How to Have the Tough Conversation: Viva Editions Authors Allen Klein, Sheila Himmel, and Fran Smith Discuss How to Talk About End-of-Life Care

Allen Klein, author of Always Look on the Bright Side, recently featured Changing the Way We Die: Compassionate End-of-Life Care and the Hospice Movement by Sheila Himmel and Fran Smith on Examiner. For people "who are not sure what hospice is, or does, it is cause for celebration that a recently published book titled Changing the Way We Die (Viva Editions, 2013), clearly looks at the hospice landscape with encouraging stories from patients, families and caregivers." Changing the Way We Die helps broach the subject no one wants to talk about-death-in an accessible way.

Sheila Himmel and Fran Smith featured Allen Klein on their blog at Psychology Today about how to find humor in otherwise grief-filled situation. "Klein's aim is not to entertain, but to help people use humor to deal with life's most stressful situations." These situations range from job-burnout to dealing with grief and the death of a loved one.

Changing the Way We Die
Compassionate End-of-Life Care and the Hospice Movement
By Fran Smith and Sheila Himmel

Once viewed with suspicion as a New Age indulgence or fringe religious practice, hospice has become a $14 billion-a-year business and arguably the most successful segment of health care in America. In Changing the Way We Die, award-winning journalists Fran Smith and Sheila Himmel investigate what hospice means to today's aging population and their families. It's the first book to take a sweeping look at the hospice landscape, reporting the stories of patients, caregivers and cutting-edge researchers, as well as the corporate giants that increasingly own this market.

Always Look on the Bright Side
Celebrating Each Day to the Fullest
By Allen Klein

We often think of celebrations as centering around special occasions-birthdays, anniversaries or other holidays. But why wait for those times when every single day contains moments of merriment? The very fact that you are alive in this wondrous world is reason enough to revel. That's just what this book is all about: over 500 suggestions for living life to the fullest.