Thursday's Therapy - Great Resource for Grief Books ~"Grief to Reading Journey" grief blog

Thursday's Therapy 

Great Resource for Grief Books

~"Grief to Reading Journey" grief blog

Reading and writing have become a way of coping with the sudden and completely unexpected death of my son, Joshua, at the tender age of seventeen. He took his life on March 18, 2009. From that day on, my life will never be the same.

Books That Have Helped - Updated 9/1/2012

~by Josh's mom, posted on her grief blog "Grief to Reading Journey"

I have found solace in many types of books: those written for survivors of suicide, for parents who have lost a child, for those who look to writing as a way of coping, memoirs and even fiction.  The number in parenthesis is the rating given to the book.  I use the GoodReads system.

1 - didn't like it

2 - it was ok

3 - liked it

4 - really liked it

5 - it was amazing

List of books on Josh's blog with short reviews.

Survivors of Suicide

1. No Time to Say Good Bye by Carla Fine (5)
2. My Son, My Son by Iris Bolton (3)
3. Take the Dimness of My Soul Away by William Ritter (3)
4. When Suicide Comes Home: A Father's Diary and Comments by Paul Cox (4)
5. Grieving the Unexpected - the Suicide of a Son by Gary LeBlanc (3)
6. Grieving A Suicide, A Loved One's Search of Comfort, Answers and Hope by Albert Hsu (5)
7. Those They Left Behind by Karen M. Bryson (4)
8. Aftershock by David Cox and Candy Arrington (5)
9. Surviving Suicide: Help to Heal Your Heart by Heather Hayes (4)
10. Dying To be Free: A Healing Guide for Families After A Suicide by Jean Larch and Beverly Cobain (4)
11. The Empty Chair by Beryl Glover (3)
12. Silent Grief: Living in the Wake of Suicide by Christopher Lucas (2)
13. After Suicide by John Hewett (2)
14. History of a Suicide by Jill Bialosky (4)
15. His Bright Light: The Story of Nick Traina by Danielle Steel (3)
16. After A Funeral by Diana Athill (2)
17. Memory Slips: A Memoir of Music and Healing by Linda K. Cutting (4)
18. The Los Angeles Diaries by James Brown (4)

Parental Bereavement

1. Lament for a Son by Nicholas Wolterstorff (5)
2. The Worst Loss: How Families Heal From the Death of A Child by Barbara Rosof (4)
3. After the Death of a Child: Living With the Loss Through the Years by Ann Finkbeiner (4)
4. Life After the Death of My Son by Dennis Apple (4)
5. The Grieving Garden: Living With the Death Of a Child by Suzanne Redfern and Susan Gilbert (4)
6. Beyond Tears by Ellen Mitchell (4)
7. Making Toast by Roger Rosenblatt (4)

Journaling/Writing

1. Writing Through the Darkness by Elizabeth Maynard Schaefer (5)
2. Writing As a Way of Healing by Louise DeSalvo (5)
3. Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg (5) ///on hold/ library
4. Journal to The Self: 22 Paths to Personal Growth by Kathleen Adams (4)
5. Bird by Bird by Anne LaMott (5)
6. The New Diary by Tristine Rainer (4) ///on hold
7. Leaving a Trace: On Keeping a Journal ///on hold
8. On Keeping a Journal: Leaving a Trace by Alexandra Johnson (4)
9. The Writer's Portable Mentor by Priscilla Long (5) put on Amzon wshlist
10. Writers and Their Notebooks by Diana Raab (4)
11. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf (4)

Memoirs

1. Lucky by Alice Sebold (5)
2. Paula by Isabel Allende (4)
3. The Suicide Index by Joan Wickersham (5)
4. The Sum of Our Days by Isabel Allende (4)
5. An Unquiet Mind by Kay Jamison (2)
6. The Journal Keeper by Phyllis Theroux (4)
7. I know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (4)
8. How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen (4)
9. A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis (4)
10. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (4)
11. A Widow's Story by Joyce Carol Oates (4) 
12. Darkness Visible by William Styron (5)
13. Reading My Father by Alexandra Styron (4)
14. Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett (4)
15. Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy (4)
16. Blue Nights by Joan Didion (3)
17. My Brother by Jamaica Kincaid (4)

On Suicide

1. By Their Own Hand: Deliberate Self-Harm and Suicidal Ideas in Adolescents by Keith Rodham

Poetry

1. In Memoriam A.H.H. by Lord Alfred Tennyson - post on Josh's blog
2. The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief & Healing - posts on Josh's blog;   "The Dead by Billy Collins
3. Monthly poetry posts:  January,  February,  
4. Horoscopes for the Dead by Billy Collins - posts on Josh's blog 1) Grave and 2) Horoscopes for the Dead

Original Poetry - written in memory of Josh (click here)

Plays

1. Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth by William Shakespeare - see two posts (teenage suicide ideation and grieving parents)
2. Hamlet by William Shakespeare - see Death, Grief and Suicide Part I and Part II

Fiction

1. The Pact: A Love Story by Jodi Picoult (4)
2. Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (5)
3. The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffengger (5)
4. Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber (4)
5. Ordinary People by Judith Guest (5)
6. Beach Music by Pat Conroy (2)
7. Legend of A Suicide by David Vann (3)
8. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (2)
9. Sea Change by Jeremy Page (3)
10. The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow (4)
11. The Hours by Michael Cunningham (5)
12. The Catcher In the Rye by J. D. Salinger (4)
13. The Memoir Club by Laura Kalpakian (2)
14. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (5) - see post

A list of recommended books for survivors of suicide from the American Association of Suicidology. 

Posted by Josh's mom 

http://grieftoreadingjourney.blogspot.fr/