I lost my grandad last week and I’ve looked at my bookshelves wondering what would be the most healing for me to read right now. Grief isn’t easy, quick or linear. Along the journey, you may need different things. One week, you want to feel the sadness and explore the grief. Another week, you want to laugh and feel light. Another, you just can’t concentrate and need something you can finish quickly.
Here, I’ve covered all bases with books I own that I think may help along the grieving process.
Light-hearted books for when you’re grieving and want ease in your life
- Rewitched by Lucy Jane Wood
- The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer
- High Vaultage by Chris and Jen Sugden
- The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association & Dreadful by Caitlyn Rozaki
- Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor
- Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
- Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum
Books with grief as a theme / books on grief
- After the Funeral and Other Stories by Tessa Hadley
- Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals about Death by Caitlin Doughty
- Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
- A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
- Hunger by Choi Jin-Young – warning, this is a horror!
- The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
- Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- Still Alice by Lisa Genova
- The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
- The Life Impossible & The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
- And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Friedrik Backman
- Elsewhere & The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
- Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
- On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong – not grief per se but a kind of grief/loss/pain
- They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera – not directly on grief but considers death through the lens of a YA love story
Short books for when you’re grieving
(Under 300 pages)
- A Psalm for the Wild-Built & A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
- Burnt Sugar by Anvi Doshi
- Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata
- Killing Eve: Code Name Villainelle by Luke Jennings
- Dr. No by Percival Everett – also a funny/satirical read apparently
- Soul Tourists by Bernadine Evaristo
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
- The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso
Children’s books for when you want to go back in time
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
- Matilda by Roald Dahl
- Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
- The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Rauf
- Magisterium: The Iron Trials by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare
- The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson
- Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones
- The Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell
- The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
- The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Immersive books to escape into when you’re grieving
- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
- Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
- Atmosphere & The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
- The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden
- Fairy Tale by Stephen King
- The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
- Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones
Books that remind you of them
(These are Jamaican or Caribbean books or books about platonic bonds between old men and a younger person that remind me of me and my grandad)
- Soon Come by Kuba Shand-Bapiste
- The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams
- A Man Called Ove by Friedrik Backman
- Mr Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo
- The Fraud & White Teeth by Zadie Smith
- My Name is Leon by Kit De Waal
- How Do You Live by Genzaburo Yoshino
- The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
I hope your grief is light. I hope it doesn’t consume you for too long. And may we all remember that grief is a sign that we loved and were loved deeply – what a gift.
Sincerely,
S. xx
S. R. Crawford 