Colorado Lending Library

The Colorado Life Service Group maintains a collection of books, pamphlets, movies, and other resources available for lending to members of the Colorado Ridhwan community.

LENDING LIBRARY CHECK OUT PROCEDURE

If you are interested in checking out an item from the Colorado Life Service Group Lending Library, please contact Jeff Truesdall. Arrangements will be made to provide the item to you, probably by leaving it at a designated place at the Group House. Items may be checked out for one month with the ability to renew if they haven’t been requested by another student.

If you have any books or DVDs on death, dying, illness or other life challenges that you would like to contribute to the library, please contact Jeff Truesdall.

Title	Type	Description	Tags
A Wonderful Life by Cyrus Copeland		The Philadelphia Inquirer: "Copeland has compiled 64 memorials to larger-than-life individuals, written by eulogizers who are, in most cases, equally unforgettable. Sad, intimate and even funny, these tributes...are compelling, whether you're a fan of history or just supermarket tabloids." The Boston Globe: "You might not think of eulogies as the same thing as love stories, but here...they most certainly are. This is an extraordinary collection of 64 goodbyes to the famous from the (mostly) famous".
Alison's Gift by Pat Hogan		"Alison's Gift is the true story of Alison Sanders' life and death-a story that has touched all of America. This is Alison's story and how her life found its way into millions of homes. Alison's Gift is the triumph of love over life-ending experience. Along with Alison, meet real-life heroes who live through their greatest fears in a journey of loss, grief, and the rekindling of hope. This story chronicles Alison's life and death, her family's experience and her many legacies. Alison, a vibrant child, had a mission in life to help others. In unique ways, both seen and unseen, her purpose lives on. Her fearlessness, compassion, and leadership qualities transformed her community in life and have reverberated throughout the country in her death. Alison's life was cut short by an air bag in a low-speed automobile collision. Meet Alison's father: although emotionally scarred by his loss, he starts a one-man crusade, forcing the auto industry to adopt safer air bag systems for our children.
Blue Nights - by Joan Didion		From one of our most powerful writers, a work of stunning frankness about losing a daughter. Richly textured with memories from her own childhood and married life with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and daughter, Quintana Roo, this new book by Joan Didion is an intensely personal and moving account of her thoughts, fears, and doubts regarding having children, illness and growing old. As she reflects on her daughter’s life and on her role as a parent, Didion grapples with the candid questions that all parents face, and contemplates her age, something she finds hard to acknowledge, much less accept. Blue Nights—the long, light evening hours that signal the summer solstice, “the opposite of the dying of the brightness, but also its warning”—like The Year of Magical Thinking before it, is an iconic book of incisive and electric honesty, haunting and profound. Click here to visit the resource page.
Cycled Life - Alkaline Hydrolysis as an option to cremation		Alkaline Hydrolysis is promoted as a greener technology than cremation. This is an article about a Colorado entrepreneur who is looking to promote this technology around the US. Click here to visit the resource page.
Deathing by Anya Foos-Graber		"Deathing" richly illustrates the soul's transition, what follows death, how to prepare, and what to expect. The reader learns how traditional rituals were designed to help the soul in transition and how one can help a loved one at that milestone. I consider both books essential background for anyone who works with the terminally ill. Long herself an adept and teacher of out of body movement, Anya Foos-Graber brings the creativity of a novelist and deep, affirming, personal spiritual insight to this most important of topics. (from a review by Tobey Llop)
Departures by Yojiro Takita		When his orchestra disbands, the main character decides to start over and moves back to his small hometown. Desperate for work, he secretly takes a job as a "Nokanshi", a funeral professional who prepares the deceased for burial and entrance into the next life. But while working with the families of the departed, he embarks on a spiritual journey of his own as he finally experiences the joy and wonder of living.
Dying Beautifully by Dave Karpowicz		Starting with the diagnosis and ending after the cemetery service, "Dying Beautifully" acts as a guide, providing tools to help transform the dying process from sorrow to celebration. In a "workbook" format to facilitate working the book.
Dying Wish by Karen vanVuuren		Retired surgeon, Michael Miller, is dying of end-stage cancer and is determined to avoid the hospital at all costs. He's researched the dying process and believes that stopping eating and drinking will ease his suffering and result in a peaceful, more natural death. During his fast, Michael suffers neither thirst nor hunger. Buoyed by the legacy of this film, he enjoys a last meal, surrounds himself with art and music, and takes leave of his family.
Dying: A difficult subject, a vital conversation - newspaper article Denver Post		Good article about end of life issues and decisions to be made. Includes discussion about advance directives. Click here to visit the resource page.
Facing Death – Confronting End-of-Life Choices by Frontline - PBS		How far would you go to sustain the life of someone you love, or your own? When the moment comes and you're confronted with the prospect of "pulling the plug", do you know how you'll respond? Unfounded rumors of federal "death panels" grabbed headlines in the summer of 2010, but the real decisions of how we die - the questions that most of us prefer to put off - are being made quietly behind closed doors, increasingly on the floors of America's intensive care units. In this film, Frontline gains access to the ICU of one of New York's biggest hospitals to examine the complicated reality... Click here to visit the resource page.
Final Gifts by M Callanan & P Kelley		For more than a decade the authors, hospice nurses, have tended the terminally ill. Now, in this moving and compassionate book, they share their intimate experiences with patients at the edge of life. Through these stories, you'll come to appreciate the near-miraculous ways in which the dying communicate their needs, reveal their feelings, and even choreograph their own final moments; you'll gain new insight into the leave-taking process; and in the end you'll discover the gifts of wisdom, faith, and love that the dying leave for us to share.
Graceful Exits by Sushila Blackman		Death is a subject obscured by fear and denial. When we do think of dying, we are more often concerned with how to avoid the pain and suffering that may accompany our death than we are with really confronting the meaning of death and how to approach it. The author places death—and life—in a truer perspective, by telling us of others who have left this world with dignity. Graceful Exits offers valuable guidance in the form of 108 stories recounting the ways in which Hindu, Tibetan Buddhist, and Zen masters, both ancient and modern, have confronted their own deaths. By directly presenting the grace, clarity, and even humor with which great spiritual teachers have met the end of their days, Blackman provides inspiration and nourishment to anyone truly concerned with the fundamental issues of life and death.
Graceful Passages (book & CDs) by Stillwater & Malkin		Graceful Passages blends music and the spoken word in a new way that creates a touching and luminous audio experience. Acclaimed worldwide, this beautiful book and two-CD set has helped thousands of people come to terms with loss and death as part of life. Widely used in home, hospice, and palliative-care settings, it opens a way to talk about life and death, forgiveness, and acceptance. Its wisdom guides patients, family members, and caregivers to open to the process of letting go and being in the now.
Griefwalker		Griefwalker is an extraordinary portrait of Harvard-trained theologian Stephen Jenkinson, who teaches that death empowers us to live and that we must know grief well in order to appreciate our own lives. Many may find Jenkinson’s belief challenging - that our deaths are not something to be denied or avoided but rather “befriended”. He points out that not every culture fears death as we do. The film carries viewers into the lives of those confronting death, as well as those learning how to help people die well. Combining beautiful imagery of the impermanence of nature and the actuality of dying, Griefwalker weaves an illuminating picture of a remarkable man and leaves us with a deeper understanding of how our deaths could be held as “a prized possession”.
Hard Choices For Loving People - by Hank Dunn		This booklet was written to provide guidance to patients and their families who must face the "hard choices" as they receive and participate in healthcare. It looks at questions like "Shall resuscitation be attempted", "Shall artificial nutrition and hydration be utilized?", "Should a nursing home resident or someone ill at home be hospitalized?", "Is it time to shift the treatment goal from cure to hospice or comfort care only?". This is all looked at with a compassionate and loving view, and yet is clear and to-the-point.
Heartwork – How to Get What You Really Really Want by Dale Goldstein		This is a book plus CD and is a synthesis of western psychological processes and eastern meditative techniques that allows people to work through even their most difficult psychological issues. These simple and direct methods are excellent for those how have found the standard psychological approach to personal growth too limited. The result is a journey of personal transformation that delivers not only a profoundly fresh perspective on life's challenges but also the ability to access spiritual dimensions of awareness.
Knocking on Heaven's Door by Katy Butler		In this visionary memoir, based on a groundbreaking New York Times Magazine story, award-winning journalist Katy Butler ponders her parents’ desires for “Good Deaths” and the forces within medicine that stood in the way. Katy Butler was living thousands of miles from her vigorous and self-reliant parents when the call came: a crippling stroke had left her proud seventy-nine-year-old father unable to fasten a belt or complete a sentence. Tragedy at first drew the family closer: her mother devoted herself to caregiving, and Butler joined the twenty-four million Americans helping shepherd parents through their final declines. Then doctors outfitted her father with a pacemaker, keeping his heart going but doing nothing to prevent his six-year slide into dementia, near-blindness, and misery. When he told his exhausted wife, “I’m living too long,” mother and daughter were forced to confront a series of wrenching moral questions. When does death stop being a curse and become a blessing? Where is the line between saving a life and prolonging a dying? When do you say to a doctor, “Let my loved one go?” When doctors refused to disable the pacemaker, condemning her father to a prolonged and agonizing death, Butler set out to understand why. Her quest had barely begun when her mother took another path. Faced with her own grave illness, she rebelled against her doctors, refused open-heart surgery, and met death head-on. With a reporter’s skill and a daughter’s love, Butler explores what happens when our terror of death collides with the technological imperatives of medicine. Her provocative thesis is that modern medicine, in its pursuit of maximum longevity, often creates more suffering than it prevents. This revolutionary blend of memoir and investigative reporting lays bare the tangled web of technology, medicine, and commerce that dying has become. And it chronicles the rise of Slow Medicine, a new movement trying to reclaim the “Good Deaths” our ancestors prized. Knocking on Heaven’s Door is a map through the labyrinth of a broken medical system. It will inspire the difficult conversations we need to have with loved ones as it illuminates the path to a better way of death.
Learn About Hospice & Palliative Care by Evercare Hospice		In this video you'll learn more about hospice and palliative care, hear personal stories from people who have first hand experience with Evercare Hospice, find out more about what makes Evercare Hospice special. This is a private company but we consider this to be good information.
Learning to Say Goodby by Eda LeShan		Written for the whole family, this book opens the way to genuine communication between youngsters and adults so they can deal with the grief and bewilderment that follows the death of a parent. In simple direct language, the author discusses the questions, fears, fantasies, and stages of mourning that human beings need to go through - and offers a practical strategy, based on life experiences, to provide comfort and hope.
Life Before Death - Collection of Films about living well and dying better		HOW WILL YOU DIE? LIFE Before Death is a multi-award winning documentary series that asks the fundamental question underpinning our mortality. This beautifully filmed journey takes us to 11 countries as we follow the remarkable health professionals battling the sweeping epidemic of pain that threatens to condemn one in every ten of us to an agonizing and shameful death. Through the eyes of patients and their families we discover the inherent humanity that empowers the best of us to care for those beyond cure. This is an intimate, hopeful and life-affirming story of living well and dying better, advocating for making the most of every moment in our life before death. Click here to visit the resource page.
Light In The Shadows by Hank Dunn		This little booklet is full of helpful meditations for the dying. As the author says in the intro, "In these few pages i have gathered the most helpful insights these patients have taught me. This book is about finding hope in hopeless situations; being grateful in the midst of great losses; experiencing a connection to things eternal; living a meaningful life while considering the possibility of death; and getting to the root issues in medical treatment decisions.
LiveStrong (Survivorship notebook and book of survivor stories) by Armstrong Foundation		This "Survivorship Notebook" and booklet of "Survivorship stories", is an educational program of the Lance Armstrong Foundation and was created as a way for all cancer survivors to have access to the information they need. Survivorship begins at diagnosis, the moment your battle with cancer begins, and continues through your treatment and beyond. A survivor is anyone battling cancer: the person with cancer, a spouse or partner, a child, a friend, a parent or a caregiver.
Living Into Dying by Nancy Poer		"Here is a family who celebrated their elders, nursed them at home to die, built their caskets, honored and cared for them after death and then went out into the community to help others who want to do the same." "Every aspect of caring for the dying is in this book, from building a casket to connecting with those who have died."
Living Our Dying - by Joseph Sharp		When he wrote Living Our Dying, Joseph Sharp had been living with the HIV virus for over a decade, living each day with the knowledge that he will, eventually, die. For him, this has become the foundation of an intimate awareness of the beauty and majesty of life, in himself and in all those close to him, whether they've been diagnosed with a fatal illness or not. In this straightforward book, Sharp weaves his personal experiences, quotations from other spiritual and health authors, and suggested meditations into a moving proposal for the "rewriting" of our own lives as a conscious pilgrimage toward the inevitable outcome for ourselves and those we love. Click here to visit the resource page.
On Death and Dying by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross		This is a classic book. "Dr Ross projects her warm understanding, sophistication, and sensitivity into every page...an excellent book on the management of the terminally ill...offers hope for the understanding of uman strengths and weaknesses experienced during a very difficult time".
Passages in Caregiving by Gail Sheehy		Caring for a loved one with a chronic illness -- a parent, partner, sibling or child -- is a role no one aspires to but many of us will take on. In her superb new book, "Passages in Caregiving," Gail Sheehy writes that someone is serving as an unpaid family caregiver in almost one-third of American households. It's a job that lasts an average of five years. "Nobody briefs us on all the services we are expected to perform when we take on this role," she writes. That statement is no longer true, for "Passages in Caregiving" -- written from Sheehy's personal experience supplemented by a generous dose of reporting -- does it well. Her book outlines the road that awaits caregivers and gives practical advice to help them on the journey. It's an ambitious and readable blend of memoir, reportage, consumer advice, pep talk and love story. Click here to visit the resource page.
Ripening Time - Inside Stories for Aging with Grace - by Sherry Ruth Anderson		In Ripening Time: Inside Stories for Aging with Grace, Sherry Ruth Anderson presents a new perspective on aging. In her latest book, the bestselling author of The Feminine Face of God and The Cultural Creatives invites the reader to engage the aging process through the art of inner inquiry. She guides us beyond our culture's mind traps through stories where elders face into the lies, the losses and endings, the tender and bittersweet and ferocious truths of growing old. Giving us an indispensable compass, she shows how growing into old age can be a fruition, the genuine grace and gift of human ripening.
Seasons by Anita Spencer		This book explores the life cycle of every woman from the spring of her life to the winter.
Share The Care by C Capossela & S Warnock		Whether you're prepared for it or not, chances are you'll take on the role of caregiver when a family member or friend is affected by a serious illness or injury, or when you find your elderly parent needs help. As you'll soon discover, the range of tasks and responsibilities involved are overwhelming. This book offers a sensible and loving solution: a unique group approach that can turn a circle of ordinary people into a powerful caregiving team.
The Bright Light of Death by Annabel Chaplin		This book looks at what happens at and just after the time of death.
The Final Crossing by Scott Eberle		Joan Halifax: "This is an extraordinarily wise and compassionate book written by a physician of the body and the heart. In this beautifully written account of the death of his beloved teacher and friend, we can discover the great mystery of meeting death as a teacher and friend..."
The Gifts of Grief - A film by Nancee Sabonya		Through compelling personal stories, we gain valuable insights from people facing, growing and transforming through grief. What can we learn from our losses? What inner and outer resources do we have to help us cope with our grief? How do we go on? What are the “gifts of grief?” These are the core questions that are explored by ordinary and extraordinary people, including writer, Isabel Allende; Reverend Cecil Williams; writer, Alana Laraine; Zen Monk /Vietnam Veteran, Claude AnShin Thomas; youth motivator, Vinny Ferrero; filmmaker, Lee Mun Wah who celebrate and inspire healing and transformation. The film invites us to open to pain, learn from loss, and teaches us about the preciousness of life. Click here to visit the resource page.
The Grief Process - Meditations for Healing by Stephen and Ondrea Levine		This is a combination study guide and 2 cassette tapes. It is an in-depth workshop with the authors that explores how anyone can resolve grief through meditation. Working with a group of people caught in the wake of physical and emotional loss, the Levines explain how grief can lead to an "armoring of the heart," and demonstrate a series of deeply felt exercises they have developed and refined over many years of work with meditation groups, hospice residents, and others.
The Grief Recovery Handbook by J James & R Friedman		Incomplete recovery from grief can have a lifelong negative effect on your capacity for happiness. Drawing from their own histories, as well as from others, the authors illustrate what grief is and how it is possible to recover and regain energy and spontaneity. Based on a proven program, now extensively revised, this book offers grievers the specific tools needed to complete the grieving process and acceptance of loss.
The Most Excellent Dying of Theodore Jack Heckelman by Nancy Poer		When faced with cancer, Jack made a decision to die with gratitude and consciousness. Here, holding his beloved Pooh bear as a child, he could hardly have known the rich, fulfilling life and death that was to come. A communications engineer, he lived all over the world and was deeply committed to raising awareness of the global needs for social justice and caring for the earth. He was a leader in working for the Peace Academy and Earth Charter.
The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche		"A masterful distillation for the West on the priceless wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism that gives us practical instruction and spiritual guiance on how to live in light of the greatest teacher of all - death."
The True Work of Dying by J Bernard & M Schneider		This groundbreaking, holistic guide presents rare insights and reassuring practical advice on how to navigate the final weeks before death - physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Drawing on the rich and poignant experiences of their hospice patients, the authors show us that when the dying and their caregivers commit themselves to the true emotional and spiritual work of dying, healing is virtually inevitable, though it often comes in unexpected forms.
The Unexpected Caregiver by Kari Berit		As their parents grow older, growing numbers of Baby Boomers find themselves thrust into a caregiver role, often with little warning or preparation. In a sense, they must function somewhat like activity directors in senior-care facilities, helping mom and dad come to terms with both day-to-day concerns and longer-term issues. Kari Berit brings extensive professional and personal insights to this subject. This book is a "splendid treasure chest of practical ideas that will help ease the stress of caring across generations".
The Year of Magical Thinking - by Joan Didion		The book recounts Didion's experiences of grief after her husband's death of a cardiac arrest in their New York apartment. Days before his death, their daughter was hospitalized in New York with pneumonia which developed into septic shock; she was still unconscious when her father died. The narrative structure of the book follows Didion's re-living and re-analysis of her husband's death throughout the year following it, in addition to caring for her daughter. With each replay of the event, the focus on certain emotional and physical aspects of the experience shifts. Didion also incorporates medical and psychological research on grief and illness into the book.
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom		Amy Tan: "Mitch Albom was given a wonderful gift from his teacher Morrie Schwartz and now we have the great pleasure of auditing the same class. This is a true story that shines and leaves you forever warmed by its afterglow." There is a movie that is based on this book.
When Someone Dies - The Practical Guide to the Logistics of Death by Scott Taylor Smith with Michael Castleman		Scott Taylor Smith, a venture capitalist and lawyer, had plentiful resources, and yet after his mother died, he made a series of agonizing and costly mistakes in squaring away her affairs. He could find countless books that dealt with caring for the dying and the emotional fallout of death, but very few that dealt with the logistics. In the aftermath of his mother’s death, Smith decided to write the book he wished he’d had. When Someone Dies provides readers with a crucial framework for making good, informed, money-saving decisions in the chaotic thirty days after a loved one dies and beyond. It provides essential, concrete guidance on: • Making funeral and memorial service arrangements • Writing an obituary • Estate planning • Contacting family and friends • Handling your loved one’s online footprint • Navigating probate • Dealing with finances, including trusts and taxation • And much, much more Featuring concise checklists in each chapter, this guide offers answers to practical questions, enabling loved ones to save time and money and focus on healing. Click here to visit the resource page.
Who Dies? by Stephen Levine		While many books have dealt with he "stages of dying", and particularly the stages of acceptance of death, this is the first to demonstrate how to "open to the immensity of living with death". This book shows us how to participate fully in life as the perfect preparation for whatever may come next, be it sorrow, or joy, loss or gain, death or a new wonderment at life.

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Colorado Lending Library

LENDING LIBRARY CHECK OUT PROCEDURE