Death & Bereavement Audiobooks | Health & Wellness

Show Filters

Mattie, Milo, and Me: A Memoir Audiobook

Anne grew up in an abusive home, leading to severe depression and a determination to do better as a mother. One of her sons wants a dog from the time he is a baby; Anne very much does not. For years she appeases him with creatures who live in cages and tanks, but on his tenth birthday she can no longer say no—and she proceeds to fall in love with their new four-legged family member, Mattie. Then Mattie dies a sudden and tragic death, and Anne feels herself begin to sink back into depression. Trying to cope, she immediately adopts Milo—a dog who, unbeknownst to her, has already been returned to the rescue by several families due to his aggressive behavior. But even after she realizes Milo is dangerous, she’s committed to trying to give him a chance at a good life. Anne’s journey takes the reader from dog school into the deep woods as she perseveres with Milo’s lifelong rehabilitation and her unwavering efforts to be a good mother to her sons. Working with Milo strengthens Anne and expands her ability to love. Ten years later, when Milo dies, Anne faces another choice: close the door to that part of her heart, or risk loving another dog after two tragic losses?

Anne Abel (Author), George Hahn, Jen Jacob (Narrator)

Audiobook

Wishful Thinking: How I Lost My Faith and Why I Want to Find It

Donna Freitas wants to believe. Raised Catholic, she sang songs about Jesus as a child and lived in a house where nuns and priests were regular guests, yet she found herself questioning the faith of her family, examining the reasons none of it added up, and distancing herself from the God of Christianity. Despite her questions-or perhaps because of them-she made a career out of trying to understand God, pursuing a Ph.D. in religion and writing books about Christianity for a living. But even as she taught college students about mystics, theologians, and others who wrestled with God, she was never able to embrace a faith of her own, no matter how hard she tried. In this searingly-honest and deeply personal book, Freitas retraces her roundabout path up and out of the wilderness toward hope, and her dogged-and ongoing-search for faith. She talks about her experience with the Catholic abuse scandal; about being embraced as a speaker at hundreds of evangelical colleges; about how the death of her mother and the loss of her marriage made her question everything she thought she knew about love; how she cannot reconcile the ways the concept of God makes absolutely no sense; and how she cannot stop trying to believe, despite it all. Real, raw, and beautifully-written, Wishful Thinking is a powerful story about the author's search for belief in God, and of finding God in the most unexpected places.

Donna Freitas (Author), Donna Freitas, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Manicurist's Daughter: A Memoir

An emotionally raw memoir about the crumbling of the American Dream and a daughter of refugees who searches for answers after her mother dies during plastic surgery. Susan Lieu has long been searching for answers. About her family’s past and about her own future. Refugees from the Vietnam War, Susan’s family escaped to California in the 1980s after five failed attempts. Upon arrival, Susan’s mother was their savvy, charismatic North Star, setting up two successful nail salons and orchestrating every success—until Susan was eleven. That year, her mother died from a botched tummy tuck. After the funeral, no one was ever allowed to talk about her or what had happened. For the next twenty years, Susan navigated a series of cascading questions alone—why did the most perfect person in her life want to change her body? Why would no one tell her about her mother’s life in Vietnam? And how did this surgeon, who preyed on Vietnamese immigrants, go on operating after her mother’s death? Sifting through depositions, tracking down the surgeon’s family, and enlisting the help of spirit channelers, Susan uncovers the painful truth of her mother, herself, and the impossible ideal of beauty. The Manicurist’s Daughter is much more than a memoir about grief, trauma, and body image. It is a story of fierce determination, strength in shared culture, and finding your place in the world.

Susan Lieu (Author), Susan Lieu (Narrator)

Audiobook

Cloistered: My Years as a Nun

Brought to you by Penguin. An astonishing memoir of twelve years as a contemplative nun in a silent monastery Cloistered takes the reader deep into the hidden world of a traditional Carmelite monastery as it approaches the third Millennium and tells the story of an intense personal journey into and out of an enclosed life of poverty, chastity and obedience. Finding an apparently perfect world at Akenside Priory, and a haven after the loss of her father, Catherine Coldstream trusts herself to a group of twenty silent women, believing she is trusting herself to God. As the beauty and mystery of an ancient way of life enfolds her, she surrenders herself wholly to its power, only to find that all is not as it seems behind the Order's closed doors. Cut off from the wider world for decades, the community has managed to evade accountability to any authority beyond itself. When Sister Catherine realises that a toxic cult of the personality has replaced the ancient ideal of religious obedience, she is faced with a dilemma. Will she submit even to this, or will she be forced to speak out? An exploration of the limits of trust, Cloistered shows us how far grief can take us along the road of self-surrender, and of how much harm is done when institutional flaws go unacknowledged. Catherine's honest account of her time in the monastery - and her dramatic flight from it - is both a beautiful love song to a lost community and a sharp critique of the abuse of power in an ancient institution. ©2024 Catherine Coldstream (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Catherine Coldstream (Author), Catherine Coldstream, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

If I Don't Laugh, I'll Cry: How Death, Debt, and Comedy Led to a Life of Faith, Farming, and Forgett

In this laugh-out-loud and heartfelt memoir, writer, speaker, and podcaster Molly Stillman shares her unforgettable story of losing her mother, squandering an unexpected quarter-of-a-million-dollar inheritance in less than two years, attempting to launch a career in comedy but ending up on a farm instead, and finding faith, hope, and joy in the middle of it all. Molly Stillman has lived the type of life that when shared, people stop in their tracks and ask, 'Wait, what happened?' Molly's mother, Lynda Van Devanter Buckley served as an Army nurse during the Vietnam War and wrote the bestselling memoir, Home Before Morning. When Molly was seventeen, Lynda passed away after an eight-year battle with an autoimmune disorder due to her exposure to Agent Orange. Four years later, Molly turned twenty-one and unexpectedly inherited a quarter of a million dollars from her mother's estranged family's estate. Through 'retail therapy' and a long series of grossly irresponsible financial decisions, Molly found herself broke with over $36,000 in credit card debt less than two years later. Shame, guilt, and embarrassment set in. With aspirations of a career in comedy, Molly used humor to mask the pain and brokenness she felt, believing that if she looked joyful and put together on the outside, it would eventually be true on the inside. Instead, she spent the next few years depressed, lonely, and feeling alienated from those closest to her. But an unlikely call with a compassionate credit counselor, meeting the spreadsheet-loving man who eventually became her husband, and a surprising visit to a church started her on a path that changed everything. If I Don't Laugh, I'll Cry will bring readers into the tension of feeling both joy and grief and show them that every broken, messed up story has a purpose, and it's possible to gain everything if they're willing to surrender it all to Jesus.

Molly Stillman (Author), Lisa Larsen, Molly Stillman (Narrator)

Audiobook

After the Worst Day Ever: What Sick Kids Know About Sustaining Hope in Chronic Illness

For those who care for chronically ill children, a new understanding of hope that equips adults to better nurture pediatric hope among sick kids-articulated by the children themselves As anyone with a chronic illness knows, hope can sometimes be hard to come by. For parents and caregivers of children with serious illness, there can be a real struggle to move beyond one's own grief, fear, and suffering to see what hope means for these kids. Duane Bidwell, a scholar, minister, and former hospital chaplain who has struggled with serious illness himself, spent time with 48 chronically ill children in dialysis units and transplant clinics around the United States. Chronically ill kids, he found, don't adhere to popular or scholarly understandings of hope. They experience hope as a sense of well-being in the present, not a promise of future improvement, an ability to set goals, or the absence of illness and suffering. With this mindset, these kids suggest a new understanding of pediatric hope, saying hope becomes concrete when they (1) realize community, (2) claim power, (3) attend to Spirit, (4) choose trust, and (5) maintain identity. Offering textured portraits of children with end-stage kidney disease, After the Worst Day Ever illustrates in their words how sick children experience, maintain, and turn toward hope even when illness cannot be cured and severely limits quality of life. Their insights reveal how the adults in a sick child's world-parents, chaplains, medical professionals, teachers, and others-can nurture hope. They also shift our understanding of hope from an internal resource located "inside" an individual to a shared, communal experience that becomes a resource for individuals. Rich and moving, Bidwell's work helps us imagine anew what it means to sustain hope despite inescapable suffering and the limits of chronic illness.

Duane R. Bidwell (Author), Luis Moreno (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels

An intimate, deeply moving investigation of an underreported phenomenon-the rising number of unclaimed dead in America today-and what it says about the state of our society For centuries, people who died destitute or alone were buried in potters' fields-a Dickensian end that even the most hard-pressed families tried to avoid. Today, more and more relatives are abandoning their dead, leaving it to local governments to dispose of the bodies. Up to 150,000 Americans now go unclaimed each year. Who are they? Why are they being forgotten? And what is the meaning of life if your death doesn't matter to others? In this extraordinary work of narrative nonfiction, eight years in the making, sociologists Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans uncover a hidden social world. They follow four individuals in Los Angeles, tracing the twisting, poignant paths that put each at risk of going unclaimed, and introducing us to the scene investigators, notification officers, and crematorium workers who care for them when no one else will. The Unclaimed lays bare the difficult truth that anyone can be abandoned. It forces us to confront a variety of social ills, from the fracturing of families and the loneliness of cities to the toll of rising inequality. But it is also filled with unexpected moments of tenderness. In Boyle Heights, a Mexican American neighborhood not far from the glitter of Hollywood, hundreds of strangers come together each year to mourn the deaths of people they never knew. These ceremonies, springing up across the country, reaffirm our shared humanity and help mend our frayed social fabric. Beautifully crafted and profoundly empathetic, The Unclaimed urges us to expand our circle of caring-in death and in life.

Pamela Prickett, Stefan Timmermans (Author), Nan Mcnamara, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Conscious Grieving: A Transformative Approach to Healing from Loss

An intimate guide to grieving that offers hope and healing within loss from one of the nation's top grief therapists. Conscious Grieving is a book for anyone seeking guidance and support after loss. Renowned grief therapist Claire Bidwell Smith combines her deeply personal experience of loss with her long career spent working with thousands of people to introduce a new approach to grief, one that promotes hope and even transformation. What does it mean to grieve consciously? Most of the time, when we lose someone we love, it feels like grief is just happening to us. We feel out of control, and overwhelmed. Claire reminds us that while loss is something that inevitably happens to all of us, how we choose to grieve is up to us. When we can consciously engage with our grief, rather than avoiding it, we can access profound pathways to healing. Presented in a series of thoughtful, brief vignettes that don't overwhelm the reader, Conscious Grieving offers a new framework for each stage of grief: Entering, Engaging, Surrendering, and Transforming. - Entering - staying present and taking care of ourselves as we navigate the shock and upheaval of a new loss. - Engaging - navigating that first year after a loss by staying in tune with our needs as more complicated feelings of depression, guilt or anger surface. - Surrendering - facing the changes to our identity and who we are becoming in the face of loss. - Transforming - through ritual, honor, hope, and grace, and learning to carry our grief with intention so that we can continue to grow, heal, and thrive. Grief asks a lot from us. But the ability to grieve is a birthright. We grieve throughout our lifetimes. We grieve the deaths of loved ones yes, but also moves, divorce, illness, injustice, time lost, changes in the world and healing from these losses requires that we evaluate everything we ever considered meaningful. Healing means making our lives worth the pain we endure when we lose someone we love. And transforming through grief is an opportunity afforded to all.

Claire Bidwell Smith (Author), Claire Bidwell Smith, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Now is Not the Time for Flowers

Now is Not the Time for Flowers is the beautiful and honest memoir from writer Stacey Heale. With the death of her husband Greg as the catalyst, Stacey explores the full spectrum of our lives as women and all its complexities. Told through the lens of her life and experiences, she examines the messy and unexpected realities of love, desire, motherhood, death, grief and its aftermath, and the challenges and questions that our nuanced lives force upon us.

Stacey Heale (Author), Stacey Heale (Narrator)

Audiobook

My Disappearing Mother: A Memoir of Magic and Loss in the Country of Dementia

My Disappearing Mother: A Memoir of Magic and Loss is far more than a memoir on the devastation that comes with dementia, a cognitive impairment that affects fifty-five million people worldwide. Finnamore beautifully chronicles her mother's rich and varied life journey, from her birth in Puerto Rico during the height of the Depression to ferrying to the United States, in hopes of a better life. On U.S. soil, her mother, Bunny, started working as a performer for enlisted men, then became a secretary, and eventually a professional clairvoyant. With unexpected humor, Suzanne explores the feeling of love, grief, family, and loss while celebrating the bonds between mothers and daughters. In Suzanne's words, 'I want a book that attests to the fact that in a world full of disease, there is an abiding and supernatural force of love. That because of this, the sadness and the horror can be borne. That laughter can live alongside grief. That it must.' When Suzanne's guest essay 'Dementia Is a Place Where My Mother Lives. It Is Not Who She Is' was published in the New York Times on Mother's Day 2022, readers responded with an outpouring of empathy and love. And so this book was born, full of clues and guidance to help others feel less alone on the path that Finnamore has walked.

Suzanne Finnamore (Author), Suzanne Finnamore (Narrator)

Audiobook

Grief and Grit(s): A Daughter's Journey of Love and Loss When the World Was Upside-Down

Marsha Gray Hill’s Grief and Grit(s) is an emotional odyssey that illuminates the complexities of grief, while offering a beacon of hope and inspiration for those navigating their own journeys of loss. This extraordinary memoir serves as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of love to transcend even the darkest of times. In times of unprecedented panic, we see what we’re really made of. Though the worldwide pandemic affected each of us differently, this time of turmoil brought one thing into stark clarity: the value of human life. When tragedy begets triaging and certain demographics are seen as more disposable than others, what does that say about our society? And what does it say about us? This is a story about America, about how we view the most vulnerable people in our society—our aging and elderly—both in times of crisis and in our everyday lives. This is also a story about a mother and daughter, of a mother raising her daughter in love, faith, and confidence, then the bizarre role-reversal as that mother deteriorated to the helplessness of a child. Nothing can prepare you for that intensity of sorrow and joy. Nothing can prepare you for what happens when the coroner refuses to show up and pronounce your mother legally dead, either. In this stunning debut, author Marsha Hill invites you into a personal look at an uncomfortable truth: how we treat our elderly today defines our own future. Full of tragedy and triumph, laughter and tears, grief and—yes, some good, old-fashioned grits—Grief and Grit(s) is not only a reflection of the life and tragic death of Adaline Gray, but the power of our generation to fight for human dignity at every stage of life.

Marsha Gray Hill (Author), Marsha Gray Hill (Narrator)

Audiobook

All the Lonely People: Conversations on Loneliness

An intimate portrait of loneliness, All the Lonely People sees psychologist Dr Sam Carr collect hours of conversations with people young and old, including single parents, carers, teenagers and the bereaved - all shared over countless cups of tea. In stories of love and loss, of trauma and hope, told from care homes, living rooms, classrooms and kitchens, Carr discovers that while each of their stories is utterly unique, they are all born out of the same desire for human connection. As Carr interweaves these touching and powerful tales with his own personal narrative, he opens a window onto the inner lives of regular people - the forgotten, misplaced or misjudged - who all feel isolated in some way. Sparking a profound conversation about a universal emotion, which may simply be an inevitable part of life in an increasingly disjointed world, he questions what we can do to build stronger human relationships, and to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.

Sam Carr (Author), Sam Carr (Narrator)

Audiobook

Death & Bereavement Audiobooks in Health & Wellness