Books

These are books I've read or recommend.

• Cruising through Caregiving: Reducing the stress of Caring for Your Loved One

  • By Jennifer L. FitzPatrick, MSW, CSP

  • https://www.greenleafbookgroup.com/titles/cruising-through-caregiving

  • Summary: Advice and resources from FitzPatrick and twenty-four other professionals show how to give your loved one the best quality of life possible without sacrificing your own life, health, career, relationships, or financial stability.

• Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

  • By Atul Gawande

  • https://atulgawande.com/book/being-mortal/

  • Summary: Being Mortal is a book by Atul Gawande that explores how people can better live with age-related frailty, serious illness, and approaching death. Gawande calls for a change in the way medical professionals treat patients approaching the end of life.

• Holding Space: On Loving, Dying, and Letting Go

  • By Amy Wright Glenn

  • https://birthbreathanddeath.com/

  • Summary: A look at the spiritual, emotional, and philosophical implications of end-of-life care by an elegant and literary writer who is a hospital chaplain.

• Love and Fear: Stories from a Hospice Chaplain

  • By Renshin Bunce

  • https://www.facebook.com/people/Love-and-Fear-Stories-from-a-hospice-chaplain/100064169104572/

  • Summary: The author is a Zen Buddhist Priest who works as a hospice chaplain. Her book is a series of stories about people she has met as she learns that every death is different and there are no universal rules or easy answers in hospice care. These stories show what's possible, allowing the reader to learn along with her as she continues to ask, What am I supposed to do? What is help? What is it to be human?

• The Good Death

  • By Suzanne O’Brien

  • https://thegooddeathbook.com/

  • Summary: In The Good Death, Suzanne O’Brien, RN, founder and CEO of Doulagivers Institute, offers a compassionate and clear guide to helping loved ones through the profound transition of end of life. This book provides the tools, understanding, and emotional support needed to navigate this sacred time with grace, empathy, and peace.

• Greening Death: Reclaiming Burial Practices and Restoring Our Tie to the Earth

  • By Suzanne Kelly

  • https://www.amazon.com/Greening-Death-Reclaiming-Practices-Restoring/dp/144224156X

  • Summary: We once disposed of our dead in earth-friendly ways—no chemicals, biodegradable containers, dust to dust. But over the last 150 years death care has become a toxic, polluting, and alienating industry in the United States.

• The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life's Final Moments

  • By Hadley Vlahos, R.N.

  • The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life's Final Moments by Hadley Vlahos | Goodreads

  • Summary: In The In-Between, Vlahos recounts the most impactful experiences she’s had with the people she’s worked with—from the woman who never once questioned her faith until she was close to death, to the older man seeing visions of his late daughter, to the young patient who laments that she spent too much of her short life worrying about what others thought of her—while also sharing her own fascinating journey.

• Nothing to Fear: Demystifying Death to Live More Fully

  • By Julie McFadden, R.N.

  • Nothing to Fear: Demystifying Death to Live More Fully by Julie McFadden | Goodreads

  • Summary: Julie McFadden, a hospice nurse and TikTok star, shares her insights and advice on dying, death, and hospice in this New York Times bestseller. Learn about the biological details, medical interventions, deathbed phenomena, and grieving process from a compassionate expert.