Showing titles in Death & Dying

This gripping narrative explores today's scientific pursuit of immortality, with exclusive visits inside Silicon Valley labs and interviews with the visionaries who believe we will soon crack into the aging process and cure death. We live in an age when billionaires are betting their fortunes on laboratory advances to prove aging unnecessary and death a disease that can be cured.

The night before her father dies, 18-year-old Jeannie Vanasco promises she will write a book for him. But this isn't the book she imagined. The Glass Eye is Jeannie's struggle to honor her father, her larger-than-life hero but also the man who named her after his daughter from a previous marriage, a daughter who died. After his funeral, Jeannie spends the next decade in escalating mania, in and out of hospitals - increasingly obsessed with the other Jeanne. Obsession turns to investigation as Jeannie hunts for clues into the mysterious circumstances of her death.

Texas businessman Mike Fechner had it all. Money. Investments. Prestige. Until he did the unthinkable. He sold his company and poured his life's earnings into a ministry for the poor. With a strong faith in God at his core, this millionaire turned missionary envisioned a long future serving the urban Dallas poor and the people of poverty-stricken Africa.

Six marriages, six heartbreaks, one shared beginning. In her forties – a widow, too young, too modern to accept the role – Becky Aikman struggled to make sense of her place in an altered world. In this transcendent and infectiously wise memoir, she explores surprising new discoveries about...

“A brave and illuminating journey inside the mind, heart, and life of a person with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.”—Lisa Genova, author of Still Alice Wendy Mitchell had a busy job with the British National Health Service, raised her two daughters alone, and spent her weekends running...

The loss of a child is the most devastating event a parent can face. Sharing her experience about the loss of a desperately loved daughter, and the effects that go beyond what people could ever imagine, Liza Jankowski explores her deepest thoughts and feelings surrounding stillbirth in this moving memoir. As she discusses the impact on her relationships, her subsequent pregnancy and what she ultimately learned, "Changed" weaves a powerful combination of a mother's personal journey with helpful information to offer comfort, hope and understanding.

Honor your loved ones and the earth by choosing practical, spiritual, and eco-friendly after-death care Natural, legal, and innovative after-death care options are transforming the paradigm of the existing funeral industry, helping families and communities recover their instinctive capacity to...

His routine was the same every day for 38 years...until March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic shut hospital surgeries all over the world.. Craig Smith, M.D., Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, went from performing heart surgeries on patients both everyday and celebrated to sitting in his tomb-quiet office looking out at George Washington Bridge. And he started to write. His COVID emails were balm to the staffers and later became celebrated for Dr. Smith’s care and thought in his assessment of the work of the hospital–of any hospital.

Why do we embalm the deceased? Why are funerals so expensive? Is there a reason coffins are shaped the way they are? Where does the tradition of viewing the body come from? Ceremonies for honoring the deceased are crucial parts of our lives, but few people know where our traditional practices come from—and what they reveal about our history, culture, and beliefs about death. In Last Rites, author Todd Harra takes listeners on a fascinating exploration of American funeral customs—exploring where they came from, what they mean, and how they are still evolving. 

All of us fear death at some level - both our own and the death of those we love. Religion and politics exploit that fear. There are better and more credible ways to confront the anxiety that death causes and even find hope. This audiobook will help you do that. Drawing from science, philosophy, psychology, psychic phenomena, history, and various spiritual traditions, the listener will discover a balanced approach to death that takes into account all the possibilities.

A moving reflection on a subject that touches us all, by the best-selling author of Claire of the Sea Light. Edwidge Danticat's The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story is at once a personal account of her mother dying from cancer and a deeply considered reckoning with the ways that other writers have approached death in their own work. A moving tribute and a work of astute criticism, The Art of Death is an audiobook that will profoundly alter all who encounter it.

A groundbreaking exploration of grief and racial trauma through the eyes of a Black end-of-life caregiver. Most of us understand grief as sorrow experienced after a loss--the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, or a change in life circumstance. Breeshia Wade approaches grief as...

On Not Dying is an anthropological, historical, and philosophical exploration of immortality as a secular and scientific category. Based on an ethnography of immortalist communities - those who believe humans can extend their personal existence indefinitely through technological means - and an examination of other institutions involved at the end of life, Abou Farman argues that secular immortalism is an important site to explore the tensions inherent in secularism.

In this unique and thoughtful collection, a young funeral director—also known as “the internet’s favorite mortician” (CNBC)—explores various aspects of death, offering heartfelt and practical insights into how we determine what matters most while we are alive. This evocative book is...

Winner of the Women’s Prize for Nonfiction | Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize An unforgettable and inspiring true story of how one family’s grief transformed into a lifesaving gift—written by a bestselling author and palliative care doctor. The first of our organs to form and the...

Loss is difficult...and universal. What do we say? What do we do? Part how-to guide, part hopeful manifesto, Cultivating the Doula Heart provides a clear framework for supporting those facing hardship, grief, and loss. Succinct and straightforward, this work of heart covers: Components of Doula Care, Aspects of Loss, Ways of Being/Ways of Doing, Grief Support, and Contemplative Exercises.

Mourning: The Day After Loss offers practical advice and insight into the process of coping with grief and bereavement based on extensive experience and research. It leads the listener on a journey through the various stages of bereavement - from the death notification to the formal days of mourning, the burial, and the weeks and months following.

Despite billions of dollars invested in medical research and technological breakthroughs in American healthcare made to prolong and improve the lives of patients, a devastating statistic remains. Two thirds of Americans die in healthcare institutions tethered to machines and tubes at bankrupting costs, despite research that shows 80 percent of Americans would prefer to spend their last days in their homes surrounded by loved ones.

Desde ancestrales ritos mortuorios hasta los juegos de la ouija, la humanidad siempre ha buscado atravesar el velo de lo visible y asomarse a aquello que parece extender la conciencia más allá de la vida. ¿Cómo exploran otras culturas estos conceptos? ¿Cómo lo hacemos nosotros? En este libro, Mado Martínez emprende un viaje por las múltiples formas en las que la humanidad ha intentado comprender -o desafiar- la idea de lo que ocurre en ese territorio que se mueve entre la ciencia, la fe y lo inexplicable.

A vida afinal é uma obra corajosa e comovente que enfrenta as conversas que a maioria evita: aquelas sobre doenças graves, o fim da vida e a morte. Misturando relatos pessoais, reflexões filosóficas, análises jurídicas e médicas, Cynthia Araújo — advogada da União e pesquisadora em Bioética — convida o ouvinte a repensar a forma como lidamos com a finitude, o adoecimento e as decisões que cercam os tratamentos médicos em estágios avançados de câncer.