Obit.: Inspiring Stories of Ordinary People Who Led Extraordinary Lives

by Jim Sheeler

Book Overview

Like Everything I Really Needed to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten, or Tuesdays with Morrie, Obit is a wise and deeply moving book that illuminates the human condition. For ten years, Jim Sheeler has scoured Colorado looking for subjects whose stories he will tell for the last time. Most are unknowns, but that doesn't mean they're nobodies. Their obituaries are sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking, and chock full of life lessons...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143113836
• ISBN13: 9780143113836
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.7" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

It's nothing to be afraid of.....

There is a quiet dignity in the lives of everyday people. Look at the obituary pages and there are stories. Jim Sheeler began his career as a feature obituary writer in the weekly Boulder Planet and then moved to The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News. Now he authors a weekly feature obituary. Obit features some of those stories. Taking the snippets of information from obituaries, he seeks out family and friends to create a more intimate portrait of the deceased. Along the way he shares their hopes and dreams, their struggles and joys. Within these portraits are the wisdom of many years, memories of the old ways and of Colorado before its expansion, and lessons on living and dying well, as well as heartbreak and tragedy. Far from being morbid or dull, these brief features capture some of the best we see mirrored in each of us. In this increasingly disconnected world, it is a gift to take the time to get to know our neighbors. Sadly, sometimes it only comes after death.

"OBIT"

"Obit"; Inspiring Stories of Ordinary People Who Led Extraordinary Lives by, Jim Sheeler is the literary equivalent of the old potato chip slogan: "I'll bet you can't eat just one!" You can't just read one of these stories and not open up the bag and grab another...and another...and another. Sheeler's "Obit" is addicting and soulfully gratifying. To my knowledge, most hotels and motels throughout this country still have a copy of the bible in each room for their patrons. I think it should be mandatory that each one of those motels place a copy of "Obit" next to those bibles. After all, Death is the best inspiration of life that I know of (author, Thomas Lynch would agree with me). Here is a collection of stories about real people, real lives, real death, real writting and...real inspiration!! By this book and keep it next to your bible, or...in your suitcase, or...carry it where ever you may go. If, you appreciate good stories, and superb writting then... this book is for YOU!

Obit by Jim Scheeler

Outstanding compilation of ways to handle grief and a great and gentle way of honoring the fallen.

Obit is more than just dead people

Jim Sheeler's Obit is a great insight into ordinary people's lives. Jim is a picturesque writer who won a Pulitzer Prize for this book. It is an easy and entertaining read that will get you to think twice about how you live your life. Then when you finish this book try his new book Final Salute -- a much more somber yet important story that needed to be told.

An Obit Collection Meant to Be Savored

Jim Sheeler notes in his introduction: "The death beat is supposed to be the worst job in the newsroom. For those of us who understand, it's journalism's best kept secret -- a place of raw emotion and endless wisdom, a place where you find lessons of life more brilliant that anything you'll find from the traditionally designated 'noteworthy' people who usually appear in the rest of the newspaper." I've been writing obits for years, yet after reading this book I now aspire to cover the death beat like Sheeler does -- with compassion and grace. The deceased are the main focus of each chapter, but Sheeler is there too, buried in the spaces between each inked line. A master wordsmith and medium, he has the uncanny ability to give a voice to ghosts and record their legacy. Read this collection, and you too will hear the whispered tales of nurses and bartenders, pilots and farmers, mountain makers and carousel caretakers. Take your time, though. "Obit" is simply too rich to read in one sitting. This collection of "inspiring stories of ordinary people who led extraordinary lives" is meant to be savored. As such, I devoted the last half hour of each day to a different deceased man or woman, then carried their stories into Morpheus' realm. There they inspired my dreams. And when I woke up, hours later, the dead were alive once again, filling my mind with thoughts of love, loss, courage and generosity.