After the End
Here is a wonderfully interesting and informative reading list about death, and what happens after. Some may consider such curiosities morbid, but these stories of post-death humanity will keep you reading. Ignore your crawling skin, fight through your fears of impending mortality, and dive into the deep end.
"From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death," by Caitlin Doughty.
Fascinated by our pervasive terror of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set out to discover how other cultures care for their dead.
"The American Way of Death Revisited," by Jessica Mitford.
Only the scathing wit and searching intelligence of Jessica Mitford could turn an exposé of the American funeral industry into a book that is at once deadly serious and side-splittingly funny.
"Remember Me: A Lively Tour of the New American Way of Death," by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen.
Cullen has created a humorous and poignant chronicle of her travels around the country to discover how Americans -- baby boomers, in particular -- are reinventing the rites of dying.
"The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains," by Thomas Walter Lacqueur.
The Greek philosopher Diogenes said that when he died his body should be tossed over the city walls for beasts to scavenge. Why should he or anyone else care what became of his corpse? In "The Work of the Dead," acclaimed cultural historian Thomas Laqueur examines why humanity has universally rejected Diogenes’s argument.
"Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye: A Journey," by Marie Matsuki Mockett.
Marie Mutsuki Mockett's family owns a Buddhist temple 25 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. In March 2011, after the earthquake and tsunami, radiation levels prohibited the burial of her Japanese grandfather's bones.
"The Way We Die Now: The View from Medicine's Front Line," by Seamus O'Mahoney.
An Irish physician explores the ways in which society has lost the ability to deal with death in this short, beautifully written book.
"The Chick and the Dead: Life and Death Behind Mortuary Doors," by Carla Valentine.
Carla Valentine works with the dead. After studying forensics, she assisted pathologists with post-mortems for years before becoming the curator of the world's most famous pathology museum. When it comes to death, she truly is an expert, and in this book she shares that expertise.
Find this article at