Here are some resources for your grief.
Books about Living with Grief
Tending Grief: Embodied Rituals for Holding Our Sorrow and Growing Cultures of Care in Community by Camille Sapara Barton - Practical tools for holding space for the grief of BIPOC and queer people in particular.
Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss, and the Heartbreaking Path of Grief by Joanne Cacciatore - A map of grief with an emphasis on loss of a child.
It’s OK That You’re Not OK: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn’t Understand and How to Carry What Can’t Be Fixed: A Journal for Grief by Megan Devine - From the shock of losing her young husband suddenly, Megan offers a path through the darkest days of grief with advice that’s practical and realistic.
Renegade Grief: A Guide to the Wild Ride of Life After Loss by Carla Fernandez - When Carla lost her father in her 20s, she felt untethered. Here she shares wisdom drawn from The Dinner Party, a national network of peer-support circles for young adult grievers she founded.
How to Live When a Loved One Dies by Thich Nhat Hanh. Accessible wisdom drawn from the teachings of this wise modern Buddhist teacher.
What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World by Prentis Hemphill. Prentis is a therapist, somatics teacher, facilitator, political organizer, and writer who teaches that listening to your body creates healing and belonging.
Healing After Loss: Daily Meditations for Working through Grief by Martha W. Hickman. This tiny book of daily 1-page inspiration and wisdom is a classic. Note: first published in 1994, this book mentions God and the quotes are mostly from white authors.
The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings are Trying to Tell You by Karla McLaren - Learn how to meet strong emotions, including grief and anger, as valuable sources of knowledge and power.
The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss by Mary-Francis O’Connor. Understand why grieving is exhausting, confusing, time-consuming, and worthwhile.
The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully by Frank Ostaseski. - An AIDS hospice worker shares five practical ways to reorient oneself in relationship to our life.
Anxiety: The Missing Stage of Grief by Claire Bidwell Smith. Loss makes us question our beliefs, identity and safety—these writing prompts can help.
Drawing on Grief: Exploring Loss Through Creativity by Kate Sutton - A small illustrated guide to grief with tiny drawing activities to soothe and connect with oneself.
Grieving While Black: An Antiracist Take on Oppression and Sorrow by Breesia Wade - Learn how our personal grief can connect us to the larger shared grief of racism and injustice.
The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief by Francis Weller and Michael Lerner - Grief is meant to be honored in community, not alone. Learn how to draw on your intuitive ritual wisdom and ancestors to integrate your grief.
Memoirs about Grief
The Dead are Gods by Eirinie Carson - This love letter to a dead friend is as obsessive, beautiful, specific, and universal as every friendship torn apart by death.
Grief is for People by Sloane Crosley - A 30-something woman grieves her stolen belongings and her dearest literary compadre.
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion - An accomplished writer grapples with the sudden death of her husband and longtime literary partner while their daughter is in a coma.
Fi: A Memoir by Alexandra Fuller - A mother lives into the searing grief of suddenly losing her teenage son to an undiagnosed health condition.
Awake: A Memoir by Jen Hatmaker. Jen meets the shock of betrayal and divorce with honesty, wisdom and humor to find her new identity.
Caravan of No Despair: A Memoir of Loss and Transformation by Mirabai Starr - A mother draws on a lifetime of spiritual practice to meet the sudden death of her teenage daughter.
Podcasts about Grief
Many of the authors of the books I’ve listed here have appeared on podcasts. Search show listings.
All There Is with Anderson Cooper - News reporter Anderson Cooper seeks the wisdom of others as he sorts through the death of his mother Gloria Vanderbilt and the long ungrieved losses of his brother and father.
Grief Card Deck
Guidance for Grief: Wisdom to Help you Stay Connected to Your Loved One after Lossby Julie Beischel, PhD. Choose a random card to gain comfort, wisdom, and inspiration to live with your grief.
Films
Come See Me in the Good Light. (2026) Poet Andrea Gibson and wife Megan Falley, also a writer, love, laugh, and dance their way through to the inevitable, miraculous end. Watch it.
Climate Grief Resources
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Wisdom of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer - Indigenous scientist and mother reminds us of our necessary relationship with plants.
Emergence Magazine - a website, podcast, and print publication exploring the connections between ecology, culture, and spirituality.
Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in with Unexpected Resilience & Creative Power by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone - Ecophilosopher Joanna Macy introduces the Work that Reconnects which strengthens one’s capacity to to face climate change and respond with action and resilience.
Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work that Reconnects by Joanna Macy and Molly Brown - Easy-to-use methods for group work developed by ecophilosopher Joanna Macy that profoundly affect peoples’ outlook and ability to act in the world.
The Age of Loneliness: Essays by Laura Marris - These beautiful essays invite ways to deepen relationship with the natural world by accepting extinction and loss as part of loving the world.
A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planetby Sarah Jaquette Ray. - Wisdom and practices to find your place as a climate advocate and take care of yourself while doing so.
The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg - Brief informational essays and commentary by climate scientists and activists from around the world provide clear information and therefore hope.
These are my personal recommendations of resources that helped me meet my own grief and that of others.
Is your favorite missing? Send me your recommendations and why.