For my second career, I want to be a funeral director. Death has always fascinated me and I was really excited to read this book. I was holding my breath though, because the last book that I read on death was AWFUL. (I'm looking at you, All the Living and the Dead) But this book? It was amazing. Let's get into it!
SUMMARY
Everyone dies. No one can escape that. But for some of the most influential figures in history, death marked the start of a new adventure.
Some of these famous corpses have been stolen, sold, frozen, impersonated, stuffed and even stored in a lawyer's office. Their body parts have gone on voyages that crisscross the globe and stretch the imagination.
Counterfeiters tried to steal Lincoln's corpse. Einstein's brain went on an cross-country road trip. And after Lord Horatio Nelson died, his sailors submerged him in brandy...and drank it. Rest in Pieces by Bess Lovejoy connects the lives of the famous dead to the hilarious and horrifying adventures of their corpses and traces the evolution of cultural attitudes toward death.
MY THOUGHTS
I loved this book. It was absolutely fascinating. Who knew that death was only the beginning for these famous dead folks? It was easy to read and I loved that the book was narrow (to mimic a grave plot) and divided into sections based on the journeys each corpse took. Sections like "Lost and Found," and "Political Figures" were really fun to read and they all connected.
This is a book I will highly recommend to anyone interested in death and the handling of people after they die. I'm trying to build up my "death" collection of books, so this is definitely staying on my shelf!
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