Grief Biography

We all have hidden prisons—grief, anger, shame, trauma, self-doubt. But these prisons have doors. Drawing from his extraordinary journey from incarceration to New York Times bestselling author, resilience expert, and entrepreneur, Shaka Senghor reveals the mindset and proven practices that transformed his life—and can help anyone achieve their wildest dreams.

Within six months Barbara Schoichet lost everything: her job, her girlfriend of six years, and her mother to pancreatic cancer. Her life stripped bare, and armed with nothing but a death wish and a ton of attitude, Barbara pursues an unlikely method of coping. At the age of 50, she earns her motorcycle license, buys a Harley on eBay from two guys named Dave, and drives it alone from New York to Los Angeles on a circuitous trek loosely guided by her H.O.G. tour book and a whole lot of road whimsy.

Thaïs is almost two. Like most well-loved children, she is happy. She laughs as she runs on the beach. But her footprints in the sand, with toes turned out, tell a different story. Two Small Footprints in Wet Sand relates the overwhelming tragedy experienced by a family as a result of a genetic disorder.

From the debris of her troubled early life, Lidia Yuknavitch weaves an astonishing tale of survival. A kind of memoir that is also a peon to the pursuit of beauty, self-expression, desire - for men and women - and the exhilaration of swimming, The Chronology of Water lays a life bare. It is a life that navigates and transcends abuse, addiction, self-destruction and the crushing loss of a stillborn child. It is the life of a misfit, one that forges a fierce and untrodden path to creativity and comes together in the shape of love.

Reality, as Eileen Robertson Hamra perceived it, was instantly altered the moment authorities confirmed that the plane her husband was piloting had crashed and he had not survived. With her three young children, Eileen entered the desolate world of grief and loss, but where she arrived was nothing short of miraculous. Between the valleys of grief and the peaks of hope, she discovered that keeping promises to the dead is a lifelong act, and honoring one love does not mean forgoing the freedom and joy that is found in reopening your heart.

In the early 1990s, Heather McCalden lost both her parents to AIDS. She was seven when her father died, ten when she lost her mother. Raised by her grandmother, Nivia, she grew up in Los Angeles, also known as ground zero for the virus and its destruction. Years later, she begins researching online the history of HIV as a way to deal with her loss, which leads her to the unexpected realization that the AIDS crisis and the internet developed on parallel timelines.

Laura Trujillo had been close to her mother for most of her adult life, raising her four children within a few miles of their beloved grandmother’s Phoenix home. But just three months after moving her young family to Cincinnati for a new job, Laura receives shocking news: Her mother had taken her own life—by jumping off a ledge into the Grand Canyon, a place Laura knew her mother had always loved.

The powerful testimonies of 11 widows of the Bible are brought to narrative life in lyrical, visceral prose that brings listeners deep inside the women's grief, strength, and faith. Full of both haunting and hope, Not Alone connects Biblical widows' voices in a chorus of commiseration that reminds us what it means to love - and what it means to live with God.

Two years after Marilyn loses her fiancé to cancer, she becomes a Christian and marries Henry, joining him in a worldwide ministry that leaves little time for family or personal reflection. When her old grief resurfaces, she’s shocked by the tsunami that rips through their lives. Intensive counselling fails to bring healing, and when Henry writes a public letter that decimates their churches and spins them out of fellowship—and lifelong employment—she faces an emotional and spiritual reckoning that challenges her to the core.

A 29-year-old son and only child passes. He nudges his mother to open up to spirit so she can build a new relationship with him. Letters to David unlocks a door to spirit and offers hope for parents who have suffered tragic grief. There is an immediacy and accessibility to Claudia and David's relationship that provides laughter, tears, and hope to those grieving what they see as the "end" of a relationship. Enclosed, you will find valuable tools for healing and growth. We don't die, and our loved ones remain with us forever.

What colour is cancer? Why do some people appear to have made miraculous recoveries? How can you tell when someone is in the final hours of their life? How can we ensure our most vulnerable are treated with the dignity they deserve? In this unprecedented memoir, a palliative medicine pioneer explores the biggest taboo in our society and the only certainty we all share: death. Kathryn Mannix immortalises the thousands of men and women she has seen off.

After author Jess Keefe ended things with her long-term boyfriend, she moved in with her brother in hopes that family could help her not only heal from the break-up but also evolve into a healthy adult. But that fantasy ended when Matt’s heroin addiction came roaring back after lying dormant for years, leading to a fatal overdose one October night. Thirty-Thousand Steps is a powerful and transformative memoir that interweaves the author’s obsessive training to becoming a distance runner, along with her focused research into the science of addiction in the shadow of grief.

After losing her 17-year-old daughter in a car accident, Sara began writing. Her words exposed the wounds that only others who experience seismic grief can truly understand. Laying bare the emotional and spiritual sojourn in the days and weeks that followed, she gives listeners a glimpse at the challenges and revelations of a life after tragedy.

It happened out of nowhere. Diana and her high school sweetheart Chad were living an ideal life. They were raising kids, working in public service, travelling, and watching their daughter compete in gymnastics. When everything just changed. Soon, they found themselves embarking on an 18-month battle to save Chad's life after a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer at only 44. Full of hope, they travelled the country searching for treatments and begging some of the best doctors in the world for help. They never gave up, but the monstrous cancer beat them anyway.

On 10th June 2020, the scholar James Nwoye Adichie died suddenly in Nigeria. In this tender and powerful essay, expanded from the original New Yorker text, his daughter, a self-confessed daddy's girl, remembers her beloved father. Notes on Grief is at once a tribute to a long life of grace and wisdom, the story of a daughter's fierce love for a parent and a revealing examination of the layers of loss and the nature of grief.

Winner of the Wellcome Book Prize, and finalist for every major nonfiction award in the UK, including the Samuel Johnson Prize and the Costa Award, The Iceberg is artist and writer Marion Coutts' astonishing memoir; an "adventure of being and dying" and a compelling, poetic meditation on family, love, and language.

In the aftermath of a heartbreaking tragedy, a scholar and writer uses Dante's Divine Comedy to shepherd him through the dark wood of grief and mourning - a rich and emotionally resonant memoir of suffering, hope, love, and the power of literature to inspire and heal the most devastating loss.

Author Joseph Rojas's journey from a life overshadowed by addiction, crime, depression, and thoughts of suicide to becoming a powerful example of hope as a loving husband, father, and lead singer of the Dove award-winning Christian rock band Seventh Day Slumber is nothing short of miraculous. This book is not just Rojas's testimony; it's a roadmap for all who feel weighed down by loneliness, depression, and pain. It speaks directly to the heart with raw honesty and the transformative power of faith, offering not only understanding but also practical steps to break free.

Emergence is defined as the process of coming into view or becoming exposed to something after it being concealed. It is also defined as the process of coming into being, or of becoming important or prominent after being in a place of obscurity.

Marise was nine when she first realised there was trouble, 14 when her dad tried to end it all, and 23 when he finally succeeded. In a turmoil of conflicting emotions, Marise runs - from Dublin to Amsterdam to Los Angeles, leaving a trail of sex and self-destruction in her wake. Until finally, she finds herself facing what she's become in a California psych ward, a girl imploding through trying to make sense of her father's suicide.