The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
By Sogyal Rinpoche

I've been dipping in and out of this book since my early 20s. I completely respond to one of its basic notions—self-responsibility. It's about preparing for a good death, and I've found that in having a child, you're confronted by your mortality each day as the child grows and blossoms. But every single element in our Western society is a denial of death. We don't want to think about it, which compounds the terror we feel about it. This book helps one to navigate one's way through the terror.