
Good Grief
On Loving Pets, Here and Hereafter
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Narrated by:
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Eileen Stevens
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By:
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E.B. Bartels
About this listen
An unexpected, poignant, and personal account of loving and losing pets, exploring the singular bonds we have with our companion animals, and how to grieve them once they’ve passed.
E.B. Bartels has had a lot of pets—dogs, birds, fish, tortoises. As varied a bunch as they are, they’ve taught her one universal truth: to own a pet is to love a pet, and to own a pet is also—with rare exception—to lose that pet in time.
But while we have codified traditions to mark the passing of our fellow humans, most cultures don’t have the same for pets. Bartels takes us from Massachusetts to Japan, from ancient Egypt to the modern era, in search of the good pet death. We meet veterinarians, archaeologists, ministers, and more, offering an idiosyncratic, inspiring array of rituals—from the traditional (scattering ashes, commissioning a portrait), to the grand (funereal processions, mausoleums), to the unexpected (taxidermy, cloning). The central lesson: there is no best practice when it comes to mourning your pet, except to care for them in death as you did in life, and find the space to participate in their end as fully as you can.
Punctuated by wry, bighearted accounts of Bartels’s own pets and their deaths, Good Grief is a cathartic companion through loving and losing our animal family.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2022 E.B. Bartels (P)2022 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
Jake Keiser was living the life in Tampa, Florida, running a high-powered PR firm and juggling drink dates, shopping sprees, and charity galas. But at age thirty-eight, following a failed marriage, a series of miscarriages, and a still-blistering breakup, she began to suffer from extreme anxiety. Hit with the realization that no amount of Botox could fill the hole in her heart, she decided to make the impulse purchase of a lifetime and bought a farm in the middle of nowhere, Mississippi.
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Strong start, good perspective
- By Katerina on 01-13-24
By: Jake Keiser
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Heretic
- A Memoir
- By: Jeanna Kadlec
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Jeanna Kadlec knew what it meant to be faithful--in her marriage to a pastor’s son, in the comfortable life ahead of her, in her God--but there was no denying the truth that lived under that conviction: she was queer and, if she wanted to survive, she would need to leave behind the church and every foundational building block she knew. Heretic is a memoir of rebirth. Within, Kadlec reckons with religious trauma and Midwestern values, as a means of unveiling how evangelicalism directly impacts every American--religious or not--and has been a major force in driving our democracy towards fascism.
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Average story about faith and being LGBTQ
- By A. Sampson on 11-26-23
By: Jeanna Kadlec
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I Can't Save You
- A Memoir
- By: Anthony Chin-Quee
- Narrated by: Anthony Chin-Quee
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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At first glance, Anthony Chin-Quee looks like a traditional success story: a smart, ambitious kid who grew up to become a board-certified otolaryngologist—an ear, nose, and throat surgeon. Yet the truth is more complicated. As a self-described “not white, mostly Black, and questionably Asian man,” Chin-Quee knows that he doesn’t fit easily into any category. Growing up in a family with a background of depression, he struggled with relationships, feelings of inadequacy, and a fear of failure that made it difficult for him to forge lasting bonds with others.
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A great read by the author
- By A. Li on 04-10-23
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They Called Us Exceptional
- And Other Lies That Raised Us
- By: Prachi Gupta
- Narrated by: Prachi Gupta
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Family defined the cultural identity of Prachi and her brother, Yush, connecting them to a larger Indian American community amid white suburbia. But their belonging was predicated on a powerful myth: the idea that Asian Americans, and Indian Americans in particular, have perfected the alchemy of middle-class life, raising tight-knit, high-achieving families that are immune to hardship. Molding oneself to fit this image often comes at a steep, but hidden, cost.
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Good good
- By Wild on 08-29-23
By: Prachi Gupta
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Horse Barbie
- A Memoir
- By: Geena Rocero
- Narrated by: Geena Rocero
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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As a young femme in 1990s Manila, Geena Rocero heard, “Bakla, bakla!,” a taunt aimed at her feminine sway, whenever she left the tiny universe of her eskinita. Eventually, she found her place in trans pageants, the Philippines’ informal national sport. When her competitors mocked her as a “horse Barbie” due to her statuesque physique, tumbling hair, long neck, and dark skin, she leaned into the epithet. By seventeen, she was the Philippines’ highest-earning trans pageant queen.
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Heart felt narration by author. Trail blazer woman!
- By T. Li on 03-25-25
By: Geena Rocero
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A Life Impossible
- Living with ALS: Finding Peace and Wisdom Within a Fragile Existence
- By: Steve Gleason, Jeff Duncan
- Narrated by: Daniel Cummings
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2011, three years after leaving the NFL, Steve Gleason was diagnosed with ALS, a terminal disease that paralyzes the entire body. Doctors gave him three years to live. He was thirty-four years old. As Steve says, he is now ten years past his expiration date. His memoir is the chronicle of a remarkable life, one filled with optimism and joy, despite the trauma and pain and despair he has experienced.
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Willing fight and transformation with ALS
- By Ron S on 12-20-24
By: Steve Gleason, and others
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Something in the Woods Loves You
- By: Jarod K. Anderson
- Narrated by: Jarod K. Anderson
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Bats can hear shapes, plants can eat light, and bees can dance maps. When his life took him to a painfully dark place, the poet behind The CryptoNaturalist, Jarod K. Anderson, found comfort and redemption in these facts and the shift in perspective that comes from paying a new kind of attention to nature. Something in the Woods Loves You tells the story of the darkest stretch of a young person’s life, and how deliberate and meditative encounters with plants and animals helped him see the light at every turn.
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Great book, great narrator
- By Brandon on 09-13-24
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How She Did It
- Stories, Advice, and Secrets to Success from Fifty Legendary Distance Runners
- By: Molly Huddle, Sara Slattery
- Narrated by: Molly Huddle, Sara Slattery, Gisela Chipe, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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The road from a high school track to an Olympic starting line is long and sometimes shadowy. Obstacles like chronic injuries, under-fueled nutrition, and coercive coaching can threaten to derail careers before they’ve even begun. Frustrated by seeing young talent burn out before reaching their potential, professional distance runner Molly Huddle and college coach Sara Slattery have teamed up with trailblazing running legends and sports medicine professionals to create an essential guide to reach your running potential.
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Buy the paper copy
- By Kara Abshire on 07-20-24
By: Molly Huddle, and others
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By All Means Available
- Memoirs of a Life in Intelligence, Special Operations, and Strategy
- By: Michael G. Vickers
- Narrated by: Michael G. Vickers
- Length: 20 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1984, Michael Vickers took charge of the CIA’s secret war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. After inheriting a strategy aimed at imposing costs on the Soviets for their invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, Vickers transformed the covert campaign into an all-out effort to help the Afghan resistance win their war. More than any other American, he was responsible for the outcome in Afghanistan that led to the end of the Cold War. In By All Means Available, Vickers recounts his remarkable career.
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Great listen, interesting information
- By Amazon Customer on 08-02-23
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For Such a Time as This
- On Being Jewish Today
- By: Elliot Cosgrove
- Narrated by: Elliot Cosgrove
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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For Jews today, the attack on Israel on October 7th has drawn a clear and irreversible demarcation in time. On that day, the Jewish community woke up to an unrecognizable new reality, witnessing the stark rise in antisemitism, the world’s oldest hatred, in its wake. But even in this dark hour, the Jewish community is experiencing something profound and beautiful: a deep, abiding connection to community, culture, and faith. Drawing on the rich trove of Jewish history and tradition, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove helps listeners make sense of this fraught time.
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Wise & heartfelt analysis of our times…and a way forward.
- By Henry L. Edwards, MAPP on 10-25-24
By: Elliot Cosgrove
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A Few Days Full of Trouble
- Revelations on the Journey to Justice for My Cousin and Best Friend, Emmett Till
- By: Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr., Christopher Benson
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 14 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1955, fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was lynched. That remains an undisputed fact of the case that ignited a flame within the Civil Rights Movement that has yet to be extinguished. Yet the rest of the details surrounding the event remain distorted by time and too many tellings. What does justice mean in the resolution of a cold case spanning nearly seven decades?
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Different perspective
- By Anonymous User on 01-25-23
By: Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr., and others
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Bartleby and Me
- Reflections of an Old Scrivener
- By: Gay Talese
- Narrated by: Mike Ortego
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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“New York is a city of things unnoticed,” a young reporter named Gay Talese wrote sixty years ago. He would spend the rest of his legendary career defying that statement by celebrating the people most reporters overlooked, understanding that it was through these minor characters that the epic story of New York and America unfolded. Inspired by Herman Melville’s great short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” Talese now revisits the unforgettable “nobodies” he has profiled in his celebrated career—from the New York Times’s anonymous obituary writer to Frank Sinatra’s entourage.
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Wonderful meandering
- By nyc2cents on 11-01-23
By: Gay Talese
What listeners say about Good Grief
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- MAP
- 08-18-22
Thank Heavens!
Such a delightful personal and heartfelt sharing of how we grieve out pets. Thank you EB
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1 person found this helpful
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- Stephanie Joens
- 11-07-24
Much needed reflections.
I bought this book a few years ago…not knowing when I’d find the space to read it. I recently lost both of my fur children only 17 days apart from one another. I needed this reflection. This book was so helpful and so inspiring for my own life/death journey. Thank you E.B. 🖤
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3 people found this helpful
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- Stefanie Manley
- 03-02-23
Best book I’ve ever listened to
This book honestly changed my life. I was holding on to so much grief without knowing what to do with it and this book helped me start to heal those wounds. I cried so much.
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2 people found this helpful
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- J Stryker
- 02-01-24
Great Topic, Poor Execution
Purchased this book after pet loss left me absolutely devastated. What I appreciated is the author’s dedication to validate grief for pet loss and the beginning of the book which conveyed this very meaningfully was great. However, as the book went on, it became more of a dirge that culminated in the author’s swift retelling of the passing of her parents’ dogs after having spent a ton of time on fish and birds. I nodded off at a few parts and wasn’t interested enough to go back and relisten to what I’d missed. Overall, a strong beginning that just unraveled the more it went on. The more the author revealed about herself, the less likeable she was and the credibility of the original assertions suffered for it. It ultimately became part research paper, part silver-spoon woman lamenting.
Performance wise, it was lackluster. Not horrible, but there wasn’t much polish you could put on this one.
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2 people found this helpful