Making Friends With Death: A Field Guide for Your Impending Last Breath (To Be Read, Ideally, Before It's Imminent!) Paperback – September 12, 2017

This book is real, deep, honest, thought-provoking, and ultimately helpful. It’s about life and how to live more wholly by embracing what’s come for all of us and for all of our loved ones … or as Pritchett says so wisely, what’s within us. But don’t think for a second this lovely book is all philosophizing. Though we get a nice nourishing serving of deep thinking, we mostly get stories, humor, warmth, and more than anything, practical advice.

such a great book. it's interesting that it works to think about death is enhancing my life.

A brief medical scare sent me hunting for books about how to die, and this one suited me best by a mile. Pritchett's guidance is equal measures funny and practical, and doing just the first chapter's assignments helped me feel better prepared. As she notes in the introduction, this is a book that brings together good thinking about death from all over the place: philosophy, psychology, medicine, law, religion (mainly Buddhism), and the arts. Although I won't be using every worksheet in the book, the sheets I have used and will use over the coming years will help me enormously.

This is a truly important book that everyone should read, whether they think their death is near or far. In a wonderful, conversational style, Laura Pritchett shares with us her research on a variety of aspects of death-- the spiritual, emotional, and practical. It feels like a good friend is sharing fascinating experiences and thoughts in an honest, intimate, and often humorous way. I loved the workbook aspects-- questions that make you reflect on the BIG questions-- as well as the pragmatic questions-- about life and death and love. Reading this book will make you more comfortable with the idea of dying (at some point in the future), and give you valuable yet humble advice on how to embrace the inevitable (and help others do it) in a meaningful way that ultimately honors life. Interestingly, after reading this book about death, I felt more ALIVE! I'm really looking forward to using this as a discussion tool with my currently-healthy parents and in-laws (in their 70s) and with my husband, to make sure we honor life and ultimately, death, in the best way possible. I'm recommending this book to all my friends and relatives, whether young or old!

With warmth, wisdom, humor and a rare ability for engaging story-telling, Laura Pritchett shares her own experiences with death, presents research on how to live better through understanding and confronting death, and gives practical (extremely useful) ways to prepare for the inevitable in ourselves and others. Death is often hidden away in our modern society, and our lives lose meaning because of this. Laura Pritchett helps readers accept and embrace our mortality, while taking steps to live well and die well. I bought this book because a close family member was recently diagnosed with a terminal disease, and I thought this book might provide me with with practical ways to help him exit on his own terms. What I didn't expect was how much it would help me as well, and enrich my own life. This is so much more than just a self-help book. This is a celebrated novelist generously sharing from her own life, her own experiences, and over ten years of research to enrich the lives of others. Although it might sound unexpected, this book makes a great gift. It should be mandatory reading for all the living.

I am really loving this book-it is incredibly informative, but not gloomy or weird… actually pretty funny in places, with lots of great exercises! Love this book!

I highly recommend this book. It may seem scary to read a book about death, but the author has the amazing ability to present everything you need to know and things you've never thought of before in a way that makes it difficult to put this book down. I read it in three sittings and only WISH I had had this book when I was a teenager and so many other times in my life. It would have helped me immensely when I had cancer ten years ago in my thirties. At the time, I looked for books and read a few, but there was nothing like this that would have gently guided me with humor and reassurance through so many of the issues, practicalities, and fears that one must deal with. I think that's the most amazing thing -- that she teaches you through preparation and knowledge that you can keep your fears in check. This book is really a gift and I feel changed and informed for the better.

Insightful and often funny, Pritchett takes a serious but gentle look at how to approach death. Making Friends with Death is a compendium of research, personal stories, practical advice, and actual worksheets for how to sidle up to the things we need to consider at the end of our lives — or the lives of our loved ones — whenever that might be. Practical and multi-faceted, this is indeed a guidebook for how to approach death with a sense of peace rather than fear or denial.