Losing a loved one is difficult. Processing the many feelings about the loss is different for everyone.

Studies show that coming to terms with ones mortality can be achieved through a better understanding of end-of-life. As “epiloguers,” we strive to collaboratively create our concluding piece at the end of our journey, facing the reality of death, and embracing a positive approach to living each day.

The Epiloguers Book Club aims to create a safe space for people to gather and discuss death and dying.

Sign up for book clubs at Glendora Bookshop by email, call/text, or just stop in and inquire. This group is facilitated by community member Karen Quasney, we’re happy to connect you with her. This group meets on the last Thursday of every other month.

August’s “The Epiloguers” selection is Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End by Alia Arthur. Be sure to snag your copy at Glendora Bookshop. (Book club members take 10% off book club reads!) Join us in August to discuss!

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | New York Times' Staff Favorite Book of the Year | Boston Globe Best Book of the Year

A deeply transformative memoir that reframes how we think about death and how it can help us lead better, more fulfilling and authentic lives, from America’s most visible death doula.

For her clients and everyone who has been inspired by her humanity, Alua Arthur is a friend at the end of the world. As our country’s leading death doula, she’s spreading a transformative message: thinking about your death—whether imminent or not—will breathe wild, new potential into your life.

Warm, generous, and funny AF, Alua supports and helps manage end-of-life care on many levels. The business matters, medical directives, memorial planning; but also honoring the quiet moments, when monitors are beeping and loved ones have stepped out to get some air—or maybe not shown up at all—and her clients become deeply contemplative and want to talk. Aching, unfinished business often emerges in this spiritual journey. Alua has been present for thousands of these sacred moments—when regrets, fears, secret joys, hidden affairs, and dim realities are finally said aloud. When this happens, Alua focuses her attention at the pulsing center of her clients’ anguish and creates space for them, and sometimes their loved ones, to find peace.

This has had a profound effect on Alua, who was already no stranger to death’s periphery. Her family fled a murderous coup d’état in Ghana in the 1980s. She has suffered major, debilitating depressions. And her dear friend and brother-in-law died of lymphoma. Advocating for him in his final months is what led Alua to her life’s calling. She knows firsthand the power of bearing witness and telling the truth about life’s painful complexities, because they do not disappear when you look the other way. They wait for you.

Briefly Perfectly Human is a life-changing, soul-gathering debut, by a writer whose empathy, tenderness, and wisdom shimmers on the page. Alua Arthur combines intimate storytelling with a passionate appeal for loving, courageous end-of-life care. Hers is a powerful testament to getting in touch with something deeper in our lives, by embracing the fact of our own mortality. “Hold that truth in your mind,” Alua says, “and wondrous things will begin to grow around it.”

• A Guide to Dying Well: Learn from America’s most visible death doula how thinking about the end can transform the way you live, offering a powerful testament to getting in touch with something deeper in our lives.

• Navigating Grief and Loss: Journey through intimate, life-changing stories—from fleeing a coup in Ghana to advocating for a dying loved one—that reveal the power of bearing witness to life’s painful complexities.

• Finding Purpose Through Service: Discover how Alua Arthur found her life’s calling at her brother-in-law’s bedside, a profound experience that shaped her mission to provide loving, courageous end-of-life care.

• The Power of Human Connection: In thousands of sacred moments with her clients, Alua creates space for regrets, fears, and secret joys to be spoken, fostering peace and honoring the quiet moments at the end of the world.