Grief and Loss: Adults

Find resources tailored to grieving adults such as books on general loss, loss of a spouse or partner, loss of a parent and sibling, and more.

General Loss

How to Go on Living When Someone you Love Dies by Therese A. Rando, PhD

Therese’s book offers the bereaved person and family a kind of roadmap to the journey ahead. It provides clear descriptions on the nature of grief, what "grief work" is, how grief affects you, what factors influence your grief, and what to expect.

It’s Ok That You’re Not Ok by Megan Devine

Megan’s book offers a profound new approach to both the experience of grief and the way we try to help others who have endured tragedy. She debunks the culturally prescribed goal of returning to a normal, "happy" life, replacing it with a far healthier middle path, one that invites us to build a life alongside grief rather than seeking to overcome it.

When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold S. Kushner

When Harold Kushner’s three-year-old son was diagnosed with a degenerative disease that meant he would only live until his early teens, he was faced with one of life’s most difficult questions: Why, God? Years later, Rabbi Kushner wrote this straightforward, elegant contemplation of the doubts and fears that arise when tragedy strikes. Kushner shares his wisdom as a rabbi, a parent, a reader, and a human being.

Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and Finding Joy by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant

After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. Her friend Adam Grant, a psychologist, told her there are concrete steps people can take to recover and rebound from life-shattering experiences. This book combines Sheryl’s personal insights with Adam’s eye-opening research on finding strength in the face of adversity.

A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis

This book offers an honest reflection on the fundamental issues of life, death, and faith in the midst of loss. Written after his wife’s tragic death, this book is an unflinchingly truthful account of how loss can lead even a stalwart believer to lose all sense.

Grief One Day At a Time: 365 Meditations to Help you Heal After Loss by Alan Wolfelt, PhD

After someone we love dies, each day can be a struggle. But each day, if we work to embrace our normal and necessary grief and care for ourselves, we will also take one step toward healing. With one brief entry for everyday of the calendar year, Dr. Wolfelt’s book offers small, one-day-at-a-time doses of guidance and healing.

Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss, and the Heartbreaking Path of Grief by Joanne Cacciatore

Organized into 52 short chapters, this book is a companion for life's most difficult times, revealing how grief can open our hearts to connection, compassion, and the very essence of our shared humanity.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

This is an exceptional thought-provoking story of the challenges facing a terminal-illness and eventual death. When Breath Becomes Air is the transforming story of a brilliant, young surgeon who takes us down the road of uncertainty as he faces death.

Grief Day by Day: Simple Practices and Daily Guidance for Living with Loss by Jan Warner

This book offers supportive readings and exercises to help you move through life after loss, one day at a time. It includes 365 daily reflections, weekly themes that capture common feelings and experiences while grieving and 52 healing exercises to help process your feelings at the end of each week.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Joan’s book is a memoir that explores her experiences coping with the sudden death of her husband and the illness of their daughter. It offers a raw and honest reflection on grief and the human condition.

Welcome to The Grief Club Because You Don’t Have to Go Through it Alone by Janine Kwoh

Janine’s book addresses with empathy and honesty the aspects of grief that so many of us experience but that aren’t widely discussed. This book includes brief writings, illustrations, and creative diagrams to explore the wide range of emotions and experiences that grief can encompass.

On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and David Kessler

A modern classic text on the crucial role of grieving in dealing with loss, by the author who first explored the now famous five stages of grief—On Grief and Grieving is an invaluable blend of Kubler-Ross’s practical wisdom, case studies, and her own experiences and spiritual insight.

Surviving the Holidays Without You: Navigating Grief During Special Seasons by Gary Roe

Hospice chaplain Gary Roe has put together a grief survival kit designed to help navigate the holidays with hope and new confidence.

It’s Okay to Laugh: (Crying is Cool Too) by Nora McInerny Purmont

This is Nora’s first book, written in the six months after the death of her husband, Aaron. It’s a story about love, loss, and trying to stay alive, told with heart and a sense of humor.

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom

This book chronicles Mitch Albom’s transformative journey through his weekly meetings with his dying college professor. Through their deep conversations, Morrie imparts invaluable wisdom about love, forgiveness, relationships, and pursuing a meaningful life.

How to Carry What Can’t be Fixed: A Journal for Grief by Megan Devine

This is an illustrated journal and everyday companion to help you enter a conversation with your grief, find your own truth, and live into the life you didn’t ask for―but is here nonetheless.

Healing After Loss: Daily Meditations for Working Through Grief by Martha Hickman

The classic guide for dealing with grief and loss offers daily reflections to find solace in our own lives, and comfort in the connection of sharing these meditations with others.

Loss of a Spouse or Partner

Finding your Way After Your Spouse Dies by Marta Felber

This book presents a guide for coping with the practical issues that face the recently widowed as they struggle through the grieving process. It is written by someone who has experienced personal grief and loss and understands what needs to be faced when a spouse dies.

The Hot Young Widows Club by Nora McInerny

Drawing from her own life experience, Nora McInerny offers a wise, humorous roadmap, and caring community for anyone going through a challenging life moment.

The Tender Scar: Life After the Death of a Spouse by Richard L Mabry

This book offers hope and healing for the brokenhearted and addresses the heart-wrenching pain of losing a spouse. Working from journal entries written after the death of his wife, Mabry uses his own journey as a stepping-stone to a practical discussion of the grief process.

Widow to Widow: Thoughtful Practical Ideas for Rebuilding Your Life by Genevieve Davis Ginsburg, MS

In this useful guide, widow, author, and therapist Genevieve Davis Ginsburg offers fellow widows -- as well as their family and friends -- sage advice for coping with the loss of a husband.

Comfort for the Grieving Spouse’s Heart: Hope and Healing After Losing Your Partner by Gary Roe

This practical book reads like a caring conversation with a friend and guides the rider through the healing process with a daily dose of honesty, courage, compassion, and love.

Loss of a Parent as an Adult

The Orphaned Adult: Understanding and Coping with Grief and Change After the Death of Our Parent by Alexander Levy

This book is an incredibly helpful resource for thinking through the feelings that arise when we arrive at the moment of asking ourselves “Who will I be, now that I am nobody’s child?” It is a guide to understanding and coping with grief and all of the disorienting emotions that accompany the death of our parents.

Loss of a Parent: Adult Grief When Parents Die by Theresa Jackson

This book offers expert guidance, effective healing exercises, and experience from others who have lost a parent. Theresa has combined the latest theories and practices on loss, with effective meditations and exercises so that one can honor and remember his or her lost parent, all the while processing your grief in a healthy way.

Healing After The Loss of Your Mother by Elaine Mallon

This book is a heartfelt and practical guidebook for those mourning the loss of their mother & for supporters hoping to help a loved one through grief.

Loss of a Sibling

Healing the Adult Sibling’s Grieving Heart: 100 Practical Ideas after Your Brother or Sister Dies by Alan D. Wolfelt, PhD

Compassionate and heartfelt, this collection offers 100 practical ideas to help understand and accept the passing of a sibling in order to practice self-healing.

Surviving the Death of a Sibling: Living Through Grief When an Adult Brother or Sister Dies by T. J. Wray

Based on the author's own experiences, as well as those of many others, this book helps adults who have lost a brother or sister to realize that they are not alone in their struggle. It teaches them to understand the unique stages of their grieving process, offering practical and prescriptive advice for dealing with each stage.

Additional Resources for Grief

What's Your Grief

This is a grief website and online community for grieving people and grief support.

Center for Loss & Life Transition

This website, created by grief counselor Dr. Alan Wolfelt, is dedicated to helping people who are grieving and those caring for them.

Widowed Parent Podcast

Host Jenny Lisk, who lost her husband to brain cancer when her kids were 9 and 11, offers practical guidance, invaluable resources, and steadfast support for widowed parents raising grieving children and teens.

Terrible, Thanks for Asking Podcast

This podcast with host Nora McInerney makes space for how it really feels to go through the hard things in life, and a community of people who get it.