Doka explores a new, compassionate way to grieve as he explains that grief is not an illness to get over but an individual and ongoing journey. He upends the dominant but incorrect view that grief proceeds by stages, and helps us realize that our experiences following a death are far more individual and much less predictable than the conventional "five stages" model would have us believe. Doka also explains how to cope with disenfranchised grief,...

"After the Flowers Die, then what? There's a 100% chance you will lose a loved one. There's a 100% chance you will inherit. Money isn't the only thing. Forbes' magazine states we are living in the greatest wealth transfer in history. Baby Boomers are leaving upwards of $30 trillion in money and assets to its second and third generations (Forbes, 11.11.2019). Estate planning is vital, yet critical elements of post-funeral information are missing. After...

"When Annie Brown, a fun-loving woman, suddenly dies, her husband, best friend, and her children all struggle to find ways to go on after the loss of the woman who was the center of their lives, and who made life happy, fun, and secure. Her husband is overwhelmed with four children to raise, and turns to his teenage daughter for help, and to an old girlfriend for solace. Annie's best friend struggles again with opioid addiction, having depended on...

"You've lost someone that you held dear; a loved one, a family member, a friend, or a beloved pet, and now you're faced with the heart-wrenching knowledge that somehow, in some way, you need to go on without them. Your grief threatens to pull you into an abysmal tidal wave of emotional despair. And yet, you survive this seemingly insurmountable grief. You go on, and life surprises you with the passage of time, easing you back into a state of calm...

"One of the most innovative authors and distinguished literary critics of the twentieth century, Virginia Woolf examines family dynamics and the tensions between men and women in her 1927 novel To the Lighthouse. A pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device, Woolf explores multiple perspectives of the members of the Ramsay family as they navigate experiences of disappointment and loss. Divided into three sections, the story...

"A few years ago, Kris Carr's world was falling apart. Her father was dying, she had to pivot her business because of the pandemic, and she was on the verge of reaching her twenty-year milestone of living with an incurable Stage IV cancer diagnosis. While sitting in a CVS parking lot, she broke down, finally allowing herself to feel the massive stress and sadness she had been suppressing in order to seem strong for those around her, and for herself....

Elizabeth was warned to stay away from Tristan. They said he was cruel, cold, damaged-- it's easy to judge a man because of his past. But they were both empty, both looking for something else-- something more. Together, will they be able to put together the shattered pieces of their yesterdays?

These incandescent poems by Cuban American poet Victoria María Castells explore how we can salvage our notion of paradise in an overspent Eden. In thwarted homes located in Havana and Miami, Rapunzel and her prince, persecuted nymphs, Morgause, and Bluebeard's wife speak to us directly, all in need of returning to safety. Confronting machismo, illness, heartbreak, and isolation, the poems depict how women are at the mercy of men, either husband or...

"Patrick, Shiv, Rian, Oli and Conor grew up together. They played together, skipped school together, and dreamt of everything they'd do with their lives."--

When Grief first arrives, it is an elephant--so big that there is hardly room for anything else. But over time, Grief becomes smaller and smaller--first a deer, a fox, then a mouse, and finally a flickering firefly in the darkness leading us down a path of loving remembrance. This lyrical work is an empathetic and comforting balm for anyone experiencing grief--whether the loss of a loved one or the losses in the world around us. Its heartfelt message...