Books on Death & Dying

Books on death and dying can provide support and information to those seeking to clarify what is important to them at end of life.

Books available in the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library System are indicated by the letters MFRL, following the title. This is a link that connects directly to that resource.

Abraham, John • How To Get The Death You Want: A Practical and Moral Guide for Those Reaching the End of Life.
Agee, James • A Death in the Family. MFRL
Baranick, A., Sheeler, J. & Miller, S. • Life on the Death Beat: A Handbook for Obituary Writers.
Beisser, Arnold R. • A Graceful Passage: Notes on the Freedom To Live or Die.
Brock, Ira. • The Best Care Possible : A Physician’s Quest to Transform Care through the End of Life. MFRL
Brock, Ira. • Dying Well: The Prospect for Growth at the End of Life.
Brody, Jane. • Jane Brody’s Guide to the Great Beyond: A Practical Primer to Help You and Your Loved Ones Prepare Medically, Legally, and Emotionally for the End of Life.
Butler, Katy. • Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death. MFRL
Butler, Katy. • The Art of Dying Well : A Practical Guide to a Good End of Life. MFRL
Callanan, Maggie. • Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying. MFRL
Callanan, Maggie. • Final Journeys: A Practical Guide for Bringing Care and Comfort at the End of Life. MFRL
Carlson, Lisa. • Caring for the Dead. MFRL
Carlson, Lisa. • I Died Laughing: Funeral Education with a Light Touch.
Colby, William H. • Long Goodbye: The Deaths of Nancy Cruzan
Cummings, Tam. Untangling Alzheimer’s: The Guide for Families & Professionals, A Conversation in Care Giving. MFRL
Davidson, Sara. • The December Project: An Extraordinary Rabbi and a Skeptical Seeker Confront Life’s Greatest Mystery. MFRL
Dolan, S. & Vizzard, J. D. & Vizzard, A. • The End of Life Advisor: Personal, Legal, and Medical Considerations for a Peaceful, Dignified Death.
Doughty, Caitlin. • From Here to Eternity : Traveling the World to Find the Good Death. MFRL
Doughty, Caitlin. • Smoke Gets In Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory. MFRL
Doughty, Caitlin. • Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death. MFRL
Ehrenreich, Barbara. • Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer. MFRL
Gawande, Atul. • Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. MFRL
Halifax, Joan. • Being with Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death.
Hamilton-Holway, Barbara. • Who Will Remember Me? – A Daughter’s Memoir of Grief and Recovery.
Harris, Mark. • Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial.
Herring, Lucinda. • Reimagining Death: Stories and Practical Wisdom for Home Funerals and Green Burials. MFRL
Hone, Lucy. • Resilient Grieving: finding strength and embracing life after a loss that changes everything. MFRL
Humphry, Derek • Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying. MFRL
Humphry, Derek • Good Life, Good Death: The Memoir of a Right to Die Pioneer.
Kalanithi, Paul, MD • When Breath Becomes Air. MFRL
Kastenbaum, Robert • Death, Society, and Human Experience.
Kozol, Jonathan • The Theft of Memory: Losing My Father, One Day at a Time. MFRL
Lofland, Lynn • The Craft of Dying.
Long, Thomas • Accompany Them with Singing: the Christian Funeral. MFRL
Long, Thomas & Lynch, Thomas • The Good Funeral: Death, Grief, and the Community of Care.
Meredith, Joy • My Last Wishes: A Journal: Life, Love, Laughs, and a Few Final Notes. MFRL
Miller, B.J. • A Beginners Guide to the End
Mitford, Jessica • The American Way of Death: Revisited. MFRL
Noel, Brook and Blair, Pamela • I Wasn’t Ready to Say Goodbye: Surviving, Coping and Healing After the Sudden Death of a Loved One. MFRL
Puckle, Bertram S. • Funeral Customs: From Ancient to Modern. MFRL
Rehm, Diane • On My Own. MFRL
Roach, Mary • Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. MFRL
Schwartz, Margaret • Dead Matter: The Meaning of Iconic Corpses.
Searl, Edward • Beyond Absence: A Treasury of Poems, Quotations and Readings on Death and Remembrance.
Shaffer, Nancy • While Still There is Light: Writings from a Unitarian Universalist Minister Facing Death.
Slocum, Joshua • Final Rights: Reclaiming the American Way of Death. MFRL
Volandes, Angelo E. • The Conversation: A Revolutionary Plan for End-of-Life Care.
Wehr, Janet • The Peaceful Passages. MFRL
Willis, Claire • Lasting Words- a guide to finding meaning toward the close of life MFRL