Showing titles in Death & Dying

We tend to believe we have agency over our bodies, our minds and even our deaths. Yet emerging science challenges our assumptions of mastery: at the microscopic level, the cells in our bodies facilitate tumours and attack other cells, with life-threatening consequences. In this revelatory audiobook, Barbara Ehrenreich argues that our bodies are a battleground over which we have little control and lays bare the cultural charades that shield us from this knowledge.

"It takes an entire lifetime to learn how to die", wrote the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca (c. 4 BC-65 AD). He counseled readers to "study death always", and took his own advice, returning to the subject again and again in all his writings, yet he never treated it in a complete work. How to Die gathers in one volume, for the first time, Seneca's remarkable meditations on death and dying. Edited and translated by James S. Romm, How to Die reveals a provocative thinker who speaks with a startling frankness about the need to accept death or even, under certain conditions, to seek it out.

In this sensitive and lucid account, Pauline Boss explains that, all too often, those confronted with ambiguous loss fluctuate between hope and hopelessness. Suffered too long, these emotions can deaden feeling and make it impossible for people to move on with their lives. Yet the central message of this book is that they can move on. Drawing on her research and clinical experience, Boss suggests strategies that can cushion the pain and help families come to terms with their grief.  

What if we didn’t consider death the worst possible outcome? What if we discussed it honestly, embraced end-of-life care and prepared for the end of our lives with hope and acceptance? In this empathetic and knowledgeable guide, TikTok star Julie McFadden – known online as ‘Hospice Nurse Julie’ – shares the valuable lessons she’s learned in her fifteen years as a palliative care nurse.

British writer William Hazlitt was the most brilliant essayist of his day. He is now considered one of the greatest critics and essayists in the history of the English language, placed in the company of Samuel Johnson and George Orwell. During his last illness, Hazlitt wrote this essay on a topic that most people will recognize. Hazlitt did not fear his own demise, and in this thoughtful essay, he explains why no one needs to give in to such a fear.

When the opossum feels threatened, she becomes paralyzed. Her body temperature plummets, her breathing and heart rates drop to a minimum, and her glands simulate the smell of a putrefying corpse. Playing Possum explores what the opossum and other creatures can teach us about how we and other species understand mortality, and demonstrates that the concept of death, far from being a uniquely human attribute, is widespread in the animal kingdom.

How the monarchs of England and Scotland met their deaths has been a wonderful mixture of violence, infections, overindulgence and occasional regicide. In Mortal Monarchs, medical historian Dr Suzie Edge examines 1,000 years of royal deaths to uncover the plots, accusations, rivalries and ever-present threat of poison that the kings and queens of old faced.

THE INTERNATIONAL BEST SELLER FEATURING INTERVIEWS WITH DR ANTHONY FAUCI, DAME SALLY DAVIES AND DR JIM DOWN For every doctor there is that one patient, whose story touches them in a way they didn’t expect, changing their entire outlook on life. This inspiring and deeply moving book is the...

Living with Grief provides a guide to how to live when others have died. Written by a therapist and counselor who specializes in grief, loss, and bereavement, it helps listeners gain insight into some of the processes that might be happening when things feel overwhelming. Following an effective Q&A framework, it offers a valuable "dip in and out" approach with good signposting to guidance on all the questions that those touched by grief need to know.

An embodied guide to being with grief individually and in community—practical exercises, decolonized rituals, and Earth-based medicines for healing and processing loss We live in a culture that suppresses our ability to truly feel our grief—deeply, safely, and on our own terms. But each...

As a practising mortician, Caitlin Doughty has long been fascinated by our pervasive terror of dead bodies. In From Here to Eternity, she sets out in search of cultures unburdened by such fears. In rural Indonesia, she observes a man clean and dress his grandfather's mummified body. She meets Bolivian ñatitas (cigarette-smoking, wish-granting human skulls) and introduces us to the Japanese ritual of kotsuage, in which relatives use chopsticks to pluck their loved ones' bones from cremation ashes.

With our earliest utterances, we announce ourselves—and are recognized—as persons ready for social life. With our final ones, we mark where others must release us to death's embrace. In Bye Bye I Love You, linguist and author Michael Erard explores these phenomena, commonly called "first words" and "last words," uncovering their cultural, historical, and biological entanglements and honoring their deep private significance. 

The first book that explains how to open to the immensity of living with death—and how participating fully in life is the perfect preparation for whatever may come next. In Who Dies?: An Investigation of Conscious Living and Conscious Dying, the Levines provide calm compassion rather than the frightening melodrama of death. A meaningful insight how to participate fully in life as the perfect preparation for whatever may come next, be it sorrow or joy, loss or gain, death or a new wonderment at life.

A TIMES PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR 'So great I am struggling to find the words to do it justice' Marian Keyes 'Radical... I really recommend it' Pandora Sykes 'Riveting' Elizabeth Day 'A perfect, funny, insightful, novel about women, friendship, and ageing' Nina Stibbe 'A lovely, lively, intelligent...

'A magnificent, tender book' Independent 'Her words are brimful of love, grace and kindness' Guardian 'She writes with a tender, lyrical beauty' Sunday Times From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Your Life in My Hands comes this vibrant, tender and deeply personal memoir that finds light...

We all watched Terri Schiavo die.The controversy around her case dominated the headlines and talk shows, going all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, the White House and the Vatican. And it's not over yet. Despite her death, the controversy lingers.In Silent Witness, Mark Fuhrman applies his...

So how should we spend our time on Earth? Don Piper, the Minister of Hope who spent 90 minutes in Heaven, brings us God's message. Hope for the here and now from the multimillion-selling author of 90 Minutes in Heaven. Millions believe in Heaven. Don Piper's been there. He was pronounced dead...

Brought to you by Penguin. *AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER* What can life’s final moments teach us about living well today? In this bestselling memoir, palliative care nurse Hadley Vlahos recounts the unforgettable tales of the hospice patients whose journeys of self-discovery inspired...

The Buddhist approach to death can be of great benefit to people of all backgrounds - as has been demonstrated time and again in Joan Halifax's decades of work with the dying and their caregivers. Inspired by traditional Buddhist teachings, her work is a source of wisdom for all those who are charged with a dying person's care, facing their own death, or wishing to explore and contemplate the transformative power of the dying process.

Winter Gregory and her twin sister, Daisy, live oceans apart, but they still have the 'twin thing' going on. Daisy is Winter's port in the storm, the first person she calls when things go wrong. And things are wrong. Winter has travelled to a remote Yorkshire village to write her new book and to escape her ex-boyfriend, Dan Bekener. But Dan can't stay away and remains intent on driving the sisters apart - because Dan knows something about Daisy....