THE HOT YOUNG WIDOWS CLUB

The latest installment of the TED Books series is a book “not just for those who have survived the death of a spouse, but for anyone who has loved someone who died, or who has loved someone who loved someone who died.”

In the space of a few months, McInerny (It's Okay to Laugh: (Crying Is Cool Too), 2016, etc.) lost a pregnancy, her father, and her husband. Understandably falling into a deep pit of grief, she discovered others who were stuck there as well. While she slowly rebuilt her life, she noticed that while there are plenty of assumptions about mourning and grieving people, there was no playbook for the aggrieved. In this concise exploration of “foundational loss,” the author shares her thoughts on how she made it through her most difficult moments and provides readers with the guidelines that worked for her—and didn’t. Although the subject makes for tough reading, McInerny approaches it with practicality (“order as many death certificates as you can afford”) and humor (“you have no idea how hard it is to prove someone is dead until your person dies”). Refreshingly, she breaks this grim and challenging topic into bite-sized pieces. She counsels readers to tell your loved ones that you really are not OK, that it is normal to feel like your brain is overloaded, and what to write in a sympathy card (there’s a template for those at a loss for words). Even though the book is short—as all TED Books are—it includes an impressive amount of helpful information about how anyone can deal with grief. It should be required reading for nearly everyone, since, sadly, “everyone you know will die and…each death will bring a fresh new brand of grief.”

Inspirational and candid information on a topic most of us never want to think about until we are forced to confront it.