Books About Death and Dying 2020 – May 2022

(Jim Van Buskirk is a former librarian and currently works as a book group facilitator, writer, editor, public speaker, exhibit curator, and collections manager. He frequently presents at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, the San Francisco Public Library, and other locations on topics related to Jewish, film, and/or queer history.  He has been co-hosting Death Cafes since 2015, and volunteers as a Regional Coordinator for FEN.)

Apparently folks found helpful my roundup of nine books published in 2019 dealing with death and dying. Looking at the same topic over the past two years, I have identified ten new titles. As an extra bonus, I have also included three important books published in early 2022, for a baker’s dozen of reading material. As always, if you know of relevant titles, please bring them to my attention.

Dugdale, L. S. The lost art of dying : reviving forgotten wisdom (2020)

A Yale physician’s fascinating and wise exploration of why so many people die poorly and how a medieval bestseller on the art of dying well holds important lessons for today.

Kerr, Christopher. Death is But a Dream: Finding Hope and Meaning at Life’s End (2020)

Drawing on interviews with over 1400 patients and more than a decade of quantified data, this hospice doctor reveals that pre-death dreams and visions are extraordinary occurrences that humanize the dying process.

Rehm, Diane. When My Time Comes : Conversations About Whether Those Who Are Dying Should Have the Right to Determine When Life Should End (2020)

Using interviews with terminally ill patients, and with physicians, ethicists, spouses, relatives, and representatives of those who vigorously oppose the Right to Die movement, the renowned talk show host offers a balanced look at the divisive issue. Soon to be a public television documentary of the same name.

Leder, Steve. The beauty of what remains : how our greatest fear becomes our greatest gift (2021)

The senior rabbi of one of the largest synagogues in the world, who is also  the son of a demanding father, shares  the many ways death teaches us how to live and love more deeply.

Lyons, Anna and Louise Winter. We all know how this ends: Lessons about life and living from working with death and dying (2021)

End-of-life doula Lyons and funeral director Winter share stories of the ordinary and extraordinary lives they encounter and lessons learned about living, dying, love and loss.

Yalom, Irvin D. and Marilyn Yalom. A Matter of Life and Death (2021)

Renowned psychiatrist Irvin Yalom, and his wife, esteemed feminist writer Marilyn Yalom, after her terminal diagnosis [she uses California’s physician-attended death with dignity], reflect on how to love and live without regret. With the wisdom of those who have thought deeply, and the familiar warmth of teenage sweethearts who’ve grown up together, they investigate universal questions of intimacy, love, and grief.

Buchbinder, Mara. Scripting Death: Stories of Assisted Dying in America (2021)

Investigates the issues surrounding medical aid in dying by chronicling two years of ethnographic research documenting the implementation of Vermont’s 2013 Patient Choice and Control at End of Life Act.

Engelhart, Katie. The Inevitable: Dispatches On The Right To Die (2021)

An intimate, incisive, and wide-ranging book about the doctors, patients, and activists at the heart of the Right to Die movement.

Schwarz, Judith and Timothy Quill, Paul T. Menzel and Thaddeus Mason Pope, eds. Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking: A Compassionate, Widely Available Option for Hastening Death (2021)

Designed for members of the medical, nursing, and social work communities, as well as attorneys, educators, ethicists, and members of the lay public – including those wanting to explore a wide range of future end of life options. It addresses the inadequacies of currently available VSED information, provides clinically realistic descriptions and explores clinical, ethical, legal, and institutional benefits and challenges.

Kovacs, Betty J. The Miracle of Death: There Is Nothing But Life (2021)

Claims “that our individual mortality is an illusion, that death and birth are a cycle through which life, the sole reality, continues transformed, but unbroken. And that as more people are turning inward and experiencing the true dimensions of their inner self, a new consciousness is being born on this planet — a consciousness that we are all part of each other and of the cosmos, and that together we can heal the Earth.”

Bloom, Amy. In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss (2022)

This poignant and powerful memoir recounts the author’s journey with her husband, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, to Dignitas in Switzerland.

Green, Stefanie. This Is Assisted Dying: A Doctor’s Story of Empowering Patients at the End of Life (2022)

A transformative and compassionate memoir by a leading pioneer in medically assisted dying who began her career in the maternity ward and now helps patients who are suffering explore and then fulfill their end of life choices in Canada.

Hannig, Anita. The Day I Die: The Untold Story of Assisted Dying in America (2022)

In lucid prose this anthropology professor unpacks the complex and controversial process of medical aid in dying.