#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook and you can learn more about it here. It occurs every Monday when we post about 5 books on our TBR.
Grief is something we all experience, at one time or another, and it’s something that often seeps into the rest of our lives, maybe without us noticing; it really can impact everything for a while. There’s different forms of grief, too, and I still think we have a way to go to acknowledge non-death versions of grief. But grief, ultimately, is about mourning a loss – of a person, pet, relationship, maybe even a place. For today’s #5OnMyTBR, here’s 5 books that, in different ways, look at grief.
#5OnMyTBR November 4th: Grief
Casket Case by Lauren Evans
Genre: Fantasy/Paranormal Romance
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
Published: September 10th, 2024
In this warm-hearted debut rom-com, a young woman returns home to run her family’s casket business and falls in love with a seemingly perfect stranger. But there’s just one problem . . . he works for Death.
Nora thought she was finished with Rabbittown, Alabama, for good. But an unexpected tragedy turned her life upside down, and she’s found herself back in her tiny hometown running the family casket business.
There aren’t exactly a lot of prospects for a single woman in her thirties in a place like Rabbittown. Until Nora Clanton’s ordinary, casket-selling day is interrupted by a handsome stranger wandering into her shop and asking for directions–as well as a date.
Garrett Bishop seems like the ideal guy. He’s thoughtful, he’s kind, and he has a lucrative job as a logistics coordinator, for which he seems to have a passion. She’s not totally sure what “logistics” entails, but she knows it means long hours, lots of travel, and urgent calls in the middle of the night.
When a few of Rabbittown’s residents suddenly pass away–a heart attack here, a car crash there–and Garrett is spotted at the scenes of, well, all of the deaths, his frustratingly vague job description starts to become increasingly . . . suspicious. What is it that Garrett actually does for a living?
He’s a logistics coordinator for Death.
When Nora discovers the truth, she is unable to reconcile the wonderful man she knows with the unthinkably cruel job he loves. Will she ever be able to understand how he can do what he does, or will she have to lay her best chance at love to rest?
Casket Case is the heartfelt story of a small-town girl who feels surrounded by death–literally and figuratively. This clever, endearing, and romantic debut explores how love and loss are forever intertwined . . . but death might not be as scary as it seems.
The Grief Nurse by Angie Spoto
Genre: Gothic Horror
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
Published: April 13th, 2023
Imagine you could be rid of your sadness, your anxiety, your heartache, your fear.
Imagine you could take those feelings from others and turn them into something beautiful.
Lynx is a Grief Nurse. Kept by the Asters, a wealthy, influential family, to ensure they’re never troubled by negative emotions, she knows no other life.
When news arrives that the Asters’ eldest son is dead, Lynx does what she can to alleviate their Sorrow. As guests flock to the Asters’ private island for the wake, bringing their own secrets, lies and grief, tensions rise.
Then the bodies start to pile up.
With romance, intrigue and spectacular gothic world-building, this spellbinding debut novel is immersive and unforgettable.
You Are Not Alone by Cariad Lloyd
Genre: Nonfiction – Self-Help
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
Published: January 19th, 2023
Inspired by her award-winning podcast, Griefcast, You Are Not Alone is Cariad Lloyd’s frank, funny and compassionate exploration of grief.
‘This book doesn’t offer you an exit, just suggestions on how to navigate grief. To help you as you learn grief’s brutal but beautiful lesson; that grief will change and grow and diminish and reappear, it will be with you forever, you will learn to build a life around it, to carry it. It will be ok, you will be ok. Somehow, you will be. You are not alone.’
Cariad was just fifteen years old when her father died. At the time, death was still a taboo, and grief even more so. No one was talking about what it really felt like, the tears, the laughter, the pain – the truth of grief.
Years later, she found she needed a place where she could finally be honest about this strange human emotion, so she created the Griefcast podcast, starting a conversation about one of the most significant moments of all our lives: the end.
You Are Not Alone is a road map for all of us: for anybody who has ever felt lost in grief, who wants to help someone in theirs, or who just wants to understand life a little better.
With Love, Grief and Fury by Salena Godden
Genre: Poetry
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
Published: May 2nd, 2024
With Love, Grief and Fury contains love poems, for people and the planet; grief poems brimming with compassion, sharing tears and mourning what was and contemplating what could be; and poems of fire and fury that will kick some ass, tell the truth and inspire change and hope.Over thirty years after she first stormed the UK poetry scene, the trailblazing and award-winning writer Salena Godden has produced her most audacious and definitive collection to date. Like a big sister’s arm around your shoulder, With Love, Grief and Fury is important and nourishing for the soul.
The Nesting by C.J. Cooke
Genre: Gothic Thriller – Horror
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
Published: September 29th, 2020
The woods are creeping in on a nanny and two young girls in this chilling modern Gothic thriller.
Architect Tom Faraday is determined to finish the high-concept, environmentally friendly home he’s building in Norway – in the same place where he lost his wife, Aurelia, to suicide. It was their dream house, and he wants to honor her with it.
Lexi Ellis takes a job as his nanny and immediately falls in love with his two young daughters, especially Gaia. But something feels off in the isolated house nestled in the forest along the fjord. Lexi sees mysterious muddy footprints inside the home. Aurelia’s diary appears in Lexi’s room one day. And Gaia keeps telling her about seeing the terrifying Sad Lady…
Soon Lexi suspects that Aurelia didn’t kill herself and that they are all in danger from something far more sinister lurking around them.
As always, if you’ve read any of these I’d love to hear your thoughts, and if there are any books dealing with grief you’ve particularly enjoyed, let me know!
Unwrapping Words 