Book Circles use Seven Year Summer (Finalist, Whistler Independent Book Awards) as a starting point for meaningful conversations around dying, grieving, and caregiving.

 

Explore such topics as:

• Facing serious illness and death and finding meaning

• The emotional and practical tasks of accompanying someone who is dying

• Manifestations of grief, including anticipatory grief

• The difference between curing and healing

• The use of metaphors in cancer care

• Building resilience in the face of illness

• The relationship between hospice volunteers and clients

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Foster reflection and conversation around:

• ​Personal experiences of death, grief, and caregiving

• Hopes, fears, and plans for our own deaths

• A space to wonder, to ask questions, to express and hear a diversity of thought

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Book Circles can be used: 

• As a basis for discussion at hospice volunteer meetings

• To foster connection between palliative care volunteers or staff members

• As an educational or fundraising event for community members 

• For small groups, church groups, or service organizations

 

Included in the Book Circle:

• Each participant receives a copy of Seven Year Summer

• Discussion Guide, with eight questions to begin the conversation

• 1-hour virtual Q&R with the author (optional)

• Designed to meet individual needs, the start, frequency, and duration of the book circle is determined by each group

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Seven Year Summer has been featured on: 

• The End-Of-Life University Podcast 

• 'A Year of Reading Dangerously' International Book Club

• Forest Dwelling: Spirituality for our Wisdom Years (Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, Texas), Recommended Reading List

• Training and education for hospice volunteers and staff 

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For more information: