Social Science - Death & Dying

An engaging, insightful meditation on death, from one of our leading mindsDeath is ever-present in literature. From Shakespearean tragedies to elegiac poetry, the spectre of human mortality has always haunted writers.In this wide-ranging and personal account, Terry Eagleton examines the ways in which western...

Written by Chris Woodyard, the author of The Victorian Book of the Dead, A is for Arsenic is a guide to the the basics of Victorian mourning and death all illustrated by the incomparable Landis Blair. Each entry includes a pen and ink illustration...

A deeply compelling exploration of the death industry and the people--morticians, detectives, crime scene cleaners, embalmers, executioners--who work in it and what led them there. We are surrounded by death. It is in our news, our nursery rhymes, our true-crime podcasts. Yet from a...

In this thought-provoking memoir, an award-winning journalist explores the chaos, doubt, and search for meaning that come with staying one step ahead of cancer for decades. "An Exercise in Uncertainty has a powerful and restorative story to tell us. Jonathan Gluck's life of illness...

"Mordantly wonderful." -CARL HIAASEN"I almost died laughing." -ROZ CHAST"My own departure would not be so bad if only Mr. Roberts could write the obit!" -KAI BIRD From celebrated New York Times obituarist Sam Roberts, the art of the obit: Who we remember, how we...

A provocative rethinking of the intersection of death, technology, and disability, for a better life. We are all cyborgs, relying on technology--whether it's Alexa, a pacemaker, or a titanium knee--for our quotidian existence. In our deep connection to a technological world, from robots to...

Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, The New York Times Book Review, NPR, and Chicago Tribune, now in paperback with a new reading group guide Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming the dangers of childbirth, injury, and disease...

#1 New York Times Bestseller In Being Mortal, bestselling author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its endingMedicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease...

In Being Mortal, bestselling author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable....

"[Better] is both an act of defiant self-expression--an insistence on vulnerability over shame--and an academic exploration that asks seriously: 'What is making us want to die?'" --Chicago Review of BooksA gutsy, riveting memoir that intimately explores suicide, its legacy in families, and the cyclical,...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A deeply moving memoir of illness and recovery that traces one young woman's journey from diagnosis to remission to re-entry into "normal" life--from the founder of The Isolation Journals and a subject of the Netflix documentary American Symphony ONE...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A deeply moving memoir of illness and recovery that traces one young woman's journey from diagnosis to remission to re-entry into "normal" life--from the founder of The Isolation Journals and a subject of the Netflix documentary American Symphony ONE...

Beyond the Dark Veil: Post Mortem and Mourning Photography from The Thanatos Archive is a compilation of more than 120 extraordinary and haunting photographs and related ephemera documenting the practice of death and mourning photography in the Victorian Era and early twentieth century. Supplemented...

A beautiful and intimate exploration of first and last words--and the many facets of how language begins and ends--from a pioneering language writer. With our earliest utterances, we announce ourselves--and are recognized--as persons ready for social life. With our final ones, we mark where...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - DAVID FAJGENBAUM NAMED TO THE 2025 TIME100 NEXT LIST "An extraordinary memoir that belongs with Atul Gawande's writings and When Breath Becomes Air."--Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals When a young doctor is diagnosed with a rare disease,...

"We are quick to talk about the miracle of life when an infant enters this world. I believe the miracle of death carries the same weight and mystery." -- Theresa EvansAs an ICU nurse, Theresa Evans witnessed death and dying on a regular basis....

"We are quick to talk about the miracle of life when an infant enters this world. I believe the miracle of death carries the same weight and mystery." -- Theresa EvansAs an ICU nurse, Theresa Evans witnessed death and dying on a regular basis....

For healthcare providers, few responsibilities are as challenging-or as meaningful-as guiding patients and families through the end of life. Through the voices of clinicians, chaplains, social workers, and ethicists, Closing the Circle illuminates the essential skills that shape a "good death" honest communication, compassionate...

A moving and remarkable memoir about the sudden death of a daughter, surviving grief, and learning to love again.In 2002, Ann Hood's five-year-old daughter Grace died suddenly from a virulent form of strep throat. Stunned and devastated, the family searched for comfort in a...

"I tremble to say there's good in death, because I've looked in the eyes of the grieving mother and I've seen the heartbreak of the stricken widow, but I've also seen something more in death, something good. Death's hands aren't all bony and cold."--from...