The library

Articles, books and podcasts about grief

Everything here was passed along by someone in the community. Nothing is sponsored, and you don't need an account to read this page. Search by feeling, kind of loss, title or author.

20 things to read or listen to

• Article

  The Ball in the Box

  Lauren Herschel

  The best-loved plain-language picture of how grief changes: the ball gets smaller, but the pain button hurts just as much when it's hit.

  metaphorearly daysany loss
• Article

  There Are No Five Stages of Grief

  Megan Devine, Refuge in Grief

  Why the stage model was never meant for grieving people, and what to do with feelings that refuse to line up in order.

  mythsany loss
• Article

  What to Say When Someone Is Grieving

  Kelsey Crowe & Emily McDowell

  Share this with the friend who keeps saying the wrong thing. Practical scripts instead of platitudes.

  friends & familysupport
• Article

  Returning to Work After a Loss

  Harvard Business Review

  How to ask for a phased return, what to tell colleagues, and why concentration disappears for a while.

  workpractical
• Article

  Grief Nobody Acknowledges

  Kenneth Doka (disenfranchised grief)

  For losses the world doesn't hold a funeral for: divorce, estrangement, pets, jobs, health, a body that changed.

  divorcejob losspet lossbody
• Article

  Surviving Anniversaries and Holidays

  What's Your Grief

  Anticipation is often worse than the day. Ideas for making a plan you're allowed to cancel.

  anniversariesholidays
• Book

  It's OK That You're Not OK

  Megan Devine

  Grief as something to be carried and companioned, not fixed. The book members recommend most often here.

  any lossearly days
• Book

  The Year of Magical Thinking

  Joan Didion

  A widow's precise, unsentimental account of the first year after her husband died.

  spousememoir
• Book

  H Is for Hawk

  Helen Macdonald

  Grief for a father, told sideways through training a goshawk.

  parentmemoir
• Book

  Bearing the Unbearable

  Joanne Cacciatore

  Very short chapters for days when you can only read one page.

  child lossheavy days
• Book

  Notes on Grief

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  A slim book about losing a father suddenly, and grieving from far away.

  parentsudden loss
• Book

  The Invisible String

  Patrice Karst

  For reading with children about the people they can't see anymore.

  childrenfamily
• Book

  Conscious Uncoupling

  Katherine Woodward Thomas

  For divorce and separation grief, without pretending it's a fresh start yet.

  divorcebreakup
• Book

  Body Kindness

  Rebecca Scritchfield

  For grieving a body that changed — through weight loss, weight gain, illness or time.

  bodyweighthealth
• Podcast

  Terrible, Thanks for Asking

  Nora McInerny

  Honest, often funny conversations with people whose lives fell apart.

  any losshumour
• Podcast

  Griefcast

  Cariad Lloyd

  Comedians talk about the people they've lost. Lighter than it sounds.

  any losshumour
• Podcast

  All There Is

  Anderson Cooper

  Sorting through a mother's belongings turns into a series about carrying loss.

  parentmemoir
• Podcast

  Good Mourning

  Sally Douglas & Imogen Carn

  Two friends who each lost their mums, answering the questions nobody asks out loud.

  parentfriendship
• Podcast

  Widowed AF

  Kate Boydell & Vicki Broadbent

  Widowed people talking plainly about money, dating, kids and rage.

  spousepractical
• Podcast

  Grief Out Loud

  The Dougy Center

  Short episodes from a children's bereavement centre, useful for whole families.

  childrenfamily