Death & Bereavement Audiobooks | Health & Wellness

The Shetland Way: Community and Climate Crisis on my Father's Islands

A memoir and investigation exploring loss, community and the climate crisis in the Shetland Islands by environmental journalist Marianne Brown When Marianne Brown arrived in Voe, Shetland, to attend the funeral of her father, she had packed enough clothes to last a short trip. But this was February 2020, just weeks before the UK’s first lockdown, and she would be unable to leave for another six months. Shetland is a place bound together by community, history and culture. But when a huge windfarm is greenlit to export energy to mainland Scotland, it creates rifts between neighbours, friends and even families. One side supports the benefit to a planet spiralling into climate disaster; the other challenges the impact on an environment with an already struggling wildlife population. As an environmental journalist, Marianne is drawn to investigate this story of sustainable energy that is irrevocably tied to her grief. But nothing is ever straightforward, and she soon finds herself on a transformative journey into the heart of a debate that mirrors global concerns about how we save the planet.

Marianne Brown (Author), To Be Announced (Narrator)

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My Brother

'Controlled and fearless perfection' - The Washington Post Jamaica Kincaid's brother Devon Drew died of AIDS on 19 January 1996, at the age of thirty-three. This incantatory, poetic, and often shockingly frank recounting of her brother's life and death is also the story of her family on the island of Antigua, a constellation centered on her powerful, sometimes threatening mother. My Brother is an unblinking record of a life that ended too early, and it speaks volumes about the difficult truths at the heart of all families. My Brother was a 1997 National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction.

Jamaica Kincaid (Author), TBD (Narrator)

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Fi: A Memoir of My Son

Brought to you by Penguin. From the award-winning New York Times-bestselling author of Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller, comes a career-defining memoir about grieving the sudden loss of her twenty-one-year-old child It’s midsummer in Wyoming and Alexandra Fuller is barely hanging on. Grieving her father and pining for her home country of Zimbabwe, reeling from a midlife breakup, freshly sober and piecing her way uncertainly through a volatile new relationship with a younger woman, Alexandra vows to get herself back on even keel. And then – suddenly and incomprehensibly – her son Fi, at twenty-one years old, dies in his sleep. No stranger to loss – young siblings, a parent, a home country – Alexandra is nonetheless levelled. At the same time, she is painfully aware that she cannot succumb and abandon her two surviving daughters as her mother before her had done. From a sheep wagon deep in the mountains of Wyoming to a grief sanctuary in New Mexico to a silent meditation retreat in Alberta, Canada, Alexandra journeys up and down the spine of the Rocky Mountains in an attempt to find how to grieve herself whole. There is no answer, and there are countless answers – in poetry, in rituals and routines, in nature and in the indigenous wisdom she absorbed as a child in Zimbabwe. By turns disarming, devastating and unexpectedly, blessedly funny, Alexandra recounts the wild medicine of painstakingly grieving a child in a culture that has no instructions for it. 'Truly extraordinary' HELEN MACDONALD, author of H is for Hawk ©2024 Alexandra Fuller (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Alexandra Fuller (Author), Alexandra Fuller, TBD (Narrator)

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The Widow's Guide to Dead Bastards

A widow's life is turned upside when she uncovers the truth about her late husband in this lyrical, witty, and deeply moving memoir of tragedy and betrayal. In the midst of mourning her husband's sudden death, writer Jessica Waite discovered shocking secrets that undermined everything she thought she knew about the man she'd loved and trusted. From uncovered affairs to drug use and a pornography addiction, Waite was overwhelmed reconciling this devastating information with her new reality as a widowed single mom. Then, to further complicate matters, strange, inexplicable coincidences forced her to consider whether her husband was reaching back from beyond the grave. With her signature candor and unflinching honesty, Waite details her tumultuous love story and the pain of adjusting to the new normal she built for herself and her son. A riveting, difficult, and surprisingly beautiful story, The Widow's Guide to Dead Bastards is also a lyrical exploration of grief, mental health, single parenthood, and betrayal that demonstrates that the most moving love stories aren't perfect—they're flawed and poignantly real.

Jessica Waite (Author), Cassandra Campbell, TBD (Narrator)

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Perfect Bound

Part memoir, part manifesto for living from the woman who redefined how-to titles for the 21st century Having suffered the unimaginable loss of her first husband and child, Lindsay Nicholson worked her way up to become the most successful lifestyle magazine editor in Britain. But when a would-be suicide ran in front of her car, the pages of her picture-perfect life fell apart once more. In just one year, Lindsay lost her marriage, job and home, and was even arrested. Suicidal and suffering from profound PTSD, she tried medication, therapy and New Age courses – until she found the answers she was looking for in the pages of her former magazine. Following the wisdom they dispensed, Lindsay came to realise that life isn’t about being perfect. It’s the mess of friendship, laughter and the little things that truly matter. By turns deeply moving, inspiring and sharply funny, Perfect Bound is an unforgettable story about resilience, recovery and remembering what really makes life worth living.

Lindsay Nicholson (Author), Leda Hodgson, TBD (Narrator)

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The Brave In-Between: Notes from the Last Room

Lessons and advice for navigating uncertainty in the worst of times. Amy Low resides in a room that is her last-her medical team is clear-eyed with her: there is no cure for Stage IV metastatic colon cancer, and the odds of long-term survival are scant. Miraculously, she's lived four years with her diagnosis, and that life between life has changed her. Through the swirl of prolonged trauma and unbearable grief, a vantage point emerged-a window that showed her the way to relish life and be kinder to herself and others while living through the inevitable loss and heartbreak that crosses everyone's paths. Instead of viewing joy and sorrow as opposites, she saw how both exist in harmony, full of mystery and surprise. Instead of seeing days as succeeding or failing, and physical selves as healthy or unwell, she's learned to carry both achievements and afflictions in stride. And instead of bitterness and betrayal, forgiveness-toward her body, toward others, toward herself-became her wisest light. Mapping her experiences to the words that St. Paul wrote in his own last room, The Brave In-Between is a sacred invitation to explore that space between triumph and tragedy. We all have a heart to marvel at miracles, a lightness to spot the absurdity, and an imagination to pause and extend empathy for others-even when tragedy strikes. Sometimes we just need a guide.

Amy Low (Author), Amy Low, Leanne Woodward, TBD (Narrator)

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Nothing to Fear: Demystifying Death in Order to Live More Fully

Brought to you by Penguin. 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. Expertly weaving emotional insight with practical advice, you’ll find out: - which medical interventions help and which make things worse - facts and myths about hospice care - the most important conversations to have before you die - the many inexplicable and fascinating deathbed experiences people have - how to navigate the grieving journey, before and after death Set to become a go-to resource for years to come, Nothing to Fear shows how a better death goes hand-in-hand with a better life. ©2024 Julie McFadden (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Julie Mcfadden (Author), Julie Mcfadden, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Grief Cure: Looking for the End of Loss

“A wise and perceptive journey into grief and the ways we seek to assuage it. Incredibly powerful reading for all who have known, or who will inevitably know, loss.” —Lauren Elkin, author of Flâneuse and Art Monsters In this lyrical and moving story of the world of Prolonged Grief, journalist Cody Delistraty reflects on his experience with loss and explores what modern science, history, and literature reveal about the nature of our relationship to grief and our changing attitudes toward its cure. When Cody Delistraty lost his mother to cancer in his early 20s, he found himself unsure how to move forward. The typical advice was to move through the five stages, achieve closure, get back to work, go back to normal. So begins a journey into the new frontiers of grief, where Delistraty seeks out the researchers, technologists, therapists, marketers, and communities around the world who may be able to cure the pain of loss in novel ways. From the neuroscience of memory deletion to book prescriptions, laughter therapy, psilocybin, and Breakup Bootcamp, what ultimately emerges is not so much a cure as a fresh understanding of what living with grief truly means. As Delistraty created his own ad hoc treatment plan, the American Psychiatric Association and the World Health Organization gave extended, disruptive grief an official name: Prolonged Grief Disorder. A diagnosis, based on meeting several symptoms and contingencies, has opened innovative avenues of treatment and an important conversation about a debilitating form of grief, but it has also opened a debate as to whether this form of grief, no matter how severe and unrelenting, is best approached medically at all. Braiding deep, emotional resonance with sharp research and historical insight, Delistraty places his own experience in dialogue with great writers and thinkers throughout history who have puzzled over this eternal question: how might we best face loss?

Cody Delistraty (Author), Sean Pratt, TBD (Narrator)

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The Stars Will Still Be There

The heartbreaking but life-affirming memoir from Nicola Nuttall about her inspirational daughter Laura Laura Nuttall was in her first term at King’s College London in 2018 when she was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive form of brain cancer. She was given just one year to live. Laura decided to do something positive with every second she had left. She worked her way through the most incredible bucket list, from fishing with Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer to graduating from the University of Manchester, meeting Michelle Obama to dancing on stage with Peter Kay in front of 10,000 people. In the four years between Laura’s diagnosis and her death in May 2023, her mum, Nicola, documented every small moment of joy – and every bit of utter heartbreak. THE STARS WILL STILL BE THERE is Nicola’s gorgeous tribute to her incredibly special daughter and a life lived to the absolute fullest.

Nicola Nuttall (Author), Melanie Crawley, TBD (Narrator)

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Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End

A deeply transformative memoir that reframes how we think about death and how it can help us lead better, more fulfilling and authentic lives, from America’s preeminent death doula. For her clients and everyone who has been inspired by her humanity, Alua Arthur is a friend at the end of the world. As our country’s leading death doula, she’s spreading a transformative message: thinking about your death—whether imminent or not—will breathe wild, new potential into your life. Warm, generous, and funny AF, Alua supports and helps manage end-of-life care on many levels. The business matters, medical directives, memorial planning; but also honoring the quiet moments, when monitors are beeping and loved ones have stepped out to get some air—or maybe not shown up at all—and her clients become deeply contemplative and want to talk. Aching, unfinished business often emerges. Alua has been present for thousands of these sacred moments—when regrets, fears, secret joys, hidden affairs, and dim realities are finally said aloud. When this happens, Alua focuses her attention at the pulsing center of her clients’ anguish and creates space for them, and sometimes their loved ones, to find peace. This has had a profound effect on Alua, who was already no stranger to death’s periphery. Her family fled a murderous coup d’état in Ghana in the 1980s. She has suffered major, debilitating depressions. And her dear friend and brother-in-law died of lymphoma. Advocating for him in his final months is what led Alua to her life’s calling. She knows firsthand the power of bearing witness and telling the truth about life’s painful complexities, because they do not disappear when you look the other way. They wait for you. Briefly Perfectly Human is a life-changing, soul-gathering debut, by a writer whose empathy, tenderness, and wisdom shimmers on the page. Alua Arthur combines intimate storytelling with a passionate appeal for loving, courageous end-of-life care—what she calls “death embrace.” Hers is a powerful testament to getting in touch with something deeper in our lives, by embracing the fact of our own mortality. “Hold that truth in your mind,” Alua says, “and wondrous things will begin to grow around it.”

Alua Arthur (Author), Alua Arthur, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

As Long as You Need: Permission to Grieve

Veteran hospital chaplain to the sick, dying, and bereaved, J.S. Park offers you both the permission and the process for how to grieve and heal at your own pace. In As Long As You Need, J.S. offers an honest and unrushed engagement with grief, decoding four types of grieving-spiritual, mental, physical, and relational-and offering compassionate self-care and soul-care along the way. If you are struggling to process loss, pain, or grief from the last few years or the last few minutes, J.S. is an experienced and deeply empathetic listener and grief catcher who has held the pain and questions of thousands of patients. While social and cultural narratives about grief are dominated by 'letting go, moving on, or turning the page' in his nearly decade of service as a chaplain at a major hospital with a designated level one trauma center J.S. understands firsthand how rushing or suppressing grief only adds a suffocating layer of pain on top of the original wound. From his unique window into the stories of the ill, injured, dying, and their families, J.S. offers you: - Permission to dismantle all too common myths about grief and replace them with a guilt-free and unrushed approach to navigating your losses. - Encouragement for how entering grief, rather than avoiding it, leads to a hard but meaningful holding of your loss. - Empathy and hope if you are struggling with a crisis of faith in the midst of grief. - Recognition that grief spans a wide narrative of loss: loss of future, faith, mental health, worth, autonomy, connection, and loved ones. - Affirmation that your grief is your own. While the DNA of grief might be universal to the human condition, how you experience and process grief is unique to you. From the ER to deliveries to deathbeds across every sort of illness and injury imaginable, J.S. Park has provided meaningful counseling for people in all walks of life and death. Now, through his book he wants to assure you that, while everybody else might rush past your pain, grief is the voice that says, take as long as you need.

J. S. Park (Author), J. S. Park (Narrator)

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Tending Grief: Embodied Rituals for Holding Our Sorrow and Growing Cultures of Care in Community

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 person's experience is as unique as the grief itself. Here, Camille Barton's take on grief speaks directly to the ways that BIPOC and queer readers disproportionately experience unique constellations of loss. Deeply practical and easy to use in times of confusion, trauma, and pain, Tending Grief includes rituals, reflection prompts, and exercises that help us process and metabolize our grief-without bypassing or pushing aside what comes to the fore. Barton includes exercises that can be done both alone and in community, including: - Altar practices to honor and connect with ancestors known and unknown - Locating, holding, and dancing your grief - Sharing circles for processing communal loss - Water, fire, and nature-based rituals - Honoring the survival utility of numbness-and knowing when it's time to release it - Peer support and integration - Herbal medicines and plant-based healing Barton honors each and every experience: The loss of displacement from homelands, from severed lineages and ancestral ways of knowing. The grief of colonization and theft. The deep heaviness that burrows into our bodies when society tells us our bodies are wrong. Practical tools and rituals help readers feel into their grief, honor what comes up, and move forward in healing. Written specifically to center and hold the grief of BIPOC readers, Tending Grief is an invitation to reconnect to what we've lost, to find community in our grief, and to tend to our own suffering for our individual and collective wellbeing. From TI 9781623179946 TR.

Camille Sapara Barton (Author), Camille Sapara Barton (Narrator)

Audiobook

Death & Bereavement Audiobooks in Health & Wellness