Describes death customs and rituals from around the world, exploring how they compare to the impersonal American system and how mourners respond best when they participate in caring for the deceased.

From the sublime (the faint sound of Mozart as you take your last breath) to the ridiculous (lessons on how to close the sagging jaw of a corpse), Tisdale leads the reader through the peaks and troughs of death with a calm, wise, and humorous hand. Advice for Future Corpses is more than a how-to manual or a spiritual bible: it is a graceful compilation of honest and intimate anecdotes based on the deaths Tisdale has witnessed in her work and life,...

In 2019 Bec Lyons traveled to six countries on a Churchill Fellowship. She was researching the human relationship to death and ceremony through alternative approaches and technologies. It was a huge effort and this book is the result. Through an extensive process of interviews and site visits, Bec met with and learned from people who are doing death differently - from funeral directors to doulas to health professionals, and everyone in between. This...