. Most of all, though, she listened as her patients talked about love-love for their children and partners and friends; love they didn't know how to offer; love they gave unconditionally; love they, sometimes belatedly, learned to grant themselves.

On Living isn't a book about dying-it's a book about living. And Egan isn't just passively bearing witness to these stories. Each of her patients taught her something about what matters in the end-how to find courage in the face of fear or the strength to make amends; how to be profoundly compassionate and fiercely empathetic; how to see the world in grays instead of black and white.

Option B by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant

From Facebook's COO and Wharton's top-rated professor, the #1�New York Times�best-selling authors of�Lean In�and�Originals:�a powerful, inspiring, and practical book about building resilience and moving forward after life's inevitable setbacks.

After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. "I was in 'the void,'" she writes, "a vast emptiness that fills your heart and lungs and restricts your ability to think or even breathe." Her friend Adam Grant, a psychologist at Wharton, told her there are concrete steps people can take to recover and rebound from life-shattering experiences. We are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. It is a muscle that everyone can build.

Option B combines Sheryl's personal insights with Adam's eye-opening research on finding strength in the face of adversity. Beginning with the gut-wrenching moment when she finds her husband, Dave Goldberg, collapsed on a gym floor, Sheryl opens up her heart-and her journal-to describe the acute grief and isolation she felt in the wake of his death. But Option B goes beyond Sheryl's loss to explore how a broad range of people have overcome hardships including illness, job loss, sexual assault, natural disasters, and the violence of war. Their stories reveal the capacity of the human spirit to persevere . . . and to rediscover joy.

Resilience comes from deep within us and from support outside us. Even after the most devastating events, it is possible to grow by finding deeper meaning and gaining greater appreciation in our lives. Option B illuminates how to help others in crisis, develop compassion for ourselves, raise strong children, and create resilient families, communities, and workplaces. Many of these lessons can be applied to everyday struggles, allowing us to brave whatever lies ahead. Two weeks after losing her husband, Sheryl was preparing for a father-child activity. "I want Dave," she cried. Her friend replied, "Option A is not available," and then promised to help her make the most of Option B.

We all live some form of Option B. This book will help us all make the most of it.