In Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, A Young Man, and the Last Great Lesson (1997), Mitch Albom, a Detroit Free Press columnist, chronicles his visits with his dying former college professor and mentor Morrie, recalling stories of Morrie's life journey.

I Remain in Darkness (1997), published in English in 1999, is Annie Ernaux's touching, troubled account of her mother's illness, decline, and eventual death in an extended care facility. The basis for the actual memoir was compiled from scraps of paper filled with Ernaux's painful scribblings.

Death Be Not Proud (1949), by John Gunther, is a father's classic memoir and celebration of his son's life, who died of a brain tumor at age seventeen.

On Death and Dying is a classic by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, first published in 1969. One of the famous psychological studies of the late twentieth century, Kübler-Ross...