Best of
Death

1999

Tear Soup: A Recipe for Healing After Loss


Pat Schwiebert - 1999
    Along the way she dispenses a recipe of sound advice for people who are in mourning.

Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide


Kay Redfield Jamison - 1999
    Night Falls Fast is tragically timely: suicide has become one of the most common killers of Americans between the ages of fifteen and forty-five.An internationally acknowledged authority on depressive illnesses, Dr. Jamison has also known suicide firsthand: after years of struggling with manic-depression, she tried at age twenty-eight to kill herself. Weaving together a historical and scientific exploration of the subject with personal essays on individual suicides, she brings not only her remarkable compassion and literary skill but also all of her knowledge and research to bear on this devastating problem. This is a book that helps us to understand the suicidal mind, to recognize and come to the aid of those at risk, and to comprehend the profound effects on those left behind. It is critical reading for parents, educators, and anyone wanting to understand this tragic epidemic.

Inferno


James Nachtwey - 1999
    Featuring brutally compassionate photographs taken from 1990-99, inspired by an overwhelming belief in the human possibility of change, this volume is a definitive selection from Nachtwey's astonishing portfolio. It documents today's conflicts and their victims, from Somalia's famine to genocide in Rwanda, from Romania's abandoned orphans and 'irrecoverables' to the lives of India's 'untouchables', from war in Bosnia to conflict in Chechnya. Inferno is an evocative visual insight into modern history, bringing it disturbingly close to our consciousness.

Echoes of the Soul: Moving Beyond the Light


Echo Bodine - 1999
    A renowned psychic's soul-stirring odyssey to spiritual realms beyond the material world.

Is IT A Crime


Roy Glenn - 1999
    He becomes enchanted with drug dealer Cassandra Sims, and when an attempt is made on her life, Mike has to rescue her and soon becomes her protector.

In Light of Eternity: Perspectives on Heaven


Randy Alcorn - 1999
    Now, he responds to the widespread hunger for more insight on this subject with a straightforward, real-life look at heaven, rewards, and how to live in light of eternity.Those captivated by Edge of Eternity, Deadline, and Dominion can now explore more deeply the truths about heaven and eternity woven into each of these novels. With clear biblical teaching and illustrative stories and reflections, Alcorn shows how your life today will impact the eternal reality that awaits you.

Old Pig


Margaret Wild - 1999
    I must be prepared." Granddaughter knows that her beloved Old Pig will soon be gone— but her love and memories will still be there. This tender, softly illustrated story of love and loss will comfort children dealing with death for the first time. "In a few short pages, shows that death can be a celebration of life and a loved one's contributions to it." — "School Library Journal."

Grandad's Prayers of the Earth


Douglas Wood - 1999
    We didn't walk very far. Or very fast. Or very straight. While we walked, I would ask him questions about things I wasn't sure of. One day, I asked Grandad about prayers."'Did you know, boy, ' Grandad whispered, 'that trees pray?'"Grandad is the boy's best friend. Being with him always makes the world seem right. And how vast that world is. A world of tall trees that reach for the clouds and sun and moon and stars--and what else is reaching for heaven but a prayer?Each time that he and Grandad walk in the woods, the boy listens for the prayers of the earth. And while he isn't always sure he hears them, Grandad's words inspire him to keep listening.Finally, the boy asks the hardest question of all: "Are our prayers answered, Grandad?"And, one day, long after Grandad is gone, after many, many prayers, after the boy is grown, he understands Grandad's reply: "Most prayers are not really questions. And if we listen very closely, a prayer is often its own answer."Douglas Wood, author of OLD TURTLE, has written a wise and moving story for readers of all ages. With paintings by acclaimed artist P. J. Lynch, this beautiful and uplifting picture book just may change your life forever.

The Orphaned Adult: Understanding and Coping with Grief and Change After the Death of Our Parents


Alexander Levy - 1999
    But whether we lose them suddenly or after a prolonged illness, and whether we were close to or estranged from them, this passage proves inevitably more difficult than we thought it would be. From the recognition of our own mortality and sudden child-like sorrow to a sometimes-subtle change in identity or shift of roles in the surviving family, The Orphaned Adult guides readers through the storm of change this passage brings and anchors them with its compassionate and reassuring wisdom.

The Harris Men


R.M. Johnson - 1999
    Harris, I'm sorry, but you have cancer.” Although devastated to learn he has just one year to live, fifty-five-year-old Julius Harris has always known that the day would come when he would pay for walking out on his wife and three children twenty years earlier. Now, with a sudden and passionate determination to make his family whole again, Julius begins trying to find a way back to his sons. Caleb, the youngest, struggling to support a son and make his way in a relentless world, couldn't care less about his own absentee father. Middle son Marcus can't abide even his father's memory, which gets in the way of his committing to the one woman who has turned his life around. And Austin, Julius' eldest child, so adores what he remembers of his father that he's following in his footsteps, abandoning his wife and children just as Julius had done. Inspired by RM Johnson's own fragile family history, The Harris Men is his poignant exploration of the increasing problem of absentee fathers—and of the compromises made by the families they leave behind. As the Harris men grapple with their fears and their choices, Johnson gets to the very heart of what it means to be a man.

Fireflies


David Morrell - 1999
    Reprint.

A Prayer for the Dying


Stewart O'Nan - 1999
    Torn between his loyalty to his family, his faith in God, and his terror of this vicious disease, Jacob Hansen struggles to preserve his sanity amid the chaos and violence around him.

Hard Choices for Loving People : CPR, Artificial Feeding, Comfort Care and the Patient with a Life-Threatening Illness


Hank Dunn - 1999
    Book by Dunn, Hank

In a Nutshell


Joseph Anthony - 1999
    An acorn drops from a great oak and grows. Animals nibble at it, a fire threatens it, but overcoming many challenges it eventually towers high in the forest, observing the changing human scene below. Eventually its energy passes into many other life forms. An oak tree can teach much about seeds and seasons and cycles—but it also can make us appreciate the challenges it must overcome.Great for parents, teachers, or gift givers looking for a:graduation giftgift for the new school yearbook to provide inspirationthe perfect "planting seeds for kids" book to explore this summer!The ideal gardening book for kids ages 4-8

Weep Not for Me: In Memory of a Beloved Cat


Constance Jenkins - 1999
    Weep Not For Me is a moving poem providing the comfort that helps to bring acceptance of a pet's death.Constance Jenkins composed this poem to comfort her sister whose beloved cat had died. Published in beautiful hardback book form, the poignant verse is complemented by illustrator Pat Schaverien's etchings of cats.

Handbook for Mortals: Guidance for People Facing Serious Illness


Joanne Lynn - 1999
    Written by Drs. Joanne Lynn and Joan Harrold and a variety of experts from nursing, hospice, counseling, and the arts, this book provides equal measures of practical information and gentle insight. Readers will learn what decisions they will need to face, where to look for help, how to ease pain and other symptoms, what to expect with specific diseases, and how the health-care system operates. Equally important to this practical information are the personal stories included here of how people have come to terms with dying, faced their fears, and made important choices.From down-to-earth advice on how to talk to your doctor to inspiring quotes from such writers as W. H. Auden, Jane Kenyon, and others, Handbook for Mortals encompasses the needs of both the body and the spirit in our final years.

The Archaeology of Death and Burial


Mike Parker Pearson - 1999
    Through the remains of funerary rituals we learn not only about prehistoric people's attitudes toward death and the afterlife but also about their culture, social system, and world view. This ambitious book reviews the latest research in this huge and important field and describes the sometimes controversial interpretations that have led to our understanding of life and death in the distant past.Mike Parker Pearson draws on case studies from different periods and locations throughout the world—the Paleolithic in Europe and the Near East, the Mesolithic in northern Europe, and the Iron Age in Asia and Europe. He also uses evidence from precontact North America, ancient Egypt, and Madagascar, as well as from the Neolithic and Bronze Age in Britain and Europe, to reconstruct vivid pictures of both ancient and not so ancient funerary rituals. He describes the political and ethical controversies surrounding human remains and the problems of reburial, looting, and war crimes.The Archaeology of Death and Burial provides a unique overview and synthesis of one of the most revealing fields of research into the past, which creates a context for several of archaeology's most breathtaking discoveries—from Tutankhamen to the Ice Man. This volume will find an avid audience among archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, and others who have a professional interest in, or general curiosity about, death and burial.

Rudi's Pond


Eve Bunting - 1999
    When Rudi dies, the narrator and the other children in school help to build a pond by the big knobby oak to remember him by. A hummingbird feeder that Rudi made hangs by the pond, and one day a special hummingbird comes to visit. . . . Based on a true story, Rudi's Pond is an insightful book that will help young readers to deal with loss. Once again author Eve Bunting and illustrator Ronald Himler have combined their talents to create a memorable picture book.

Suicide and Attempted Suicide: Methods and Consequences


Geo Stone - 1999
    In this morally courageous book, Geo Stone sets out to diminish the lack of awareness about suicide, from the tragedy of teenage suicide to the debate over assisted suicide.

A Thanksgiving Wish


Michael J. Rosen - 1999
    But when she recalls Bubbe's favorite custom -- having her grandchildren make wishes on wishbones she had saved up throughout the year -- Amanda and her family discover the power and comfort embedded in tradition.

Making Loss Matter


David J. Wolpe - 1999
    Coping with grief and experiencing loss overwhelms us in ways that seem both hopeless and endless. In painful moments like these, we must make a choice: Will we allow the difficulties we face to become forces of destruction in our lives, or will we find a way to begin learning from loss, transforming our suffering into a source of strength?A theologian with the heart of a poet, Rabbi David Wolpe explores the meaning of loss, and the way we can use its inevitable appearance in our lives as a source of strength rather than a source of despair. In this national bestseller, Wolpe creates a remarkably fluid account of how we might find a way out of overwhelming feelings of helplessness and instead begin understanding grief in all its forms and learn to create meaning in difficult times.

Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief


Pauline G. Boss - 1999
    We take comfort in the rituals that mark the passing, and we turn to those around us for support. But what happens when there is no closure, when a family member or a friend who may be still alive is lost to us nonetheless? How, for example, does the mother whose soldier son is missing in action, or the family of an Alzheimer's patient who is suffering from severe dementia, deal with the uncertainty surrounding this kind of loss?In this sensitive and lucid account, Pauline Boss explains that, all too often, those confronted with such ambiguous loss fluctuate between hope and hopelessness. Suffered too long, these emotions can deaden feeling and make it impossible for people to move on with their lives. Yet the central message of this book is that they can move on. Drawing on her research and clinical experience, Boss suggests strategies that can cushion the pain and help families come to terms with their grief. Her work features the heartening narratives of those who cope with ambiguous loss and manage to leave their sadness behind, including those who have lost family members to divorce, immigration, adoption, chronic mental illness, and brain injury. With its message of hope, this eloquent book offers guidance and understanding to those struggling to regain their lives.

HIV, Mon Amour


Tory Dent - 1999
    Her use of language is virtuosic, complex, and plangent. These are daring poems that also dare the reader. HIV positive, Dent writes out of her own experience and profound refusal to look away or suspend feeling or turn from love. When her first book of poems, What Silence Equals, appeared in 1993, it was recognized as "immediately one of the great, necessary books to come out of the AIDS crisis, flinging its challenge in the face of death." With HIV, Mon Amour she moves further into the whirlwind -- as witness, lover, and observer.

The Forensic Anthropology Training Manual


Karen Ramey Burns - 1999
    This manual is designed to serve three purposes: to be used as a general introduction to the field of forensic anthropology; as a framework for training; and as a practical reference tool.

Restless Dead: Encounters between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece


Sarah Iles Johnston - 1999
    In Restless Dead, Sarah Iles Johnston presents and interprets these changes, using them to build a complex picture of the way in which the society of the dead reflected that of the living, expressing and defusing its tensions, reiterating its values and eventually becoming a source of significant power for those who knew how to control it. She draws on both well-known sources, such as Athenian tragedies, and newer texts, such as the Derveni Papyrus and a recently published lex sacra from Selinous.Topics of focus include the origin of the goes (the ritual practitioner who made interaction with the dead his specialty), the threat to the living presented by the ghosts of those who died dishonorably or prematurely, the development of Hecate into a mistress of ghosts and its connection to female rites of transition, and the complex nature of the Erinyes. Restless Dead culminates with a new reading of Aeschylus' Oresteia that emphasizes how Athenian myth and cult manipulated ideas about the dead to serve political and social ends.

Farolitos for Abuelo


Rudolfo Anaya - 1999
    While fishing, Abuelo dives into the frigid river to save a young boy from drowning, and soon after, dies of pneumonia.Luz bravely goes through the year keeping Abuelo's memory alive by planting and harvesting his garden as he taught her. And during her first Christmas without her abuelo, Luz carries on the tradition of lighting farolitos.

Sky Memories


Pat Brisson - 1999
    Readers young and old will be touched and inspired by this honest story about love and loss:When Emily is 10-years-old her mother is diagnosed with cancer, and by the time Emily has turned 11, her mother will be gone.  But in the last months of their life together, Emily and her mother find a way to celebrate and commemorate their relationship.  Together, they gather, "sky memories," mental pictures of the sky in all of its beauty and diversity.  Although she will lose her mother, Emily's memories of their life will be forever.Ten exquisite paintings by acclaimed artist Wendell Minor accompany the poignant story.

New York Noir: Crime Photos from the Daily News Archive


William Hannigan - 1999
    Capturing the faces of the century's most notorious criminals and their shocking handiwork, "New York Noir" showcases 40 years of crime with over 130 stunning photos from the archives of New York's "Daily News."

Shamanic Guide to Death and Dying


Kristin Madden - 1999
    This revised and expanded handbook will bring comfort to loved ones mourning their dead, illustrate the immortality of the soul, and transform your views of death. Rituals, exercises, meditations, and ceremonies are included to help release the pain of grief, move past the fear of death, honor the passing of a beloved pet, communicate with loved ones, and more.

Jung on Death and Immortality


C.G. Jung - 1999
    For, seen in correct psychological perspective, death is not an end but a goal, and life's inclination towards death begins as soon as the meridian is past."--C.G. Jung, commentary on "The Secret of the Golden Flower"Here collected for the first time are Jung's views on death and immortality, his writings often coinciding with the death of the most significant people in his life. The book shows many of the major themes running throughout the writings, including the relativity of space and time surrounding death, the link between transference and death, and the archetypes shared among the world's religions at the depths of the Self. The book includes selections from "On Resurrection," "The Soul and Death," "Concerning Rebirth," "Psychological Commentary on The Tibetan Book of the Dead" from the "Collected Works, " "Letter to Pastor Pfafflin" from "Letters, " and "On Life after Death."

Color Atlas of Forensic Pathology


Jay Dix - 1999
    A female drug addict who has overdosed on crack cocaine. An elderly woman with deep stab wounds to the neck. A two-year-old motor vehicle accident victim with blunt head trauma. For forensic pathologists, police detectives, and crime scene investigators, dealing with death and injury is a daily routine. But even after investigating thousands of drownings, shootings, stabbings, electrocutions, overdoses, and traffic accidents, most professionals in the investigative fields still haven't seen it all. Originally published on CD-ROM, the Color Atlas of Forensic Pathology addresses much of the basic information which forensic pathologists and other investigators deal with on a day to day basis. Packed with 780 full-color, captioned photographs, this atlas examines everything from time of death and decomposition, to identification, to causes of death from blunt trauma, firearm injuries, asphyxia, cutting and stabbing injuries, and more. The atlas shows the various causes of death and injury with case -- "visuals" to help investigators understand the work they perform. Indeed, with its exhaustive coverage, the Color Atlas of Forensic Pathology will provide investigators with valuable insight into the many different causes of death and injury they must deal with and how the manners of death are diagnosed.

Talking with Children About Loss: Words, Strategies, and Wisdom to Help Children Cope with Death, Divorce, and Other Difficult Times


Maria Trozzi - 1999
    Terms like 'ground-breaking' and 'innovative' have been triviliazed by overuse. In this case they are deserved." --Stan Turecki, M.D., author of The Difficult Child

The 761st Black Panther Tank Battalion in World War II: An Illustrated History of the First African American Armored Unit to See Combat


Joe Wilson Jr. - 1999
    Assigned at various times to the Third, Seventh and Ninth armies, the Black Panthers fought major engagements in six European countries and participated in four major Allied campaigns, inflicting heavy casualties on the German army and capturing or destroying thousands of weapons, despite severe weather, difficult terrain, heavily fortified enemy positions, extreme shortages of replacement personnel and equipment, and an overall casualty rate approaching 50 percent. Richly illustrated and containing many interviews with surviving members of the 761st, this work gives long overdue recognition to the unit whose motto was Come Out Fighting. It recounts the events that in 1978--33 years after the end of World War II--led to the 761st Tank Battalion's receiving a Presidential Unit Citation, the highest honor a unit can receive. Also described are the efforts that resulted, in 1997--53 years after giving his life on the battlefield--in the Medal of Honor being posthumously awarded to Sergeant Ruben Rivers.