When Life is Not Peachy by Pip Lincolne

$37.00 NZD

Category: Happiness

An exquisitely illustrated, gentle guide to navigating tough times that makes the ideal gift for a friend in need. A warm hug in book form. 'Warm, wise and brilliantly practical. Pip Lincolne is exactly the woman you want in your corner when your chips are down.' - Clare Bowditch When life has taken a difficult turn, our heart is aching and we're only just holding it together, it's easy to question everything. Who even am I, and how will I keep going? We need someone in our corner to travel this journey with us and help keep our spirits up. This book is a gentle guide for navigating loss, grief or other sad times - a resource both for those who are downhearted and those supporting a loved one. With thoughtful advice on dealing with friends and family; healthy tips for eating and exercise when you don't feel like it; and a just-keep-yourself-going '101' for when you're feeling very low. It's the bolstering force we need to feel a bit closer to ourselves, or find a bit of peace. For years Pip Lincolne has had a dedicated readership through her blog Meet Me At Mike's and frankie magazine. She wrote this book during some tough times of her own, in the hope that what she learned might help someone else feel a little better some day. ...Show more

Safe Passage: Words to Help the Grieving by Molly Fumia

$41.00 NZD

Category: Grief & Loss

The loss of a loved one is one of the most traumatic experiences we will ever face. This wise and profound book of reflections for the grieving offers a compassionate companion for those who have lost a loved one. Each page offers new words for contemplation, and the book can be read cover to cover or p ages chosen at random to find inspiration to make it through another day. Safe Passage guides the reader through the grief process--from the blackest night to the slow, gentle dawn of acceptance, unexpected wisdom, and new possibilities. This is the ideal gift for those coping with bereavement. ...Show more

Beginner's Guide to the End by B. J. Miller & Shoshana Berger

$38.00 NZD

Category: Grief & Loss

"I wish I'd had this book when I needed it. Death and dying are not subjects that many people are comfortable talking about, but it's hugely important to be as prepared as you can be - emotionally, physically, practically, financially, and spiritually. This book may be the most important guide you could have." - Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love ___________ The end of a life can often feel like a traumatic, chaotic and inhuman experience. In this reassuring and inspiring book, palliative care physician Dr BJ Miller and writer Shoshana Berger provide a vision for rethinking and navigating this universal process. There are plenty of self-help books for mourners, but nothing in the way of a modern, approachable and above all useful field guide for the living. And all of us - young, old, sick and well - could use the help. After all, pregnant couples have ample resources available to them as they prepare to bring a new life into the world: Lamaze courses, elaborate birth plans, tons of manuals. Why don't we have a What to Expect When You're Expecting to Die book? An accessible, beautifully designed and illustrated companion, A Beginner's Guide to the End offers a clear-eyed and compassionate survey of the most pressing issues that come up when one is dying, and will bring optimism and practical guidance to empower readers with the knowledge, resources and tools they'll need to die better, maybe even with triumph. ...Show more

Let's Talk about Death (over Dinner) - The Essential Guide to Life S Most Important Conversation by Michael Hebb

$28.00 NZD

Category: Grief & Loss

For readers of Being Mortal and When Breath Becomes Air, the acclaimed co-founder of Death over Dinner offers a practical, inspiring guide to life's most difficult yet important conversation Of the many critical conversations we will all have throughout our lifetime, few are as important as the ones di scussing death - and not just the practical considerations, such as DNRs and wills, but what we fear, what we hope, and how we want to be remembered. Yet few of these conversations are actually happening. Inspired by his experience with his own father and countless stories from others who regret not having these conversations, Michael Hebb cofounded Death Over Dinner - an organization that encourages people to pull up a chair, break bread, and really talk about the one thing we all have in common. Death Over Dinner has been one of the most effective end-of-life awareness campaigns to date; in just three years, it has provided the framework and inspiration for more than a hundred thousand dinners focused on having these end-of-life conversations. As Arianna Huffington said, 'We are such a fast-food culture, I love the idea of making the dinner last for hours. These are the conversations that will help us to evolve.' Let's Talk About Death (over Dinner) offers keen practical advice on how to have these same conversations - not just at the dinner table, but anywhere. There's no one right way to talk about death, but Hebb shares time- and dinner-tested prompts to use as conversation starters, ranging from the spiritual to the practical, from analytical to downright funny and surprising. By transforming the most difficult conversations into an opportunity, they become celebratory and meaningful - ways that not only can change the way we die, but the way we live. ...Show more

Losing a Parent - Coming Through a Special Loss by Fiona Marshall

$30.00 NZD

Category: Grief & Loss | Series: Overcoming Common Problems Ser.

  The death of a parent brings a special kind of grief. When a parent dies, we lose a unique connection with our roots, our past, our identity and our childhood - and we are forced to confront our own mortality. Often the practicalities of bereavement take over, leaving us unable to focus on the comple x realities of this loss, or platitudes and easy answers are proferred, distracting us from the grieving process. The work of grief, in fact, can take years and may change our view of life profoundly.   Losing a Parent looks at how we may find meaning in what has happened. It covers both terminal illness and sudden death, helps you to navigate feelings of abandonment, and to understand the new family dynamics after loss. It will show you how, where and when to seek further support and offer you the reassurance you need to actually get on with your life after this difficult and painful time. ...Show more

Grieving Mindfully by Sameet M. Kumar

$40.00 NZD

Category: Grief & Loss

Many people who suffer the death of a loved one cling to the experience of grief long after the actual pain of loss goes away. This is because grief itself is a complex issue, fraught with misinformation and unrealistic expectations, often leading to interpersonal isolation at the times people need conn ection the most. Ironically, it is often by embracing the experience of grief that people become most fully mindful of life. Grieving readers will find, in this book, a new understanding of their own grief process. They will learn about the spiral staircase, a metaphor used to describe the ebb and flow of emotional pain that typically follow loss. The book offers readers ways to cope with the events and situations that trigger personal grief by using mindfulness exercises and radical acceptance, a concept that encourages the experience of grief rather than its denial. Ultimately, the book presents strategies for making life more meaningful by acknowledging death and working to embrace life. ...Show more

Loss Adjustment by Linda Collins

$40.00 NZD

Category: Grief & Loss

Linda Collins gets up on a Monday morning, dresses for work, makes coffee and goes into her daughter Victoria’s bedroom. Why hasn’t Vicky got up yet? It’s an important day: the start of the second term of her final year at school. Today she will hear her latest exam results. The bedroom is empty. So beg ins every parent’s worst nightmare. Collins, a New Zealand journalist based in Singapore, writes with startling candour about her daughter’s suicide: the secrets she kept from her parents, the revelations in the personal journals she left behind, and the struggle of Collins and Malcolm McLeod, Victoria’s father, to find answers in the midst of enormous grief. How, they ask themselves, could they have missed the signs? What did the counsellors at Victoria’s school know about her state of mind? Did her school friends have any idea how desperate she was? And above all, why would a beautiful, talented, much loved young woman take her own life? Loss Adjustment is a wake-up call. New Zealand has the highest suicide rate for teenagers among the world’s wealthy developed countries. Most of those who kill themselves are, like Victoria McLeod, aged 15 to 19. Linda Collins examines the tragedy of teenage suicide from her profoundly personal viewpoint, while Victoria’s journals, uncovered after her death, give an incredibly valuable insight into the unseen stresses and anxieties suffered by many teenagers.  ...Show more

Dark Interval by Rainer Maria Rilke; Ulrich Baer (Translator)

$30.00 NZD

Category: Grief & Loss

From the writer of the classic Letters to a Young Poet, reflections on grief and loss, collected and published here in one volume for the first time.   "A great poet's reflections on our greatest mystery."--Billy Collins   Gleaned from Rainer Maria Rilke's voluminous, never-before-translated letters to bereaved friends and acquaintances, The Dark Interval is a profound vision of the mourning process and a meditation on death's place in our lives. Following the format of Letters to a Young Poet, this book arranges Rilke's letters into an uninterrupted sequence, showcasing the full range of the great author's thoughts on death and dying, as well as his sensitive and moving expressions of consolation and condolence.   Presented with care and authority by master translator Ulrich Baer, The Dark Interval is a literary treasure, an indispensable resource for anyone searching for solace, comfort, and meaning in a time of grief.Praise for The Dark Interval   "Even though each of these letters of condolence is personalized with intimate detail, together they hammer home Rilke's remarkable truth about the death of another: that the pain of it can force us into a 'deeper . . . level of life' and render us more 'vibrant.' Here we have a great poet's reflections on our greatest mystery."--Billy Collins "As we live our lives, it is possible to feel not sadness or melancholy but a rush of power as the life of others passes into us. This rhapsodic volume teaches us that death is not a negation but a deepening experience in the onslaught of existence. What a wise and victorious book "--Henri Cole ...Show more

Way Through the Woods by Long Litt Woon

$40.00 NZD

Category: Grief & Loss

A grieving widow discovers a most unexpected form of healing - hunting for mushrooms. Long Litt Woon met Eiolf a month after arriving in Norway from Malaysia as an exchange student. They fell in love, married, and settled into domestic bliss. Then Eiolf's unexpected death at fifty-four left Woon strugg ling to imagine a life without the man who had been her partner and anchor for thirty-two years. Adrift in grief, she signed up for a beginner's course on mushrooming--a course the two of them had planned to take together--and found, to her surprise, that the pursuit of mushrooms rekindled her zest for life. The Way Through the Woods tells the story of parallel journeys: an inner one, through the landscape of mourning, and an outer one, into the fascinating realm of mushrooms--resilient, adaptable, and essential to nature's cycle of death and rebirth. From idyllic Norwegian forests and urban flower beds to the sandy beaches of Corsica and New York's Central Park, Woon uncovers an abundance of surprises often hidden in plain sight: salmon-pink Bloody Milk Caps, which ooze red liquid when cut; delectable morels, prized for their earthy yet delicate flavor; and bioluminescent mushrooms that light up the forest at night. Along the way, she discovers the warm fellowship of other mushroom obsessives, and finds that giving her full attention to the natural world transforms her, opening a way for her to survive Eiolf's death, to see herself anew, and to reengage with life. ...Show more

All That Remains - A Life in Death by Sue Black

$28.00 NZD

Category: Grief & Loss

For fans of Caitlin Doughty, Mary Roach, and CSI shows, a renowned forensic scientist on death and mortality. Dame Sue Black is an internationally renowned forensic anthropologist and human anatomist. She has lived her life eye to eye with the Grim Reaper, and she writes vividly about it in this book, which is part primer on the basics of identifying human remains, part frank memoir of a woman whose first paying job as a schoolgirl was to apprentice in a butcher shop, and part no-nonsense but deeply humane introduction to the reality of death in our lives. It is a treat for CSI junkies, murder mystery and thriller readers, and anyone seeking a clear-eyed guide to a subject that touches us all. Cutting through hype, romanticism, and cliché, she recounts her first dissection; her own first acquaintance with a loved one’s death; the mortal remains in her lab and at burial sites as well as scenes of violence, murder, and criminal dismemberment; and about investigating mass fatalities due to war, accident, or natural disaster, such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. She uses key cases to reveal how forensic science has developed and what her work has taught her about human nature. Acclaimed by bestselling crime writers and fellow scientists alike, All That Remains is neither sad nor macabre. While Professor Black tells of tragedy, she also infuses her stories with a wicked sense of humor and much common sense. ...Show more

The Boy and the Gorilla by Jackie Azúa Kramer

$25.00 NZD

$30.00 (16% off)

Category: Grief & Loss

This profoundly moving tale about a grieving boy and an imaginary gorilla makes real the power of talking about loss. On the day of his mother's funeral, a young boy conjures the very visitor he needs to see: a gorilla. Wise and gentle, the gorilla stays on to answer the heart-heavy questions the boy he sitates to ask his father: Where did his mother go? Will she come back home? Will we all die? Yet with the gorilla's friendship, the boy slowly begins to discover moments of comfort in tending flowers, playing catch, and climbing trees. Most of all, the gorilla knows that it helps to simply talk about the loss-especially with those who share your grief and who may feel alone, too. Author Jackie Azúa Kramer's quietly thoughtful text and illustrator Cindy Derby's beautiful impressionistic artwork depict how this tender relationship leads the boy to open up to his father and find a path forward. Told entirely in dialogue, this direct and deeply affecting picture book will inspire conversations about grief, empathy, and healing beyond the final hope-filled scene. ...Show more

Grief on the Run by Julie Zarifeh

$37.00 NZD

Category: Grief & Loss

Julie Zarifeh shares the tragic story of losing her 27-year-old son, Sam, in a whitewater rafting accident just sixteen days after her 60-year-old husband, Paul, died of pancreatic cancer. She describes how she and her surviving son and daughter dealt with this double whammy and how she embraced the not ion of 'active grieving'. This included a 450-kilometre cycle tour around Sri Lanka, raising money to give disadvantaged Kiwi children new bikes; trekking the 800-kilometre Camino de Santiago; and running the New York marathon on behalf of the Mental Health Foundation. Julie's account of learning to live with grief, plus her experience as a clinical psychologist, make this an inspirational and ultimately uplifting read. ...Show more