His & Hearse Press<p><a href="https://c.im/tags/AmReading" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>AmReading</span></a>: All the Living and the Dead: </p><p>From Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People Who Have Made Death Their Life's Work</p><p>By Hayley Campbell</p><p>Real talk: I was hesitant when I first saw this book because I knew it had the potential to sensationalize or demonize the funeral profession. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Hayley interviewed exceptional people and portrayed them accurately. Phew!</p><p>She didn’t shy away from the graphic nature of each person’s occupation, but she also kept it within a professional context. I appreciate her efforts to shine a light on the workers people prefer to ignore and prove that we’re compassionate and empathetic rather than a flock of vultures (fun fact: it’s actually called a “wake” of vultures).</p><p>As a funeral director and embalmer, I highly recommend this book. Everyone ought to know a bit about what happens behind closed doors before passing a broad judgement based on stereotypes. </p><p>FYI, this book covers the duties of workers in the USA and UK. Practices and laws vary by location. Here’s the book’s blurb:</p><p>“A deeply compelling exploration of the death industry and the people―morticians, detectives, crime scene cleaners, embalmers, executioners―who work in it and what led them there.</p><p>We are surrounded by death. It is in our news, our nursery rhymes, our true-crime podcasts. Yet from a young age, we are told that death is something to be feared. How are we supposed to know what we’re so afraid of, when we are never given the chance to look?</p><p>Fueled by a childhood fascination with death, journalist Hayley Campbell searches for answers in the people who make a living by working with the dead. Along the way, she encounters mass fatality investigators, embalmers, and a former executioner who is responsible for ending sixty-two lives. She meets gravediggers who have already dug their own graves, visits a cryonics facility in Michigan, goes for late-night Chinese with a homicide detective, and questions a man whose job it is to make crime scenes disappear.”</p><p><a href="https://bookshop.org/shop/hisandhearsepress" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">bookshop.org/shop/hisandhearse</span><span class="invisible">press</span></a></p><p><a href="https://c.im/tags/HisAndHearsePress" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HisAndHearsePress</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/BookRecommendations" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>BookRecommendations</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/BookRecs" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>BookRecs</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Bookstodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Bookstodon</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Bookwyrm" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Bookwyrm</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Nonfiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Nonfiction</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/DeathPositive" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>DeathPositive</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Funeral" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Funeral</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Mortician" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Mortician</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/DeathCare" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>DeathCare</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/DeathProfessional" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>DeathProfessional</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/HayleyCampbell" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HayleyCampbell</span></a></p>