Books to Help With Grief: A Trauma Therapist and Author Recommends Good Reads for Grieving

Mar. 15, 2025

A selection of great books about grief.

I grew up in a house filled with books and book-lovers. My father worked as a textbook editor when I was young. His job had one extraordinary perk as far as my five brothers and sisters and I were concerned — the oversized box of children’s books that landed on the door of the yellow farmhouse once a year. Books were transformation, imagination and conduits of truths that, once learned, could change us. They  taught me empathy and the power of witnessing and being witnessed, and I have never missed my parents as much as the day I published my first book.As an author and a trauma therapist specializing in grief and loss, I am often asked what books I recommend to support grievers. I have a ready list of books that people have told me taught them something and helped them to feel less alone in loss.Because reading can be a challenge in the first few months after a loss, I often send a book a few months later with a note that says, “You might like it — you might throw it across the room, but either way, you know I was thinking of you.”  Here are a few of my personal and professional favorites.

I grew up in a house filled with books and book-lovers. My father worked as a textbook editor when I was young. His job had one extraordinary perk as far as my five brothers and sisters and I were concerned — the oversized box of children’s books that landed on the door of the yellow farmhouse once a year. Books were transformation, imagination and conduits of truths that, once learned, could change us. They  taught me empathy and the power of witnessing and being witnessed, and I have never missed my parents as much as the day I published my first book.

As an author and a trauma therapist specializing in grief and loss, I am often asked what books I recommend to support grievers. I have a ready list of books that people have told me taught them something and helped them to feel less alone in loss.

Because reading can be a challenge in the first few months after a loss, I often send a book a few months later with a note that says, “You might like it — you might throw it across the room, but either way, you know I was thinking of you.”  Here are a few of my personal and professional favorites.

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This three-book series focuses on how grieffeels. The illustrations are beautiful, and the exploration of vocabulary will help adults like me put words to their grief experiences as well.

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My 8-year-old son picked this out when we were in the UK (where the title isBigfoot, Tobin & Me) largely because he liked the cover. It centers on 10-year-old Lemonade Liberty Witt, who has just moved to a town she’s never visited to live with a grandfather she’s never met after her mother’s death. We couldn’t put it down. I read this book just after my mother died and wept through every page.

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The authors met in a support group after the deaths of their mothers. This incredible Aussie duo, who co-host apodcast of the same name, tackles every aspect of loss, seeking advice from experts and then breaking complex concepts down into easy-to-understand nuggets to help grievers like me feel seen and understood.

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Sarazin tackles the question of how to grieve people who are still alive but no longer who they once were to us. This book has helped me and countless clients identify and process ambiguous loss.

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This beautiful memoir tells the story of the death of Streeter’s baseball-loving husband Scott, just as they are in the process of adopting their son. The book affirms the many ways to make a family and how those bonds hold us through loss and growth over time.

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Barely an adult herself when both her parents were diagnosed with cancer at the same time, grief expert and clinician Bidwell Smith offers a personal story of grief, accountability and the brutality of what it means to learn to live without your primary support.

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This book had me in tears from the first page. Largely focused on the beautiful life and the tragic death of her daughter Dalilah, Fein describes the importance of support from friends and family and learning to live in the moment.

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This book is my personal favorite because it explains the mechanisms of how grief impacts the brain and, consequentially, the body. I find the information comforting and am so grateful to O’Connor for finding a way to make neuroscience approachable.

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I always keep several copies of this book (and its accompanying workbook) on hand.  Part personal narrative, part guide, this book helps grievers, supporters and those thinking about life’s legacy through the hard questions of how you want to be remembered and what it would take to ensure that outcome.

Can Anyone Tell Me? Essential Questions About Grief and Losscomes out Oct. 29 and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.

source: people.com