Status Updates From Corpses, Coffins, and Crypt...

This book is doing its job. Plenty of not nice mixed in with the more neutral or, occasionally, funny (just coming off the guy with the parking meters next to his stone), but all presented in a calm and factual tone. Which is sort of palliative for me. But also, *not* impersonal, because the author nicely brings in her own experiences and those of people she knows in ways that always elucidate what she is saying.

I included this book in a recent library display: "OBJECT LESSONS: Microhistories and Books About Things." The cover got my attention every time I walked by, so I finally checked it out. That was a while ago and I didn't know if I was going to end up reading it, but coming off "La Catastrophe," I find that I want something a little kinder and more reassuring about death. Because that was very sad.