Hadley Vlahos is charming, empathetic, and pushed. She is a mother of three and a spouse. She has a TikTok account with over 1.7 million followers. And she or he helps folks die.

Vlahos is a hospice nurse, which means she spends her days comforting and caring for people who find themselves going by way of what she calls “the in-between”—the ultimate days, weeks, or months main as much as their dying. She just lately turned her 10 years of expertise watching—and serving to—her sufferers cross over right into a e book, The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters Throughout Life’s Ultimate Moments, which got here out in June and spent 14 weeks on the New York Occasions bestseller checklist. If you happen to learn it, you’ll shortly perceive its success: By heartwarming tales about her sufferers and the teachings Vlahos has realized from alongside the best way, dying begins to appear rather less like a giant black gap and just a little extra non secular, peaceable, and possibly even magical. So we’re thrilled to pick out The In-Between as our November SELF Properly-Learn Ebook Membership decide.

Now, we all know you is perhaps pondering: Huh, just a little glum for the cheery vacation season, dontchya suppose? However we selected this e book now for a cause: The reality is that the vacations do deliver up emotions of grief for many people. Whether or not that is your first winter and not using a sure liked one otherwise you’re coping with one thing like anticipatory grief—maybe somebody in your life is significantly ailing—the entire over-the-top cheer can find yourself feeling extraordinarily painful.

Even if you happen to aren’t acutely experiencing grief or loss, there’s one thing you’ll be able to glean from Vlahos’s story. Demise is the one true certainty in life—the one factor all of us are assured to have in frequent—and but there’s so little we truly learn about what occurs within the instant moments earlier than, throughout, and after. If you happen to’re the kind of particular person cautious of addressing the D-word, The In-Between is an totally therapeutic learn. It’s additionally a wonderful meditation on what it means to be a caregiver—so if you happen to or somebody identifies as such, possibly they need to learn it too.

We hope this month’s decide seems like a heat hug this vacation season. Purchase the e book beneath, tell us what you suppose by emailing us at letters@self.com, and keep tuned for a Q&A with Vlahos on all issues dying, dying, and caregiving on self.com quickly!