What to read next
by C.S. Lewis
A Grief Observed is C. S. Lewis's unguarded record of what happened to his faith after his wife's death, and it works less like an argument than like an open wound put into words over six short sessions. Groups that finish it have usually just sat with someone's raw honesty about doubt and loss, so what tends to sit well next is either another unflinching account of grief, a steadier theological treatment of suffering, or a return to the quieter, more settled devotional voice Lewis himself was known for before Joy's death. Some leaders follow it with a longer memoir of loss to go deeper into the same soil; others prefer to pull back toward classic devotional writing as a way of exhaling after such an intense study.
Our A Grief Observed guide runs 6 sessions with 43 discussion questions.
These are guides from our own catalog, ordered by how much each book shares with A Grief Observed: subject and themes first, then the kind of group it suits, then the same author. It is an editorial comparison of what the books are about — not a ranking of which is better, and not a claim about what other groups chose.
by Jerry Sittser
Like Lewis, Sittser writes from inside catastrophic loss rather than about it from a safe distance, and the same refusal to offer easy comfort runs through both books. Where A Grief Observed is a compressed, six-session burst of raw notebook entries, A Grace Disguised is a much longer, 14-session memoir that slowly traces how grief can reshape a life over years rather than months.
by John Burke
Both books wrestle with what lies beyond death, though Lewis stays in the ache of not knowing while Burke reaches for evidence and hope about what comes next. Imagine Heaven is a longer, 17-session study built on research and personal accounts, giving a group a more forward-looking, hope-focused companion after sitting with Lewis's grief.
by Oswald Chambers
This is Lewis's own devotional territory in a different key: short, dense, personal entries meant to be read slowly rather than argued with. A group that appreciated the intimacy of Lewis's private notebook may find Chambers's daily meditations, spread over 13 sessions, a gentler and more settled follow-up.
by A.W. Tozer
Tozer shares Lewis's conviction that faith is a lived relationship, not a set of correct answers, and both books came out of a single urgent season of writing. The tone here is less about suffering and more about longing for God, making it a good next step for a group ready to move from grief toward devotion over 13 sessions.
by Brother Lawrence
Brother Lawrence, like Lewis, writes out of ordinary daily struggle rather than abstract theology, and both books have a plainspoken, confessional honesty. This one is shorter and calmer, seven sessions built around steady communion with God rather than the upheaval of loss.
by A.W. Tozer
Where Lewis wrote from the wreckage of his idea of God, Tozer writes to rebuild a right idea of God from the ground up, attribute by attribute. It is a much longer and more theological study at 24 sessions, better suited to a group ready to move from lament into sustained reflection on who God is.
by Timothy Keller
Keller takes up the same question Lewis lived through — how faith holds up under real suffering — but builds a broader, more argued case drawing on philosophy and story across 14 sessions. It pairs well as a sturdier, more systematic companion to Lewis's raw and personal notebook.
by Philip Yancey
Yancey asks the same hard questions Lewis asked in the middle of his own grief, and writes with a similar honesty about doubt and pain. The approach is more exploratory and less personal than Lewis's diary, spread over 13 sessions that draw on medicine, story, and Scripture together.
Session and question counts checked .