Since Ten Reminders for the Grieving Christian will be out on August 1, I’ve drawn up a list of similar books. Here are some of the best books for those who are grieving. I’ve read them and feel like they somehow helped me go through this long period of pain. They helped me understand that I’m not alone on this journey.
The Best Books on Grieving
Here’s my list of books on grieving. There are definitely others out there and there are many more based on the loss but these are broad and helped me so I listed them.
1. A GRIEF OBSERVED
Written after his wife’s tragic death as a way of surviving the “mad midnight moment,” A Grief Observed is C.S. Lewis’s honest reflection on the fundamental issues of life, death, and faith in the midst of loss. This work contains his concise, genuine reflections on that period: “Nothing will shake a man — or at any rate a man like me — out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover it himself.” This is a beautiful and unflinchingly honest record of how even a stalwart believer can lose all sense of meaning in the universe, and how he can gradually regain his bearings.
2. The Year of Magical Thinking
From one of America’s iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage–and a life, in good times and bad–that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.
3. Time Lived Without Its Flow
‘I work to earth my heart.’
Time Lived, Without Its Flow is an astonishing, unflinching essay on the nature of grief from critically acclaimed poet Denise Riley. From the horrific experience of maternal grief Riley wrote her lauded collection Say Something Back, a modern classic of British poetry. This essay is a companion piece to that work, looking at the way time stops when we lose someone suddenly from our lives. A book of two discrete halves, the first half is formed of diary-like entries written by Riley after the news of her son’s death, the entries building to paint a live portrait of loss. The second half is a ruminative post script written some years later with Riley looking back at the experience philosophically and attempting to map through it a literature of consolation. Written in precise and exacting prose, with remarkable insight and grace this book will form kind counsel to all those living on in the wake of grief. A modern-day counterpart to C. S. Lewis’s A Grief Observed.
4. Tuesdays with Morrie
Mitch Albom had a second chance. He rediscovered Morrie, his mentor in the last months of the older man’s life. Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final “class”: lessons in how to live.
Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie’s lasting gift with the world.
5. When Breath Becomes Air
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.
What makes life worth living in the face of death? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.
6. Letter to a Grieving Heart
Go on and cry a river. Let it rain down like tears from heaven. And let it cleanse and carry you to the arms of those who will be strong for you.
After losing his beloved fiancé in a tragic car accident, musician and author Billy Sprague understands the loneliness, heartbreak, and pain of losing a loved one. And he wants to help. Stepping out of the shadow of his own loss, Billy penned these heartfelt insights to encourage you as you walk through your own valley of grief and heartache.
Let Billy’s comforting words lift you up and point you to the ultimate mender of broken hearts—Jesus.
7. It’s OK That You’re Not OK
When a painful loss or life-shattering event upends your world, here is the first thing to know: there is nothing wrong with grief. “Grief is simply love in its most wild and painful form,” says Megan Devine. “It is a natural and sane response to loss.”
So, why does our culture treat grief like a disease to be cured as quickly as possible?
In It’s OK That You’re Not OK, Megan Devine offers a profound new approach to both the experience of grief and the way we try to help others who have endured tragedy. Having experienced grief from both sides—as both a therapist and as a woman who witnessed the accidental drowning of her beloved partner—Megan writes with deep insight about the unspoken truths of loss, love, and healing. She debunks the culturally prescribed goal of returning to a normal, “happy” life, replacing it with a far healthier middle path, one that invites us to build a life alongside grief rather than seeking to overcome it.
8. I Wasn’t Ready to Say Goodbye
The grief book that just “gets it.” Whether you’re grieving the sudden loss of a loved one or helping someone else through their grief, I Wasn’t Ready to Say Goodbye offers a comforting hand to help guide you through the grieving process, from the first few weeks to the longer-term emotional and physical effects. It then reveals some of the myths of the grieving process and what really happens as you navigate through the pain.
- Grieving the loss of a child, partner, parent, sibling, friend, or pet
- The physical and emotional effects of grief
- Navigating difficult days such as holidays, anniversaries, and birthdays
- Helping children cope with grief
- Understanding the grief recovery process
Written by two authors who have experienced it firsthand, this book has offered solace to over one-hundred fifty-thousand people, ranging from seniors to teenagers and from the newly bereaved to those who lost a loved one years ago.
An exploration of unexpected death and its role in the cycle of life, I Wasn’t Ready to Say Goodbye provides those people coping with grief with a rock-steady anchor from which to weather the storm of pain and begin to rebuild their lives.
9. Walking with God through Pain and Suffering
The question of why God would allow pain and suffering in the world has vexed believers and nonbelievers for millennia. Timothy Keller, whose books have sold millions of copies to both religious and secular readers, takes on this enduring issue and shows that there is meaning and reason behind our pain and suffering, making a forceful and ground-breaking case that this essential part of the human experience can be overcome only by understanding our relationship with God.
As the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, Timothy Keller is known for his unique insights into religion and culture. Keller’s series of books has guided countless readers in their spiritual journeys. Walking with God through Pain and Suffering uses biblical wisdom and personal stories of overcoming adversity to bring a much-needed, fresh viewpoint to this important issue.
10. From Grief to Grace
Grief touches all of our lives, but it does not have to paralyze us with fear or inaction. God allows suffering because He knows how powerful it can be to our spiritual lives and to helping us fully embrace His love and mercy. In this insightful and practical book, you’ll learn how to live a life of redemptive suffering that will draw you through grief into a state of tenacity, meaning, holiness, and joy.
Author Jeannie Ewing is no stranger to suffering. Her family has long struggled with bipolar disorder and depression, and her baby daughter was born with a rare genetic disorder that caused her bones to prematurely fuse together. Despite the many layers of sadness, loss, confusion, and anger, Jeannie responded to Gods calling and transformed her life into one with profound purpose and joy.
Combining her training in psychology and counseling with real-life examples, Jeannie will show you that there is much life to be lived in the midst of loss, and that all things even the most painful life experiences are working together for a greater good.
11. Ten Reminders for the Grieving Christian
- Are you a grieving Christian that has been deep in the valley of darkness?
- Are you questioning your own faith as you mourn the loss of a loved on?
- Have you been wondering where to next? Why has God done this to me? How could he have taken my loved one away?
If this is you, then Ten Reminders for the Grieving Christian is for you.
In this book, Dr. Pamela Q. Fernandes talks about how you can remain in God’s love and make it through this winter of grief.
As a follow up book in her Ten Reminder Series, she talks about her own struggles with her faith as she grieved the loss of her father, Richard Fernandes. She explains how long and how far she’s come through the mind-numbing pain of grief. By God’s grace, she wrote a book to help others on their journey knowing fully well that you can never completely move on but heal only by trusting Jesus.
Are you a grieving Christian looking for answers? Then this book might help you.
Your Recommendations?
Do you have any best books that you recommend while grieving? I’d be happy to hear what literature has helped you.
