Welcome to Litsy!

American cemeteries have inspired landscape architecture, poets like Emerson, Whitman, Dickinson, and famous parks like Disneyland. They‘re also potent political tools & symbols, from Arlington to the separate African American Graveyard at Monticello. The strange, surprising story of the American cemetery comes alive in this tour across the country, from Savannah to Sleepy Hollow to Hollywood, with a journalist/veteran/grave digger at the wheel!

I found a lot of this tedious. I expected more Colin Dickey‘s Ghostland, and less cemetery guidebook. The history told here is by turns heartbreaking and rage-inducing - from the anonymity of “enslaved persons” cemeteries, and racial and economic discrimination, to the disrespect shown to the deceased and their living families in the name of capitalism. Yeah - a lot of rage. (August 2024 selection for The Morbidly Curious Bookclub)

This was a rec I saw from a fellow Litten and I enjoyed it a lot! It was really so fascinating. Definitely made me see cemeteries in a new way. I also thought learning the history of it all was so interesting. I weirded my family out as I shared with all of them the various things I learned like how/when embalming bodies started 😂

#hhc #scarathlon @dabbe

Jessica!! This was fantastic! 4 books!!! AND more yummy vegan candy???? Thank you so much for- i feel very lucky i had packages from you! I loved This one as much as the other one! I hope you are having a wonderful Halloween Season! #allhallowsreadswap #ahrs
Thank you Chelle for hosting this fun swap 🖤🧡🖤

I‘m looking to read 20 chapters. Hopefully finished my current book (tagged) and start on my next one. Need to earn some final points for my team

@Andrew65 @dabbe #20in4readathon #hhc #scarathlon

Day 8 #Scarathlon Photo Challenge - Coffin. Strangely enough, I don't own any physical books with a title or cover involving a coffin. This is one of my ebooks, and even though it's specifically about cemeteries, cemeteries are full of coffins, so I figure it counts. #TeamWhoYaGonnaCall

Part travel memoir, part history, & part anthropology, this is a fascinating examination of the USA‘s changing relationship with death and burial.

So interesting! It moves around to so many different burial sites around the country, & also examines the nature of who gets respect in death, talking about plowed over Indigenous sites, forgotten slave cemeteries, & talks of putting limits of which veterans are interred in Arlington. 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

I don‘t know what is going around right now, but I feel like I‘ve been hit by a truck.

So today is going to be a day of bed and books. ❤️

My current read for the #PhotoChallenge prompt #Black , plus guest!

#Scarathlon2023 #HHC @dabbe @Clwojick, @Liatrek, @JessClark78, @Chrissyreadit, @StayCurious, @TheDaysGoBy, @vonnie862, @LadyCait84, @Sresendez12, @Nessavamusic, @kelli7990, @JessieKB

This really hits the sweet spot of aesthetically pleasing and functionally efficient. 🤩

Fun and humorous. A light fare on a dark subject.

This is an interesting look at the history of how humans have dealt with their dead and how our biases around race, culture, and status, as well as financial incentives, have shaped these practices. Most interesting to me is how the design of modern theme parks and subdivisions is influenced by cemetery design. It's lightly peppered with Dad Jokes and an excellent follow-up to This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust.

I‘ve always loved the peace of cemeteries, one of my favorites being Riverside Cemetery in Asheville NC. I got a little thrill when the author said it‘s one of his favorites too.

I guess I assumed that as long as there were humans there were cemeteries. It‘s interesting the way death practices change.

There is a place in CA where you can have your cremains stored inside an urn shaped like a book in a library of such urns. Tempting?

Ahhh vacation reads... rather untraditional just like me to geek out over yet another unique history. I couldn't help but keep sharing tidbits with my husband "...did you know this...", "...oh listen to this..." towards the end I'm sure he was feeling the same way the authors wife, Ann Marie, was rolling her eyes over the author's endless fascination with cemeteries/memorial lands...

There are no ghost stories in here that‘s for sure. The physicality of graveyards are what we have here. The parts about how racism and classism affects where people are buried is pretty interesting. I liked the chapter on Chapel of the Chimes, Julia Morgan and cremation. I skimmed parts.

Why? I think the answer is just that people aren‘t willing to do the the work or pay for the work of having the bodies moved. I‘ve found this fascinating for a long time.

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This was so fascinating! Not only is it an excellent look at cemeteries in America, but a look back at parts of our history that gets overlooked. Cemeteries can inform us of our past & the treatment of others more than you would think. Melville provides a lot of food for thought regarding the things we as a country/society are still reckoning with today that are often reflected in our cemeteries. I need to get my own copy!

I‘m starting this one. I almost got this for my friend for her birthday last month. I‘m checking it out before giving it to anybody 😁. She likes visiting grave yards. We spent some quality time is graveyards in our late teens and early twenties.

Had an unexpected snow day today. I thought I‘d take advantage of my sudden day off by getting some reading time in. Made some progress in the tagged book before the dogs decided that I‘d been staring at the book and not them for far too long. #WinterReadathonDailyChallenge #WinterReadathon