On Livingby Kerry Egan (Penguin Life, £12.99). Egan, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and a hospice chaplain, has written an uplifting book on the lessons of life revealed to her by her terminally ill patients. Describing their stories as the “spiritual work of dying”, she records the hopes, regrets, sorrows and wishes of these men and women as they attempt to reflect and make sense of their past while poised on the threshold of eternity. One of her patients, Gloria, told her earnestly: “The Holy Spirit sent you to me. Maybe could help someone.”