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SevenPonds / Books to Lend Insight / Books About Reflecting on Life

Books About Reflecting on Life

Sometimes loss makes us examine our own lives more deeply. These thoughtful books encourage reflection on what matters most, helping you find meaning and purpose in both grief and daily living.

Hello Goodbye book about rituals

"Hello, Goodbye: 75 Rituals for Times of Loss, Celebration, and C…

By Day Schildkret

Day Schildkret is known for his podcast and website, Morning Altars. He has traveled the world and inspired thousands to…

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After Life: Ways We Think About Death

"After Life: Ways We Think About Death"

By Merrie-Ellen Wilcox

When young people experience the death of someone, where do they go for insight? In “After Life: Ways We Think About Dea…

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“Breathe”

By Shanila Sattar

How often, when we’re struggling, are we told to just breathe? Yet few of us know how to do that purposefully with any r…

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The Craft of Dying cover

"The Craft of Dying: The Modern Face of Death"

By Lyn H. Lofland

Initially published in 1978, the 40th anniversary edition of “The Craft of Dying” by Lyn H. Lofland remains a relevant r…

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“Words at the Threshold: What We Say As We’re Nearing Death”

By Lisa Smartt

“Words at a Threshold: What We Say as We’re Nearing Death.” examines the final idioms uttered from the lips of our dying…

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The Worm at the Core by Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski

“The Worm at the Core”

By Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg and Tom Pyszczynski

“The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life,” coauthored by Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg and Tom Pyszczynski,…

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“Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death”

By Irvin D. Yalom

In “Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death,” existential psychiatrist Irvin D. Yalom, a professor emeritus a…

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Anne Lamott's new book is o"Almost Everything."

"Almost Everything"

By Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott’s essays on life (and death) in “Almost Everything” sound a bit like Ensign Nellie Forbush’s self-proclaimed…

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"After You Die"

By Ramin Nazer

Ramin Nazer is a prolific artist of many mediums — he’s a writer and illustrator, stand up comedian and host of The Rain…

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Cover of book by Rumi

"Rumi: Tales of The Spirit, A Journey to Healing the Heart"

By Kamla K. Kapur

Before reading Kamla K. Kapur’s book, “Rumi: Tales of the Spirit, A Journey to Healing the Heart,” I had only been famil…

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"The Little Book of Mindfulness"

By Tiddy Rowan

“The Little Book of Mindfulness,” edited by Tiddy Rowan, provides exactly what its title offers. It’s a pocket-sized, 18…

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Adult Coloring Books

By Dr. Stan Rodski

The holidays are here, and it can be stressful to select just the right gift for a friend or family member who is grievi…

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"Gulf Coast Highway"

By James Hooker and Nanci Griffith

More than 30 years ago, James Hooker wrote the music to “Gulf Coast Highway” for Nanci Griffith. Once he had written and…

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“When You Die You Will Not Be Scared to Die”

By Lindsay Tunkl

“When you die you will not be scared to die,” by author and artist Lindsay Tunkl is a book that gets you thinking about …

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"The Five Invitations"

By Frank Ostaseski

“The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully” is a complex, thought provoking and thoro…

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"The Blue Day Book"

By Bradley Trevor Greive

A number of years ago, I was going through a particularly rough patch in my life. I had been diagnosed a few years earli…

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"Keep Calm and Color On"

By Katie Martin

I realize that “Keep Calm and Color On: The Coloring Book for Your Inner Creative” is not a book that qualifies as actua…

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"Die Wise"

By Stephen Jenkinson

You and I will die. This is a given, entirely proper…. But the manner of our dying is not a given. That, with deep lab…

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"1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die"

By Stephen Farthing

A friend once said to me “competitions are only as good as the judges,” and so it goes that a book on 1001 Paintings You…

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"Japanese Death Poems"

By Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of Death

Not only are they the shortest poems known to mankind, haiku unfailingly evoke breathtaking images of man in relationshi…

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The Machine of Death

By Ryan North

This book is the result of a writing challenge based around a hypothetical situation that was created by the famous webc…

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"Love Each Day: Live Each Day so You Would Want to Live It Again"

By Gail Bernice Holland

Love Each Day is a novel of assorted candies that gives us insight into what a well-lived day can look like for a wide r…

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"The Last Man"

By Mary Shelley

Known widely as the author of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley horrified us with her notorious monster brought to life with mo…

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"Frankenstein"

By Mary Shelley

Upon my rereading of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, not so pleasant memories of cramming in-depth analyses of and composi…

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“Veronika Decides to Die”

By Paulo Coelho

As a fan of Paulo Coelho’s much-celebrated and classic book, The Alchemist, I stumbled upon Veronika Decides to Die at a…

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"The Five People You Meet in Heaven"

By Mitch Albom

Mitch Albom’s The Five People You Meet in Heaven reverses its order by starting with his protagonist’s (an elderly man) …

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"A Year to Live"

By Stephen Levine

As the author and his wife face serious illness that has them quite possibly approaching the end-of-life, I picked up a …

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"The Book of Awakening"

By Mark Nepo

I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that, here at SevenPonds, we’ve talked several times before about accepting our deaths an…

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"What Now?"

By Ann Patchett

As spring approaches, and with it, graduations across the country, I like to find the time to reflect on Ann Patchett’s …

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"All for Now"

By Joseph Di Prisco

Brother Stephen dies suddenly. That’s when matters get more complicated.

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"God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian"

By Kurt Vonnegut

In God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian, a short collection of fictional interviews in novella form, Vonnegut’s signature mix of…

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“Go Like This”

By Lorrie Moore

I’ve written a lot on older literature, poems and stories from centuries ago, and because of this, I’ve decided to write…

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"Spectacle"

By David Rockwell

The San Francisco journalist Zahid Sadar and I are at a bar in Glen Park. We’re discussing death when Zahid mentions a b…

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"Pleasure Healing: The Hand-Sized Guide to Self-Healing"

By Mary Beth Janssen

During a recent visit to the Kabuki Gardens of San Francisco’s Japantown (where I’d stopped in for a Swedish massage), I…

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