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There are literally hundreds of books written for those struggling with widowhood. Many offer valuable perspective from someone who shared your experience and now wants to help and support you in your own journey. Books, like articles, podcasts, and blogs can be helpful at some point in your experience, usually “down the road” from early widowhood. We’ve chosen the favorites from our own bookshelf to give you a place to start. This curated list of books are among those we’ve read or authors we know personally. We’re always adding to the list, so please check back often.
by Kathleen M. Rehl, Ph.D., CFP
A husband’s death is possibly the most devastating event a woman will experience. She might wonder if she will be able to make it on her own. She may feel overwhelmed and not know what to do next without her partner. Kathleen’s guidebook helps widows be more confident, knowledgeable and secure about their money matters. The book integrates basic financial information with self-reflective exercises that encourage financial self-assurance. Kathleen is honest about her own struggles as a widow, and she holds empathy for others. This unique guidebook is presented in a beautiful format, to help heal a woman’s soul as well as gently focus on money matters.
by Alexandra Armstrong & Mary R. Donahue Ph.D.
In the completely updated and revised edition of this best-selling classic, the authors share the stories of four widows of different ages and circumstances whose road to recovery illustrates how to best achieve emotional and financial well-being. They provide practical tools and knowledge for widows to move forward and emerge stronger—from coping with grief and loss and organizing finances to understanding investments and developing a long-term plan.
by Nancy Dunnan
For recently widowed women, times are hard enough without having to worry about money. Unfortunately, many women are left in financial chaos after a spouse’s death-and become vulnerable to costly mistakes and even outright scams. With this in mind, one of today’s foremost financial experts has put together a step-by-step guide specifically for widows. Thorough and accessible, it addresses a wide range of legal and financial issues, including estates, taxes, IRAs and 401(k)s, government benefits, business, budgeting, re-marriage, investments, scams and frauds, housing and more.
by Debra Morrison
Are you widowed, or do you know a widow who is fearful about her new-found state—emotionally and financially? Want a thorough guide to follow so you can move through grief emotionally in order to make smart financial decisions? If your answer to these questions is yes, yet you didn’t know who you could trust, look no further. In My Husband Died, Now What? A Widow’s Guide to Grief Recovery & Smart Financial Decisions you’ll get the emotional coaching to help you move through your grief from a Certified Grief Coach, followed up with clear advice on how to choose a financial planner to help you through the major financial decisions you’ll face.
by Mark Colgan
A week before 9/11, Mark Colgan lost his wife to heart disease. In the span of a single day, he went from waking up next to her to planning her burial. Even for a Certified Financial Planner™, the mountain of financial and legal details that spanned the next year of his life was overwhelming. Whether you’re a surviving spouse, partner, child, or friend, Death’s Red Tape guides you gently through the financial and administrative process following the death of a loved one.
by AJ Coleman
AJ Coleman was devastated when he lost his wife to cancer, leaving him alone to raise their baby daughter. He felt an almost debilitating mourning as he faced this and other challenges—becoming a single father, accepting his hearing impairment, learning to deal with anxiety and panic attacks, and recovering from job losses. Keep Those Feet Moving is his gift to other widowers and people suffering losses and challenges to encourage you with his heartfelt advice gleaned from his journey. He offers actions you can take to move beyond difficulties and toward happiness.
by Gary Sturgis
The death of a spouse or close loved one is one of the most devastating experiences an individual suffers. Whether it is sudden or after a prolonged illness, the death and subsequent grief are life-changing. One day you’re together, and the next day you’re not. You feel like life will never be “normal” again.
by Abel Keogh
Men and women grieve differently. Though both feel the pain and sorrow that come with losing a spouse, widowers start dating much sooner than widows—usually within the first year of their wife’s passing. While there’s nothing wrong with dating again that quickly, widowers often get into relationships before they’re emotionally ready to take that step. That causes problems for them and the women they’re with. That’s where The Ultimate Dating Guide for Widowers comes in. Drawing on the success stories and learning experiences of Joe Biden, Thomas Edison, Peirce Brosnan, and Paul McCartney, this book specifically addresses questions, concerns, and needs of widowers.
by Herb Knoll
As a bank executive, Herb Knoll was known as a man who could get the job done. But when Knoll lost his wife to cancer he found few resources that could help him recover. And the more he learned about the plight of widowers, from high suicide rates to physical and emotional problems, the more he became motivated to write a book with fellow widowers, for fellow widowers.
by G. J. Schaefer
There are distinct differences in the manners in which men and women grieve. Men in particular keep grief to themselves, maintain emotional control, and refrain from asking for help. Divided into three parts, “Picking up the Pieces,” “Healing from Within,” and “Giving Back to Others,” The Widower’s Tool Box offers men who have lost their partners a guide to helping identify and resolve the issues overwhelming them and to repairing their lives and moving forward.
by Paul Kalanithi, MD
Devine offers a profound new approach to both the experience of grief and the way we help others who have endured tragedy.
by Fred Colby
In Widower to Widower, I’ve compiled the most vital information I could find on the widower experience into one book, so the reader does not have to search as hard as I had to do. I include many critical issues not addressed in other publications. This can be raw and brutal at times, much like the grieving process itself. This second edition includes 60 additional pages of research, insights, resources, and a men’s grief group guide.
by Kristin Meekhof and James Windell M.A.
An inspiring, accessible, and empowering grief book for widows on how to navigate the unique challenges of widow grief and create a hopeful future. When Kristin Meekhof lost her husband to cancer, she discovered what all widows learn: the moment you experience the death of a spouse, you must make crucial decisions that will impact the rest of your life. But where do you begin when your world is suddenly turned upside down?
by Audra O’Neil
At the Helm: The Young Widow’s Journey from Struggle to Strength is a balance between stories of real-life widows, research, and practicality. It focuses on what young widows worry about, feel, and do after the death of a partner, by sharing relatable strategies to help with healing and feeling whole again. Ultimately, this book is a lighthouse on the shore, showing us that wisdom and growth can emerge from struggle, sadness, and the loss of a spouse.
by Joanne Cacciatore, PhD
Organized into fifty-two short chapters, Bearing the Unbearable is a companion for life’s most difficult times, revealing how grief can open our hearts to connection, compassion, and the very essence of our shared humanity. Dr. Joanne Cacciatore—bereavement educator, researcher, Zen priest, and leading counselor in the field—accompanies us along the heartbreaking path of love, loss, and grief.
by Pat Miles and Suzanne Watson
The notion of planning for one’s death is intrinsically at odds with our human instinct to avoid considering our own mortality. Although we may contemplate the grief that our life’s impermanence would cause to our loved ones, we seldom consider the myriad of emotional and legal issues that can arise afterward. Before All Is Said and Done begins with the experience of author Pat Miles Zimmerman and her husband, Charles Bucky Zimmerman. Pat and Bucky were fully set for life but, regrettably, not set for death. After Bucky’s death from an abrupt and short illness, Pat found herself with a plate full of unanticipated emotions, decisions, and legal problems.
by Caryn Sullivan
Are you widowed, or do you know a widow who is fearful about her new-found state—emotionally and financially? Want a thorough guide to follow so you can move through grief emotionally in order to make smart financial decisions? If your answer to these questions is yes, yet you didn’t know who you could trust, look no further. In My Husband Died, Now What? A Widow’s Guide to Grief Recovery & Smart Financial Decisions you’ll get the emotional coaching to help you move through your grief from a Certified Grief Coach, followed up with clear advice on how to choose a financial planner to help you through the major financial decisions you’ll face.
by Carole Brody Fleet
Happily Even After answers the most common questions that the widowed generally have both immediately following a spouse’s death as well as months and even years thereafter. These questions are excerpted from thousands of actual letters received by the author and the responses are from the author’s own perspective; based upon considerable personal and professional experience and insight.
by Martha W. Hickman
Daily meditations for people who grieve.
by Michelle Steinke-Baumgard
Healthy Healing addresses the physical, mental, and emotional effects of grief in a way that no other book in the category has ever done, offering a 12-week plan that empowers you to work through loss by using the power of exercise and endorphins, and rediscovering happiness by strengthening body, mind and spirit through fitness.
by Therese Rando, Ph.D.
A bereavement specialist and author of Loss and Anticipatory Grief leads you gently through the painful but necessary process of grieving and helps you find the best way for yourself.
by Megan Devine
Devine offers a profound new approach to both the experience of grief and the way we help others who have endured tragedy.
by Susan VandePol
“During those last few months, the pressure was something of another world and as earthly life wept, the bleeding of our hearts began to mingle with eternity and hovered in a strange vapor. There was no song to be heard; just the rhythm of waiting; and life held its breath.” “The truth of what is ahead for you must be found in God’s Word. You will see there that you are meant to be one of His greatest allies in these times of faint hearts and tribulation. As a widow, you have been called for a great and unique purpose.”
by Michelle Hoffman
Devine offers a profound new approach to both the experience of grief and the way we help others who have endured tragedy.
by Genevieve Ginsburg
In this remarkably useful guide, widow, author, and therapist Genevieve Davis Ginsburg offers fellow widows — as well as their family and friends — sage advice for coping with the loss of a husband.
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