I lost one of my best friends to suicide over a year ago. Throughout the last year I’ve struggled a lot with my grieving process. It’s almost like I needed to learn a new skill that was quite hard to find my way in. It’s also so different for everyone.
Anyway, books and reading are (and always have been) a big part of my life, and I’ve noticed that reading is one of the things that can unlock my emotions and grief when they seem locked off, so I’d like to read some books about grief, suicide, drug addiction, … (fiction and non-fiction) to guide me in my grieving journey.
Thank you!
by saulty27
4 Comments
If you’re wanting more of a self-help approach, the book “It’s ok That You’re Not Ok” is pretty good, despite the cheeseball title.
A non-fiction (not self-help) that also deals with grief is Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning”.
Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar” deals with suicide and suicidal ideation, as well as the cultural norms that women face navigating the world. It might provide some perspective but I don’t know that I would pick it up and get something “healing” from it, if that makes sense.
This is a tough spot you’re in, keep pushing through. I’ve been there. I’ll share one of my favorite quotes with you: “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
Liliana’s Invisible Summer is a memoir about her sister’s murder in the early 1990s and her trying to understand who her sister was and what happened. About 1/5 of the book’s materials are actually writings by Liliana herself who was a prolific diarist, journalist, letter writer and note taker. She was very smart and charismatic and people were drawn to her, but she also had a deeply introspective and complex side as well. The sister has been carrying this grief for over three decades and this is her reconciliation. It’s both beautiful and heartbreaking and you really get a sense who Liliana was before an act of violence went too far.
A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby is fiction that users dark humour to deal with the protaganists’ wishes to commit suicide. It was distracting for me when I was dealing with similar feelings.
It’s not specifically about losing friends, but I suggest “a grief observed” by CS Lewis. He was definitely a Christian so this may not be for you