Deathing : An Intelligent Alternative for the Final Moments of Life 
by Anya Foos-Graber
" . . . Deathing offers much comfort and reassurance, in its relief of the helplessness of those who are dying, and in its insistence on death as a joyful birth into a new life."--Patty Campbell, Wilson Library Bulletin.
Deathing helps you prepare a plan to follow when an anticipated death is approaching...by helping you form a plan, you are empowered at death rather than powerless....comforted, rather than fearful...by living the moments, death has a purpose. A must!

Wisdom of Dying : Practices for Living 
by N. Michael Murphy, Thomas Moore
    Hospice leader N. Michael Murphy explores the spiritual lessons about living that only death can offer. "The wisdom of dying urges that the roles and masks of everyday life be set aside before it is too late since they often obscure the giving and receiving of caring and love," Murphy explains in his introduction.
    Murphy's visionary approach to dying includes chapters on witnessing and participating in the life stories of the dying. In these precious personal and family stories, the lessons of living can be passed on, he explains. Hospitals would be transformed, he continues, if family members, doctors, and nurses gathered around a dying or deceased person, lit candles, and told stories of how that person affected their lives. In other chapters, he exposes how funeral homes and death rituals are designed to deny death rather than embrace it as a meaningful extension of life. He also discusses the specifics of caring for a dying person--
including the stages of dementia and coma. This is an astute and comforting guidebook for living and dying with soul and dignity. As Thomas Moore writes in the preface, "Read it and live. Read it and die."

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying 
by Sogyal Rinpoche
   An acclaimed spiritual masterpiece, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying is a manual for life and death and a magnificent source of sacred inspiration from the heart of the Tibetan tradition. Sogyal Rinpoche delivers a lucid and inspiring introduction to the practice of meditation, to the nature of mind, to karma and rebirth, to compassionate love and care for the dying, and to the trials and rewards of the spiritual path. This jewel of Tibetan wisdom is the definitive new spiritual classic for our times.

Tibetan Book of the Dead 
by W. Y. Evans-Wentz
    You've got to be ready to concentrate and wade deep to enjoy the introductions and translation, but the effort will reap great rewards. Using exacting and poetic prose with a disciple and intellectual honesty that is probable too good and un-dumbed-down to get published these days, this remains the best translation for those willing to work.

The Rooms of Heaven : A Story of Love, Death, Grief, and the Afterlife 
by Mary Allen
Although this is billed as a memoir, a more accurate label might be spiritual autobiography. After Mary Allen's drug-addicted boyfriend, Jim, commits suicide, she enters the classic dark night of the soul, confronting the denials as well as the truths that existed prior to her beloved's suicide. A less courageous author might have stopped there, but Allen has the guts also to reveal her mental anguish and psychiatric institutionalization. She delved into the underworld of the afterlife, desperate for connection with her boyfriend's spirit. Although Allen does not dismiss the possibility of "Summerland," a spiritualist term for the afterlife, she stays grounded in her personal experience with contacting Jim's spirit, instead of making sweeping assertions about the hereafter. The effect is engrossing and at times laugh-aloud funny. Overall, Allen's narrative rings with dignity--clearly the voice of an accomplished, award-winning writer as well as a woman who has risen from the ashes of a lover's suicide and codependency (a cliche she skillfully avoids lingering over) to become a person who can finally love with ferocity and self-respect intact.