Cemetery Stories: Haunted Graveyards, Embalming Secrets, and the Life of a Corpse After Death

by Katherine Ramsland

Book Overview

Never look at a grave the same way again Admit it: You're fascinated by cemeteries. We all die, and for most of us, a cemetery is our final resting place. But how many people really know what goes on inside, around, and beyond them? Enter the world of the dead as Katherine Ramsland talks to mortuary assistants, gravediggers, funeral home owners, and more, and find out about: Stitching and cosmetic secrets used on mutilated bodies Embalmers who do...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 006018518X
• ISBN13: 9780060185183
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Dey Street Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Great morbid fun

This book answers questions you didn't even know you had about what happens to people's bodies when they die. It's disturbing in places, but it's also funny, engaging, and refreshingly open about the only subject that modern Americans find more difficult to talk about than sex. Before I read this, I had no idea that there was a word for my fascination with cemeteries and funerary customs. Now I know that I'm a proud taphophile, and if you really enjoy this book, you are too.

Cemetary Stories

Fanatstic! i took this on vacation with me and my mother is currently reading it! We are all gonna die, and this is "the" definitive title on the whole process! i want more! This was so well written, so, pardon the pun, "dead on the money", i just couldn't put it down! Now i know what i and my loved ones will "face" so to speak and it is refreshing to have a clue, about death, body changes, funeral experiances etc. i work for Borders and i put it on "staff reccommends" this month in our store! i feel because of this knowledge i know what to face in my mothers' and my "arrangements"- give this book a try, it is written with humor and honesty and i will most definitely read more of Ms. Ramslands' books!

Fascinating look about the business of death

Though not a book for the squeamish, it is a nonetheless engrossing work on the business of death. Ms. Ramsland wanted to know about a subject that no one really likes to think about, so she went to the experts, from morticians to funeral directors to cemetery caretakers. She touched on everything from buying the "right" coffin, to whether or not to creamate, to tracing the writings on gravestones. Being a ghosthunter, I especially enjoyed her sharing the experience she had in a allegedly haunted cemetery, and I was touched as well by the story of how her and some friends celebrated the Day of The Dead in Mexico.I'm sure there are people who would read this book with a cocked eyebrow, but those people would be finishing it perhaps a little more informed. I know I learned quite a bit from it!

not for people who are easily disturbed

this book was EXTREMELY fascinating! I think the author covered everything you want (and don't want)to know about what goes on after you die. You will find out things about certain peoples fascinations, that you would never dream exists. Read with caution, but thouroughly enjoy!

ENTERTAINING...INFORMATIVE

After reading many books about life after death, I realize what happens to your body after death doesn't really matter. But I did want to know what goes on when a body dies. This is an entertaining book, and well written.