Books that May Help with the Grieving Process

Among the cremation services offered in Dayton, OH are grief resources. While almost everybody who is the early stages of the grieving process would avoid reading books about grief and grieving – because, after all, you’re experiencing it – there may be a time down the road during the grieving process where you might find some of these books very helpful to read.

A book that comes highly recommended by many specialists in grief counseling is the book titled How to Go On Living When Someone You Love Dies by Dr. Therese Rando. Reviews of the book consistently mention the comprehensive, yet easy-to-understand, steps the book outlines that take the reader gently through the difficult grieving process to a place of peace and resolution. These steps encompass both the practical, such as making funeral arrangements, to the emotional, such as learning to accept help.

Another book that is strongly recommended is for adults is The Other Side of Sadness: What the New Science of Bereavement Tells Us About Life After Loss by George A. Bonanno. Bonanno, who is a professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University, forcefully challenges the conventional wisdom surrounding grief and mourning (including the well-known five stages of grief), and in so doing demonstrates the hope and joy that are present amid grief and mourning. As Publisher’s Weekly describes, with Bonanno’s book “science and common sense come together in a thoughtful, kind-hearted way,” and the bereaved is able to see both his or her “hard-wired resilience” as well as the hope that is always present.

Some of these books are meant to help children who are grieving, so while adults may be able to wait for some of the shock of grief to wear off, children may need earlier guidance. One book that is often recommended is The Invisible String by Patrice Karst, which takes into account the very different ways in which children process grief.

Another children’s book that is often recommended is The Fall of Freddie the Leaf by Leo Buscaglia, which is considered helpful for children as well as adults. Both of these books offer straightforward information about death and loss by telling stories that children can understand.

For bereaved teens, grief counselors often recommend a book called Modern Loss: Candid Conversation about Grief by Rebecca Soffer and Gabrielle Birkner, and Straight Talk about Death for Teenagers: How to Cope with Losing Someone You Love by Earl A. Grollman. For the loss of a sibling, one of several highly-recommended books is Healing the Adult Sibling’s Grieving Heart: 100 Practical Ideas after Your Brother or Sister Dies by Alan D. Wolfelt, PhD.

Of course the list does not stop with these books; there are quite a few that are consistently recommended by psychologists and grief counselors alike, from Joan Didion’s memoir The Year of Magical Thinking to Brook Noel’s and Pamela D. Blair’s I Wasn’t Ready to Say Goodbye. The important thing is that there are very many types of grief resources that are available, not the least of which is the large number of books on the process through grief to healing.

For more information about grief resources and cremation services offering in Dayton, OH, our caring and knowledgeable staff at Glickler Funeral Home & Cremation Service is here to assist you. You can visit our funeral home at 1849 Salem Ave., Dayton, OH 45406, or you can call us today at (937) 278-4287.