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The Whole Death Catalog: A Lively Guide to the Bitter End
The Whole Death Catalog: A Lively Guide to the Bitter End
The Whole Death Catalog: A Lively Guide to the Bitter End
Audiobook15 hours

The Whole Death Catalog: A Lively Guide to the Bitter End

Written by Harold Schechter

Narrated by Patrick Lawlor

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

In the tradition of Mary Roach's bestselling Stiff and Jessica Mitford's classic expose The American Way of Death comes this meticulously researched and refreshingly irreverent look at death from acclaimed author Harold Schechter. With his trademark fearlessness and bracing sense of humor, Schechter digs deep into a wealth of sources to unearth a treasure trove of surprising facts, amusing anecdotes, practical information, and timeless wisdom about that undiscovered country to which we will all one day travel. Topics include:

- Death anxiety-is your fear of death normal or off the scale?

- You can't take it with you . . . or can you? Wacky wills and bizarre bequests

- The hospice experience-going out in comfort and style

- Deathbed and funeral etiquette-how to help the dying and mourn the dead with dignity

- Death on demand-why the right-to-die movement may be the next big thing

- "Good-bye everybody"-famous last words
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 26, 2019
ISBN9781977348807
The Whole Death Catalog: A Lively Guide to the Bitter End
Author

Harold Schechter

Harold Schechter is an American true-crime writer who specializes in serial killers. Twice nominated for the Edgar Award, he is the author of the nonfiction books Fatal, Fiend, Bestial, Deviant, Deranged, Depraved, The Serial Killer Files, The Mad Sculptor, Man-Eater, the Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestseller Hell’s Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men, and the Amazon Original Stories collection Bloodlands. Schechter attended the State University of New York in Buffalo. A professor emeritus at Queens College, Schechter is married to the poet Kimiko Hahn. For more information, visit www.haroldschechter.com.

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Reviews for The Whole Death Catalog

Rating: 3.88 out of 5 stars
4/5

25 ratings5 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Funny, yet extraordinarily educational. You will learn more than you can imagine from this book and have some laughs along the way. I loved it.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Chapter 1 (clears throat) Whose death "myth" is dumber? Guess who...? ? ✝️
    To quote the author, quoting John Lennon "whatever gets You through the night" ?
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Very informative yet enterntaining. Loved that the narrator manages to engage a connection with the listener. Recommended.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    If you've not read very much about death before, then this is certainly a good place to start. If you're into death, then much of this book will not be surprising. Much as the title promises, this book covers the full range of things related to death. From means of disposing of the body to decomposition of it to funeral paraphernalia, this is a wide ranging look at the ways people die and memorialize. Schechter provides history of the funeral practices he discusses, as well as bizarre variations on common practices. Schechter certainly has a taste for the odd, and he has an excellent sense of humor. He laments the fact that death is now sanitized and secret; it has been taken out of people's lives, and people try to pretend it doesn't exist. This seems to be a common sentiment among those who are into death. In any case, this is a good introduction if you want a humorous look at death culture.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Everyone will eventually be faced with this topic either by accident or otherwise. This book takes a kind of whimsical approach in looking at endless topics related to this eventual demise.