With World Book Day upon us we at the Marie Curie Online Community Team thought it might be interesting to have a discussion about what books have helped us on our grieving journey.
For me two stand out:
You Are Not Alone by Cariad Lloyd- I am a huge fan of Cariad’s podcast ‘Griefcast’ and her book is full of the same raw honesty. It follows her own experience of losing her dad to cancer at the age of 15 and also demystifies certain myths around grief theory.
I found it really accessible and empathetic and there is also humour in there.
I Promise It Won’t Hurt Like This by Clare Mackintosh- Again this is inspired by Clare’s own personal experience of losing a child. It is very hard to read at times but extremely moving and I liked the way she broke it down into 18 promises. It is both realistic and reassuring.
We would love to hear some of your personal recommendations if you are happy to share.
Many thanks,
Laura, Volunteer for Marie Curie Online Community Team
Happy World Book Day! Thanks for sharing and opening this conversation Laura!
It might not be for everyone, but I recently read “The Grieving Brain” by Mary-Frances O’Connor.
I like to make sense of things, and this book really highlighted what it does to us in our brains when we grieve, which made a lot of sense to me!
Thanks so much for your recommendations Bonnie and Kelly! Kelly I found The Grieving Brain fascinating, so interesting to discover more about the science behind grieving. Thanks so much for the Ted Talk info, I will definitely check that out. Happy World Book Day and thanks again Laura, Volunteer for Marie Curie Online Community Team
Thank you for opening this thread! These recommendations are really interesting, and I look forward to checking them out. I have a crime fiction series and two non-fiction books to recommend that helped me when I was in the most acute phase of grieving:
First, the Richard Osman Thursday Murder Club series, which deals very sensitively and intelligently with the topics of aging and everything (including the loss of friends) that comes with it - quite apart from being very entertaining. Fans of ‘cosy crime’ might like these, perhaps especially those who are dealing with anticipatory grief (but do read a few pages from the middle before buying it - I am aware that everyone is different in what they find comforting).
Second, there’s a non-fiction recommended by my Marie Curie bereavement person (I was so lucky as to benefit from phone conversations through this service): Derren Brown’s book ‘Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine’. I read this after seeing Derren Brown’s ‘Showman’ show (online), which he developed after losing his father during the worst of the Covid pandemic, and while the book does not exclusively deal with bereavement, it has thought-provoking sections that think through end-of-life situations and grief.
My final recommendation is a book called ‘In the Kitchen’, published by Daunt, which contains essays on food and cooking. One of these is ‘Our Grief Books’ by Mayukh Sen, which is beautiful and had me in tears. I have found this to be a very good gift book - the recipients will read the stories that speak to them, and not all are sad. Long after reading it, I thought about those who shape how we cook and the meals we shared with them.
I hope this helps, and look forward to hearing more recommendations from others!
Take good care of yourselves,
Anke, a member of the Marie Curie Online Community Team
Thanks for sharing and opening this conversation Laura!