My Bookshelf

Nuland portrayals of his beloved family members help you realize that he frames himself as a person first, instead of a surgeon. As a medical professional, he would go on to witness death in various ways. This book includes many of the physiological aspects of death from his surgical knowledge, but also includes observations and thoughts on the quality of end-of-life.

I was fascinated with what my mother's internal (mental) end-of-life experience must have been like, so I listened to Quiroga's book to help me understand how the last memories we keep might affect us when we are dying.

Dr. O’Connor breaks down what happens to our brains and bodies when we grieve. I found this extremely helpful to understand how I grieve and to also understand how my mother was grieving the end of her life.

Dandicat processes her mother's terminal diagnosis by telling her story while recalling what the literary greats she studied have said about death. I related to Dandicat as a daughter grieving her mother, living the diasporic family life in the United States.

Doughty is a mortician who traveled the world to see how cultures around the world prepare for death.

Callanan and Kelley compile their experiences in working as hospice nurses and are able to find commonalities in what we look for, wish for, and leave as wisdom. This also has a great list at the end of recommended books for children and adolescents who are grieving.

Doughty is a mortician who traveled the world to see how cultures around the world prepare for death.

Koudounaris will take you on a visual journey around the globe of how different cultures honor their dead. He once said to me, “There is no wrong way to honor the dead,” and those words have stuck with me in my art about my mother.