Here to Help: Grief and Loss

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

For life’s big and small moments Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh staff have created Here to Help booklists. Here to Help booklists provide information and support in navigating life experiences. Librarians at your neighborhood library are here to help too and can offer suggestions for these or other topics of interest, as well as community information and resources. Through these booklists you can create opportunities to find connection, solace, comfort, or information for action.

The books in this list provide information and resources for adults about grief and loss.

Not every book is available at all locations, but any title can be requested. Feel free to suggest some titles to us. New books are always being added to the collection.

For more resources see the CLP Social Services Guide.

You can sign up for a free library card here.

If you are new to our eResources, check out these tutorial videos on how to get started.

If you’re looking for more book suggestions, we’re happy to recommend them to you! Use this Book Recommendation form to send us some information about what you like to read and we’ll curate a list just for you.

If you have any additional questions, you can contact a librarian through Facebook, Instagram or X. You can also call us at 412-622-3114 or email us at info@carnegielibrary.org

Always a Sibling: the Forgotten Mourner's Guide to Grief

by Annie Sklaver Orenstein

If you are one of the more than four million American adults each year who have lost a sibling, you probably know that there isn’t a modern resource available that speaks directly to this type of grief. In Always a Sibling, Annie Sklaver Orenstein uses her own story and those of other ‘forgotten mourners’ to create the empathic, honest, thoughtful, and practical resource she so desperately needed.

As Long as You Need: Permission to Grieve

by J.S. Park

Veteran hospital chaplain to the sick, dying, and bereaved, J.S. Park offers you both the permission and the process for how to grieve and heal at your own pace.

This title is also available as an eBook or eAudio on Hoopla.

Can Anyone Tell Me?: Essential Questions About Grief and Loss

by Meghan Riordan Jarvis

If you’ve experienced the trauma of loss, you might find yourself struggling with the ‘whys’ of grief. Psychotherapist and grief specialist Meghan Riordan Jarvis shares a research-based resource filled with clinical insights and practical steps toward navigating loss.

This title is also available as an eAudio on Hoopla.

Conscious Grieving: a Transformative Approach to Healing From Loss

by Claire Bidwell Smith

An intimate guide presented as a series of thoughtful, brief vignettes that don’t overwhelm the reader, Conscious Grieving offers a paradigm shift around what grief and loss mean, giving us permission to explore both in new ways—and access profound pathways of healing and transformation.

Feeling Your Way Through Grief: a Companion for Life After Loss

by Missy Buchanan

From the first family holidays and anniversaries to seemingly mundane tasks such as pumping gas and taking out the trash, Missy Buchanan’s tender notes resonate with the shared experiences of grief, offering us a guiding light and true companion for our own unwanted journeys through loss.

This title is also available as an eBook on Hoopla.

Grief Is a Sneaky Bitch: an Uncensored Guide to Navigating Loss

by Lisa Keefauver

Keefauver’s advice is framed around the concept of the 5 Ws of grief: why you are grieving, what type of grief, who is grieving, where grief comes from and where it goes, and when we grieve. Building from her podcast of the same name, Keefauver asserts that we live in a grief-illiterate world and offers her readers “a place, time, and space to be seen, validated, and accompanied in your grief.”

This title is also available as an eAudio on Hoopla.

Grief Is for People

by Sloane Crosley

Disarmingly witty and poignant, Sloane Crosley’s memoir explores multiple kinds of loss following the death of her closest friend.

This title is also available as an eBook or eAudio on Libby and as an eAudio on hoopla.

Healing Wisdom for Pet Loss: an Animal Lover's Guide to Grief

by Anne Marie Farage-Smith

In these pages, licensed mental health counselor Anne Marie Farage-Smith offers detailed explanations of the types of grief that one may encounter upon the loss or impending loss of a pet and provides validation for the emotions experienced in relation to that loss.

This title is also available as an eBook on Hoopla.

How to Grieve What We've Lost: Evidence-based Skills to Process Grief & Reconnect With What Matters

by Russ Harris et al.

Grief is a journey that can lead to powerful, personal growth. With contributions from grief experts Russ Harris, Alexandra Kennedy, Sameet Kumar, Mary Beth Williams, and Soili Poijula, this thoughtful compilation will help you heal the pain of loss—no matter the cause—and move forward in life with a renewed sense of meaning and purpose.

This title is also available as an eBook or eAudio on Hoopla.

Looking Up: a Birder's Guide to Hope Through Grief

by Courtney Ellis

Courtney Ellis weaves together stories from her own life, including the death of her grandfather, with reflections on birds of many kinds.

A Space in the Heart: a Survival Guide for Grieving Parents

by Larry Carlat

A Space in the Heart: A Survival Guide for Grieving Parents expresses the anguish of the death of a child and offers hope for how to survive and thrive in its aftermath. Part memoir, part self-help, zero bullshit, and 100 percent from the heart, it confronts our never-ending love for our children and how that love helps us transform and heal.

What Must Be Carried: Living a Beautiful Life Beyond Loss

by Whitney Lyn Allen Gadecki

About 2.5 million people die in the United States annually, each leaving an average of five grieving people behind. What Must Be Carried provides vital emotional support for the grieving, imparting wisdom from her own experiences with grief and advice on navigating life after a devastating loss.

This title is also available as an eBook on hoopla.