A long time and much beloved member of the Unitarian Universalist congregation I currently serve who has since moved out to California recently learned she has cancer and, it appears, not a long time to live. Being a good UU she asked me for a reading list. I solicited colleagues on both UU and Zen Buddhist listservs to which I belong for their suggestions. I gleaned the following from their responses.
Pema Chodron When Things Fall Apart (for me perhaps the most helpful of the books on this list.)
Joan Halifax Being With Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death (Forthcoming from Shambhala)
Stephen Levine Healing into Life and Death and Who Dies (the single most recommended title from both UU and Zen Buddhist sources…)
Judith Lief Making Friends with Death: A Buddhist Guide to Encountering Mortality
Larry Rosenberg Living in the Light of Death
Kathleen Dowling Singh The Grace in Dying: a Message of Hope, Comfort and Spiritual Transformation
Philip Simons Learning to Fall: The Blessings of an Imperfect Life (The second most commonly recommended title by both UUs and Zen Buddhists…)
In addition, of substantive value, I feel, are recent articles from the Humanist Journal “Free Inquiry”
And also some books dealing with the nuts & bolts of death and dying.
Merrill Collette Stay Close and Do Nothing
Hank Dunn, Hard Choices for Loving People
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