Highly reviewed grief books

The human heart has an infinite capacity to care and love. But it’s sadly connected to a capacity to easily experience pain. It’s hard to overcome this kind of suffering. So in the face of this, it may feel much more difficult to continue to love. Sharing his own personal pain tale, pastor and bestselling New York Times writer Jentezen Franklin teaches us how to seek the energy, and courage to set away the hurt, treat people as God sees them, and reach out in compassion. He addresses various forms of emotional frustration and pulse through biblical and modern-day narratives, and asks questions like Why should I trust again? The same walls that block us from finding light, experiencing redemption, and love are the walls that we build around our hearts to cut ourselves off from suffering. In this book are the tools that you need to break down this walls, work through your pain, fix broken relationships, and continue to experience love like you were never hurt.

Gary Roe, the award-winning, bestselling author, hospice chaplain, and grief counselor, gives you an glimpse into the grieving. When you want to comfort someone who is grieving, you’ll have an insight into what’s going on inside them and feel more able to care and encourage them. When you’re in the middle of suffering, you’re going to find yourself learning and be motivated not to be as strange and insane as you figured. This book will help you get an important ability : how to listen and understand someone who suffers.

After his mother passed away, 11-year-old Marcus is sent to live with his great aunt, an artist with a troubled history. Marcus hears about what the islanders call the “Grief Cottage”, where fifty years ago, during a storm, a child and his family vanished. Their remains have not been identified, and since then the cottage has been empty. Marcus visits the cottage everyday during his solitary hours, working up his confidence, till the boy’s ghost who died appears to show himself. He courts the ghost boy, full of excitement and open to the unknown and mysterious despite the recent upsurge in his existence, not knowing if the ghost is friend or fiend. Grief Cottage is the best kind of ghost story, but on top of it, it investigates grief, regrets and the thoughts that torment us.

Most of us are having a tough time speaking about death or expressing our sorrow. Rebecca Soffer and Gabrielle Birkner, created Modern Loss, both having lost parents as young adults, leading to a desire to shift the conversation surrounding the chaotic nature of grief. This insightful and sometimes amusing book help us weep, chuckle, grieve, recognize, and empathize. Soffer and Birkner share their own stories on a range of subjects, including causes, sexuality, familiy, etc. Accompanied by exquisite hand-drawn drawings with a pinch of humor, each essay offers a different view on loss as well as a cheerful message. Modern Loss encourages us to speak about grief.

In a horrific street storm, twelve-year-old Jack is washed away on an normal September day. The horrible questions posed for his family and younger sister: How can God let it happen? They all collapse in different forms into the pit of grief. So they have to make a path to reconciliation in the near future. Anna Whiston-Donaldson reveals a tragic story of a parent in Rare Bird that leads, slowly, to lasting optimism. According to Glennon Doyle Melton, Anna’s writing is raw and honest, passionate and amusing. It’s about the flicker of hope when you know that God is closer to your own skin in moments of heartbreak.