• The best books on Grief - Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
  • The best books on Grief - Broken Hierarchies: Poems 1952-2012 by Geoffrey Hill
  • The best books on Grief - Late Fragments: Everything I Want To Tell You (About This Magnificent Life)
  • The best books on Grief - With the End in Mind: Dying, Death, and Wisdom in an Age of Denial by Kathryn Mannix
  • The best books on Grief - I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith

The best books on Grief, recommended by Sophie Ratcliffe

We often think of bereavement in terms of deep melancholy or gentle sadness, but “grief behaves badly and grief is risk-taking”, says Sophie Ratcliffe, Oxford literary critic and author of the memoir The Lost Properties of Love. Here, she recommends five books that may act as a balm for those who have lost someone, and says that the act of reading—any book, any poem—can be consoling.

  • The best books on Ecstatic Experiences - The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James
  • The best books on Ecstatic Experiences - Moksha: Aldous Huxley's Classic Writings on Psychedelics and the Visionary Experience by Aldous Huxley
  • The best books on Ecstatic Experiences - Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred by Jeffrey J Kripal
  • The best books on Ecstatic Experiences - When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God by Tanya Luhrmann
  • The best books on Ecstatic Experiences - Centuries of Meditations by Thomas Traherne

The best books on Ecstatic Experiences, recommended by Jules Evans

States of ecstasy (from the ancient Greek ekstasis, meaning ‘standing outside’) are moments when you lose your ordinary sense of self and feel connected to something greater than you. It can be euphoric, but it can also be terrifying, says the philosopher Jules Evans. Here he selects five books that explore the significance and power of these surprisingly common experiences.