Newsletters

Engaging Sources of End-of-Life Information

Exploring advance planning and other issues surrounding life’s end gets easier all the time with the growing abundance of books, films, websites and other tools that address these topics.

Aug 19, 2021

• Cake — One of the largest end-of-life planning websites, it offers tools for estate planning, healthcare decision making, aging parents and coping with grief and loss. 
• City of Hope, End of Life Symposium Webinar Series — A collaborative effort between Compassion & Choices and the City of Hope, the series centers on the humanities & arts, clinical aspects of end of life and medical aid in dying. 
• RoundGlass, End of Life Collective — A free online community, with a curation of articles and videos, to help you through life’s most vulnerable times, 
• Funeralwise — A comprehensive planning guide for these meaningful and too often hurried events.
• Grief Kit — Here you can order a care package for someone experiencing a loss or responsible for caring for those in transition and their families. It is the project of funeral director and Compassion & Choices African American Leadership Council member, Joel Simone Anthony. 
• Lantern — This valuable tool allows you to upload your documents so you and others have ready access to them, wherever you may be. Streamlined resources are free of charge, while a monthly unlocks more features. 
• What's Your Grief — An online community for connection, support and sharing resources for those grieving a loss.

• A Death Lived, by Martha Calihan, MD  —  Through her dual vantage points of wife and physician, Dr. Calihan takes us on the journey of her husband's final illness and death.
• A Dignified Ending: Taking Control Over How We Die , by Lewis M. Cohen, MD — A comprehensive history of the right to die movement in the USA.
• The Art of Dying Well: A Practical Guide to a Good End of Life , by Katie Butler — A practical guide to learning how to thrive in later life, how to get the best from our health system, and how to make your own "good death" more likely.
• Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss and the Heartbreaking Path of Grief, by Joann Cacciatore Ph.D. — Through moving accounts of her own encounters with grief and loss, the author opens a space to process and honor yours.
• Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End, by Atul Gawande — A book about mortality, what it's like to grow old and die, how medicine has changed its approach to this universal passage (and how it hasn’t), and where our ideas about death have gone wrong. 
• A Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death, by BJ Miller, MD and Shoshana Berger — A comprehensive guide to dying, including step-by-step instruc­tions for doing paper­work and navigating the health­care sys­tem.
• Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir, by Roz Chast — In this New York Times Best Seller, New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast brings her signature wit to the topic of aging parents.
• Chasing Life: The Remarkable True Story of Love, Joy and Achievement Against All Odds , by Robert Pardi and Phyllis Melhado — Beautifully describes how Rob’s wife, a palliative care physician, took an unconventional journey with cancer. With reviews by board member Csaba Mera and myself.
• Choosing to Die: A Personal Story, by Phyllis Shacter — This is perhaps the first personal story ever written about the choice and experience of voluntarily stopping eating and drinking.
• Cruel Death, Heartless Aftermath. My Family's End of Life Nightmare and How to Avoid It , by Barbara Mancini — Falsely charged with trying to assist her father in a supposed suicide attempt, Barbara fought back with support from Compassion & Choices. Her experience was so compelling and horrifying it was featured on 60 Minutes.
• The Death Doula’s Guide to Living Fully and Dying Prepared, by Francesca Lynn Arnoldy -- If you are preparing for the end of life—or simply looking to bring more meaning to the here and now—The Death Doula’s Guide to Living Fully and Dying Prepared imparts valuable insight to nurture clarity and your internal strength on your journey. Infused with essential doula approaches, this workbook is a first-of-its-kind publication that invites you to process your life and legacy, create remembrance projects, build connections to vital supports, and draft informative wishes and plans for your last chapter.
• Death Without Denial, Grief Without Apology: A Guide for Facing Death and Loss , by Barbara K. Roberts — The former Oregon Governor, whose husband died from lung cancer, looks at the personal and societal issues surrounding death and grief.
• The Divine Art of Dying: How to Live Well While Dying, by Karen Speerstra and Herbert Anderson — Combining personal stories with solid research on palliative and hospice care, this book explores the unique moment when seriously ill people choose to turn toward death. 
• Eldercare as Art and Ministry by Irene V. Jackson-Brown, follows the author’s personal journey as she struggles to navigate the landmine of options, bureaucracies, and myriad challenges she faces in the care of both parents. Beautifully written, authoritative, compassionate and with practical advice and references, this slim guide is indispensable. (Multi-reader online reviews)
• Extreme Measures: Finding a Better Path to the End of Life , by Jessica Nutik Zitter, MD — Charts Zitter's journey to being a doctor who prioritizes the patient's values and preferences in an environment where the default choice is the extreme use of technology.
• Falling Out of Grace: Meditations on Loss, Healing and Wisdom, by Sobonfu Somé — An African spiritual teacher, whose message is drawn from ancient teachings of her village and her experiences in the West, invites readers to discover a path to healing and rebirth. 
• Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs and Communication of the Dying , by Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley — The authors, who are hospice nurses, share their intimate experiences with patients at the end of life, drawn from more than twenty years' experience tending the terminally ill. 
• Grieving Us: A Field Guide for Living With Loss Without Losing Yourself , by Kimberley Pittman-Schulz — Through storytelling and simple practices, find new ways to hold onto a loved one while living with their loss. 
• Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death, by Katy Butler — Based on a New York Times Magazine story, award-winning journalist Katy Butler ponders her parents’ desires for “Good Deaths” and the forces within medicine that stood in the way.
• Last Wish , by Betty Rollin — Written by an award-winning journalist and acclaimed author, this groundbreaking and timeless New York Times bestseller is an intimate, fiercely honest memoir of a daughter's struggle to come to terms with her terminally ill mother's decision to die.The PublicAffairs paperback edition includes a new foreword, questions for thought and discussion, and a helpful resource guide.
• Modern Death: How Medicine Changed the End of Life, by Haider Warraich, MD — A former Compassion & Choices board member, Dr. Warraich takes a broader look at how we die today, from the cellular level up to the very definition of death itself.
• On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief through the Five Stages of Loss , by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, MD and David Kessler — With a forward by Maria Shriver, combines practical wisdom, case studies and the authors' own experiences and spiritual insight to explain how the process of grieving helps us live with loss.
• On My Own, by Diane Rehm — Renowned radio host and author, Diane Rehm speaks about the death of her husband, who after nine years of living with Parkinson’s disease, made the difficult choice to end his life by refusing to eat, drink or accept medications.
• Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking , by Timothy E. Quill, Paul T. Menzel, Thaddeus Pope and Judith Schwarz — Describes the practice and explores the clinical, ethical, legal and policy questions that arise from the option. 
• When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalinithi — In this memoir, an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question, What makes a life worth living?
  

• A Dignified Ending: Taking Control Over How We Die, by Lewis M. Cohen, MD — A comprehensive history of the right to die movement in the USA.
• The Art of Dying Well: A Practical Guide to a Good End of Life , by Katie Butler — A practical guide to learning how to thrive in later life, how to get the best from our health system, and how to make your own "good death" more likely.
• Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss and the Heartbreaking Path of Grief, by Joann Cacciatore Ph.D. — Through moving accounts of her own encounters with grief and loss, the author opens a space to process and honor yours.
• Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End, by Atul Gawande — A book about mortality, what it's like to grow old and die, how medicine has changed its approach to this universal passage (and how it hasn’t), and where our ideas about death have gone wrong. 
• A Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death, by BJ Miller, MD and Shoshana Berger — A comprehensive guide to dying, including step-by-step instruc­tions for doing paper­work and navigating the health­care sys­tem.
• Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir, by Roz Chast — In this New York Times Best Seller, New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast brings her signature wit to the topic of aging parents.
• Chasing Life: The Remarkable True Story of Love, Joy and Achievement Against All Odds , by Robert Pardi and Phyllis Melhado — Beautifully describes how Rob’s wife, a palliative care physician, took an unconventional journey with cancer. With reviews by board member Csaba Mera and myself.
• Choosing to Die: A Personal Story, by Phyllis Shacter — This is perhaps the first personal story ever written about the choice and experience of voluntarily stopping eating and drinking.
• Cruel Death, Heartless Aftermath. My Family's End of Life Nightmare and How to Avoid It, by Barbara Mancini — Falsely charged with trying to assist her father in a supposed suicide attempt, Barbara fought back with support from Compassion & Choices. Her experience was so compelling and horrifying it was featured on 60 Minutes.
• Death Without Denial, Grief Without Apology: A Guide for Facing Death and Loss , by Barbara K. Roberts — The former Oregon Governor, whose husband died from lung cancer, looks at the personal and societal issues surrounding death and grief.
• The Divine Art of Dying: How to Live Well While Dying, by Karen Speerstra and Herbert Anderson — Combining personal stories with solid research on palliative and hospice care, this book explores the unique moment when seriously ill people choose to turn toward death. 
• Extreme Measures: Finding a Better Path to the End of Life , by Jessica Nutik Zitter, MD — Charts Zitter's journey to being a doctor who prioritizes the patient's values and preferences in an environment where the default choice is the extreme use of technology.
• Falling Out of Grace: Meditations on Loss, Healing and Wisdom , by Sobonfu Somé — An African spiritual teacher, whose message is drawn from ancient teachings of her village and her experiences in the West, invites readers to discover a path to healing and rebirth. 
• Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs and Communication of the Dying , by Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley — The authors, who are hospice nurses, share their intimate experiences with patients at the end of life, drawn from more than twenty years' experience tending the terminally ill. 
• Grieving Us: A Field Guide for Living With Loss Without Losing Yourself , by Kimberley Pittman-Schulz — Through storytelling and simple practices, find new ways to hold onto a loved one while living with their loss. 
• Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death , by Katy Butler — Based on a New York Times Magazine story, award-winning journalist Katy Butler ponders her parents’ desires for “Good Deaths” and the forces within medicine that stood in the way.
• Last Wish , by Betty Rollin — Written by an award-winning journalist and acclaimed author, this groundbreaking and timeless New York Times bestseller is an intimate, fiercely honest memoir of a daughter's struggle to come to terms with her terminally ill mother's decision to die.The PublicAffairs paperback edition includes a new foreword, questions for thought and discussion, and a helpful resource guide.
• Modern Death: How Medicine Changed the End of Life, by Haider Warraich, MD — A former Compassion & Choices board member, Dr. Warraich takes a broader look at how we die today, from the cellular level up to the very definition of death itself.
• On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief through the Five Stages of Loss , by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, MD and David Kessler — With a forward by Maria Shriver, combines practical wisdom, case studies and the authors' own experiences and spiritual insight to explain how the process of grieving helps us live with loss.
• On My Own, by Diane Rehm — Renowned radio host and author, Diane Rehm speaks about the death of her husband, who after nine years of living with Parkinson’s disease, made the difficult choice to end his life by refusing to eat, drink or accept medications.
• Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking , by Timothy E. Quill, Paul T. Menzel, Thaddeus Pope and Judith Schwarz — Describes the practice and explores the clinical, ethical, legal and policy questions that arise from the option.
• When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalinithi — In this memoir, an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question, What makes a life worth living?