The most recommended books about cemeteries

Who picked these books? Meet our 27 experts.

27 authors created a book list connected to cemeteries, and here are their favorite cemetery books.
Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

What type of cemetery book?

Loading...
Loading...

The Graveyard Book

By Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean (illustrator),

Book cover of The Graveyard Book

James Hider Author Of Ripe

From James' 10-year-old's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Who am I?

Author Journalist Writer Traveler History buff Probably not an AI

James' 3 favorite reads in 2023

Plus, James' 10-year-old's favorite books.

Why did James' 10-year-old love this book?

This book has just the right of darkness to keep a kid hooked at night, and my daughter loved the ghosts from across the ages who are fighting the bad guys who want to murder the little boy they have taken under their wing in a cemetery after his family is killed.

By Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

16 authors picked The Graveyard Book as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When a baby escapes a murderer intent on killing his entire family, who would have thought it would find safety and security in the local graveyard? Brought up by the resident ghosts, ghouls and spectres, Bod has an eccentric childhood learning about life from the dead. But for Bod there is also the danger of the murderer still looking for him - after all, he is the last remaining member of the family. A stunningly original novel deftly constructed over eight chapters, featuring every second year of Bod's life, from babyhood to adolescence. Will Bod survive to be a man?


Book cover of The Whole Town's Talking

Jeff Billington Author Of Chicken Dinner News

From the list on an honest look at rural America.

Who am I?

Nearly a quarter century has passed since my childhood spent in the Ozark Mountains, but it still remains home. It’s a unique corner of America, not quite the South and not quite the Midwest, but undeniably country. Growing up there on a farm, near towns in decades-long decline, I saw the best and worst of rural life, and of the folks who call it home. That place and those people inspire me and my writing, driving me to show the Ozarks and its people as complex and ever changing. I aspire to move past the nostalgia of rural life, but not at the sacrifice of its beauty and charm.

Jeff's book list on an honest look at rural America

Why did Jeff love this book?

Many would point to Flagg’s Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café as her opus to rural America, but the broader scope of The Whole Town’s Talking pulled me in instantly.

She draws out a full history of a small town, its good and bad and the people that made their mark there, some from birth to death. Even after death, their voices remain an active part of her tale, remaining as unbashful observers from the cemetery on the hill.

So much of rural America has fallen into disrepair, as does Flagg’s fictional Elmwood Springs, but I hold out hope that the increase in telecommuting and simmering desires to leave urban (and suburban) lives behind can reinvigorate some of these sleeping villages that are spread across much of the nation. 

By Fannie Flagg,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Whole Town's Talking as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The bestselling author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is at her superb best in this fun-loving, moving novel about what it means to be truly alive.

WINNER OF THE SOUTHERN BOOK PRIZE 

Elmwood Springs, Missouri, is a small town like any other, but something strange is happening at the cemetery. Still Meadows, as it’s called, is anything but still. Original, profound, The Whole Town’s Talking, a novel in the tradition of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town and Flagg’s own Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven, tells the story of Lordor Nordstrom, his…


The Whispering Dead

By Darcy Coates,

Book cover of The Whispering Dead

Bill Thompson Author Of Callie

From the list on kick off a great series.

Who am I?

During my decades in the corporate world, I traveled extensively and spent months in England, where I became a devoted Anglophile. I am privileged to have met Queen Elizabeth II and Philip, and to have attended a knighting at Westminster. English history fascinates me, but so do gripping spy thrillers occurring in European and Middle Eastern settings. There’s nothing better than finishing a satisfying first book in a series—fiction or not--and deciding to ration the remaining ones so you can savor the experience a little longer! 

Bill's book list on kick off a great series

Why did Bill love this book?

Many of my books are ghost stories, and I enjoy finding other authors who write scary stories in that genre. Darcy Coates, a prolific author from Australia, does a wonderful job creating an eerie, spine-tingling setting and characters who will remind you of that monster you thought was in the closet. These are downright scary stories that will cause you to sleep with the light on. She has written numerous excellent stand-alone books, but her Gravekeeper series is a great way to delve into the mind of an author who has this genre nailed down tight (just like that coffin that might be hidden behind a wall in your basement)!   

By Darcy Coates,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Whispering Dead as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

USA Today bestseller and rising queen of atmospheric horror Darcy Coates returns with a ghost story that will haunt you long after the final page. She hears them whispering...
Homeless, hunted, and desperate to escape a bitter storm, Keira takes refuge in an abandoned groundskeeper's cottage. Her new home is tucked away at the edge of a cemetery, surrounded on all sides by gravestones: some recent, some hundreds of years old, all suffering from neglect.
And in the darkness, she can hear the unquiet dead whispering.
The cemetery is alive with faint, spectral shapes, led by a woman who died…


Over My Dead Body

By Greg Melville,

Book cover of Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America’s Cemeteries

Seth Mallios Author Of Cemeteries of San Diego

From the list on the reality of cemeteries across America.

Who am I?

I have inventoried hundreds of cemeteries and thousands of historic gravestones, my mentor (Jim Deetz) wrote the seminal study that brought the study of gravestones into archaeology, and I truly believe the words of former English Prime Minister William E. Gladstone, who said, “Show me the manner in which a nation or a community cares for its dead and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender sympathies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land and their loyalty to high ideals.”

Seth's book list on the reality of cemeteries across America

Why did Seth love this book?

Greg Melville’s Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America’s Cemeteries is a highly personal yet richly researched investigation into the history of U.S. cemeteries. Best of all, Melville doesn’t just study gravestones or the final resting place of famous people, he takes a deep dive into nearly every aspect of memorialization, including landscapes, mortuary practices, economics, and social rituals.

By Greg Melville,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Over My Dead Body as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A lively tour through the history of US cemeteries that explores how, where, and why we bury our dead The summer before his senior year in college, Greg Melville worked at the cemetery in his hometown, and thanks to hour upon hour of pushing a mower over the grassy acres, he came to realize what a rich story the place told of his town and its history. Thus was born Melville's lifelong curiosity with how, where, and why we bury and commemorate our dead. Melville's Over My Dead Body is a lively (pun intended) and wide-ranging history of cemeteries, places…


Book cover of Historical and Archaeological Aspects of Egyptian Funerary Culture: Religious Ideas and Ritual Practice in Middle Kingdom Elite Cemeteries

Alejandro Jiménez Serrano Author Of Descendants of a Lesser God: Regional Power in Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt

From the list on Ancient Egypt from a peripheral perspective.

Who am I?

The Egyptology permits me to make an approach to the human past. Although there were many different cultures from which the current society is heir, the survival of innumerable written documents from ancient Egypt together with the good conservation of the archaeological material, give us the possibility to feel closer to the humans who lived in the Nile Valley thousands of years ago.

Alejandro's book list on Ancient Egypt from a peripheral perspective

Why did Alejandro love this book?

This work is divided into three clearly differentiated parts.

The first delves into the development of state administration, both in the royal court and in the provinces during the third millennium BC. The second delves into the structure and organization of a cemetery contemporary with Qubbet el-Hawa, where I excavate, so it offers me a complementary perspective of analysis. Finally, Harco Williams focuses on the study of the diversity of funerary inscriptions present on the coffins of the Middle Kingdom.

By Harco Willems,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Historical and Archaeological Aspects of Egyptian Funerary Culture as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Historical and Archaeological Aspects of Egyptian Funerary Culture, a thoroughly reworked translation of Les textes des sarcophages et la democratie published in 2008, challenges the widespread idea that the "royal" Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom after a process of "democratisation" became, in the Middle Kingdom, accessible even to the average Egyptian in the form of the Coffin Texts. Rather they remained an element of elite funerary culture, and particularly so in the Upper Egyptian nomes. The author traces the emergence here of the so-called "nomarchs" and their survival in the Middle Kingdom. The site of Dayr al-Barsha, currently under…


Book cover of The American Resting Place: 400 Years of History Through Our Cemeteries and Burial Grounds

Loren Rhoads Author Of 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die

From the list on about cemeteries.

Who am I?

I grew up down the road from the little graveyard where my grandfather was buried. By accident, I discovered the glorious Victorian-era Highgate Cemetery in 1991. A friend sent me to explore Paris’s Pere Lachaise Cemetery – and I was hooked. I’ve gone from stopping by cemeteries when I travel to building vacations around cemeteries I want to see. I’ve gone out of my way to visit cemeteries in the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Japan, Spain, Singapore, and across the United States. At the moment, I’m editing Death’s Garden Revisited, in which 40 contributors answer the question: “Why is it important to visit cemeteries?”

Loren's book list on about cemeteries

Why did Loren love this book?

Even though it’s 12 years old, this is still the definitive history of burial grounds in America. I honestly cannot rave about it enough. Although the book looks dry and intimidating, I promise you it’s anything but. Yalom provides solid information about the history of burial and burial grounds in the United States, leavened with personal reflections inspired by the graveyards she visited as she researched. If anything can inspire a desire to travel to visit cemeteries, The American Resting Place will set your feet on the path.

By Marilyn Yalom,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The American Resting Place as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An illustrated cultural history of America through the lens of its gravestones and burial practices—featuring eighty black-and-white photographs.

In The American Resting Place, cultural historian Marilyn Yalom and her son, photographer Reid Yalom, visit more than 250 cemeteries across the United States. Following a coast-to-coast trajectory that mirrors the historical pattern of American migration, their destinations highlight America’s cultural and ethnic diversity as well as the evolution of burials rites over the centuries.

Yalom’s incisive reading of gravestone inscriptions reveals changing ideas about death and personal identity, as well as how class and gender play out in stone. Rich particulars…


Book cover of The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes

Sally Jenkins Author Of Little Museum of Hope

From the list on life-affirming.

Who am I?

I like books driven by characters who ride the same emotional rollercoaster as we all do in real life. Characters who love the wrong people or who lose the people they were right to love or who fail to match the norms expected by society. Characters I can empathise with, root for, and learn from. A fairytale happy ending is not necessary and can detract from the magic of a book. But I do like to be left with a feeling of hope. If a fictional character can learn to approach life more positively, then maybe I can too! This is what I try to achieve in my own books.

Sally's book list on life-affirming

Why did Sally love this book?

It takes courage to carry on living after an emotional catastrophe. Some of us never quite make it and others, like Masha in The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes, get there with a little help from unexpected places.

This book made me both laugh and cry. It is poignant and emotional but also parades crazy, colourful characters such as eccentric Elvis and Sally Red Shoes herself. This character of the book’s title has a relatively small but important part in the book, bursting into Masha’s life during her regular meanders in a Victorian graveyard. 

Have the tissues ready!

By Ruth Hogan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Ruth Hogan, the international bestselling author behind the The Keeper of Lost Things returns with an irresistible novel of unexpected friendships, second chances—and dark secrets...

They say friends make life worth living...

Once a spirited, independent woman with a rebellious streak, Masha's life was forever changed by a tragic event twelve years ago. Unable to let go of her grief, she finds comfort in her faithful canine companion Haizum, and peace in the quiet lanes of her town's swimming pool. Almost without her realizing it, her life has shuddered to a halt.

It’s only when Masha begins an unlikely friendship…


A Tomb With a View

By Peter Ross,

Book cover of A Tomb With a View: The Stories and Glories of Graveyards

Loren Rhoads Author Of 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die

From the list on about cemeteries.

Who am I?

I grew up down the road from the little graveyard where my grandfather was buried. By accident, I discovered the glorious Victorian-era Highgate Cemetery in 1991. A friend sent me to explore Paris’s Pere Lachaise Cemetery – and I was hooked. I’ve gone from stopping by cemeteries when I travel to building vacations around cemeteries I want to see. I’ve gone out of my way to visit cemeteries in the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Japan, Spain, Singapore, and across the United States. At the moment, I’m editing Death’s Garden Revisited, in which 40 contributors answer the question: “Why is it important to visit cemeteries?”

Loren's book list on about cemeteries

Why did Loren love this book?

Although Ross’s book appears to be a guide to visiting graveyards, its focus often turns toward the people who work there: gravediggers, tour guides, historians, and even memorial artists. One of my favorite essays in the book introduces a modern maker of death masks, whose work appears on three headstones in Highgate Cemetery. The eulogy for “the best-known guide at the most famous cemetery in Ireland” nearly brought me to tears.

A Tomb With A View tells the stories of the graveyards and their dead, true, but most of all Ross conveys how the relationships between the dead and those who remain behind deepen with time. A lovely, life-affirming book.

By Peter Ross,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked A Tomb With a View as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

WINNER OF THE SCOTTISH NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2021

A FINANCIAL TIMES, I PAPER AND STYLIST BOOK OF THE YEAR

'In his absorbing book about the lost and the gone, Peter Ross takes us from Flanders Fields to Milltown to Kensal Green, to melancholy islands and surprisingly lively ossuaries . . . a considered and moving book on the timely subject of how the dead are remembered, and how they go on working below the surface of our lives.' - Hilary Mantel

'Ross is a wonderfully evocative writer, deftly capturing a sense of place and history, while bringing…


Elysium

By Sandra Russell Clark,

Book cover of Elysium: A Gathering of Souls: New Orleans Cemeteries

Seth Mallios Author Of Cemeteries of San Diego

From the list on the reality of cemeteries across America.

Who am I?

I have inventoried hundreds of cemeteries and thousands of historic gravestones, my mentor (Jim Deetz) wrote the seminal study that brought the study of gravestones into archaeology, and I truly believe the words of former English Prime Minister William E. Gladstone, who said, “Show me the manner in which a nation or a community cares for its dead and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender sympathies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land and their loyalty to high ideals.”

Seth's book list on the reality of cemeteries across America

Why did Seth love this book?

This is one of the few books on cemeteries that captures the unmistakable ethereal beauty of graveyards. Sandra Clark’s spectacular photographic collection of images from some of America’s most breathtaking memorials in New Orleans brings together art and science, soliloquy and stone, and most importantly, life and death.

By Sandra Russell Clark,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Elysium as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This work is a collection of photographs of the various cemeteries in New Orleans, which attempts to capture their atmosphere and spirit.


Fresh Water for Flowers

By Valérie Perrin, Hildegarde Serle (translator),

Book cover of Fresh Water for Flowers

Dag Detter Author Of Public Net Worth: Accounting - Government - Democracy

From Dag's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Who am I?

Author Financial Doctor

Dag's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Why did Dag love this book?

Exciting, thrilling, and full of surprises as any detective story, but with the depth and colour of human beings as in a classic novel.

It was impossible to put down the book once I started. When finished, it left a strong urge to visit all the places mentioned in the book in the hope of finding something of the unbending spirit from the characters described so vividly by this brilliant author.

By Valérie Perrin, Hildegarde Serle (translator),

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Fresh Water for Flowers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF SUMMER 2021
A 2020 INDIES INTRODUCE & INDIE NEXT LIST PICK

A #1 international best-seller, Fresh Water for Flowers is an intimately told story about a woman who defiantly believes in happiness, despite it all.

Violette Toussaint is the caretaker at a cemetery in a small town in Bourgogne. Her life is lived to the predictable rhythms of the often funny, always moving confidences that casual mourners, regular visitors, and sundry colleagues share with her. Violette’s routine is disrupted one day by the arrival of Julien Sole—local police chief—who has come to scatter…


Cemetery Stories

By Katherine Ramsland,

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

Seth Mallios Author Of Cemeteries of San Diego

From the list on the reality of cemeteries across America.

Who am I?

I have inventoried hundreds of cemeteries and thousands of historic gravestones, my mentor (Jim Deetz) wrote the seminal study that brought the study of gravestones into archaeology, and I truly believe the words of former English Prime Minister William E. Gladstone, who said, “Show me the manner in which a nation or a community cares for its dead and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender sympathies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land and their loyalty to high ideals.”

Seth's book list on the reality of cemeteries across America

Why did Seth love this book?

For many of us who study cemeteries, there is a danger of thinking that these landscapes of the dead are just bodies and gravestones. Katherine Ramsland’s Cemetery Stories: Haunted Graveyards, Embalming Secrets, and the Life of a Corpse After Death is one of the few books out there that details every step between death and internment, which are just as revealing about American culture as a fancy gravestone epitaph or a biography of a deceased local celebrity.

By Katherine Ramsland,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Cemetery Stories as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

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 more than just embalm The rising popularity of cremation art Ghosts that infest graveyards everywhere

If you've ever scoffed at the high…


The Loved One

By Evelyn Waugh,

Book cover of The Loved One

Thomas H. Keels Author Of Philadelphia Graveyards and Cemeteries

From the list on boneyards (aka cemeteries and graveyards).

Who am I?

I grew up with a graveyard in my backyard: the historic Schenck-Covenhoven Graveyard in Penns Neck, New Jersey, just outside Princeton. This small square plot, filled with the 18th- and 19th-century graves of local families, served as the perfect playground for hide-and-seek and cops-and-robbers with my friends. Working as a tour guide and volunteer at Laurel Hill Cemetery for nearly thirty years, I fell in love with its rich history and its architectural and horticultural beauty. As I grow older, I have come to value cemeteries for their role as both a meeting place and a mediator between the living and the dead. 

Thomas' book list on boneyards (aka cemeteries and graveyards)

Why did Thomas love this book?

Evelyn Waugh’s 1947 visit to Hollywood to negotiate a movie deal for Brideshead Revisited was a failure. But a trip to Forest Lawn Cemetery provided the gist for The Loved One, his last great satire. Waugh transforms Forest Lawn into Whispering Glades, a grandiose Disneyland of Death where cosmetician Aimée Thanatogenos puts the finishing touches on elite Los Angelenos under the lustful eye of mortician Mr. Joyboy. The naïve Aimée meets Dennis Barlow, a British expat and failed writer who passes off the works of Tennyson and Keats as his own. When she discovers Barlow works at the Happy Hunting Ground Pet Cemetery, even advice columnist Guru Brahmin can’t console her. Waugh’s piercing prose exposes the pretense and hypocrisy of the American Way of Life (and Death). 

By Evelyn Waugh,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Loved One as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

mordant short novel about expat life in Los Angeles


Stories in Stone

By Douglas Keister,

Book cover of Stories in Stone: A Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography

Thomas H. Keels Author Of Philadelphia Graveyards and Cemeteries

From the list on boneyards (aka cemeteries and graveyards).

Who am I?

I grew up with a graveyard in my backyard: the historic Schenck-Covenhoven Graveyard in Penns Neck, New Jersey, just outside Princeton. This small square plot, filled with the 18th- and 19th-century graves of local families, served as the perfect playground for hide-and-seek and cops-and-robbers with my friends. Working as a tour guide and volunteer at Laurel Hill Cemetery for nearly thirty years, I fell in love with its rich history and its architectural and horticultural beauty. As I grow older, I have come to value cemeteries for their role as both a meeting place and a mediator between the living and the dead. 

Thomas' book list on boneyards (aka cemeteries and graveyards)

Why did Thomas love this book?

If you like visiting cemeteries, then this slender, profusely illustrated volume is a necessity. Keister, a professional photographer, covers an impressively wide variety of topics. He outlines key architectural forms and defines the meaning of floral, animal, and religious iconography. Keister goes beyond the standard New England skull-and-crossbones to identify symbols used in various regions and cultures, and discusses Hebrew, Islamic, and Chinese, and Japanese religious icons in addition to Christian motifs. He also includes handy features like an alphabetical list of acronyms of societies, clubs, and organizations to help decipher mysterious abbreviations. A concluding chapter on “Final Impressions” profiles unique and unusual memorials from around the world. Keister’s excellent photographs illustrate the various symbols succinctly. 

By Douglas Keister,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Stories in Stone as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Certain symbols abound in modern Western culture that are instantly recognizable: the cross signifies Christianity, the six-pointed Star of David is revered by Jews, the golden arches frequently means it's time for lunch. Other symbols, however, require a bit of decoding-particularly those found in cemeteries. Cemeteries are virtual encyclopedias of symbolism. Engravings on tombstones, mausoleums and memorials tell us just about everything there is to know about a person: date of birth and death as well as religion, ethnicity, occupation, community interests, and much more. In the fascinating new book Stories in Stone: The Complete Guide to Cemetery Symbolism by…


Sleeping Celeste

By Alana K. Drex,

Book cover of Sleeping Celeste

Stuart Knott Author Of Stitchface

From Stuart's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Who am I?

Author Doctor Reader Writer Critic Fanboy

Stuart's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Why did Stuart love this book?

This was a gripping gothic tale of loss, despair, and denial.

The crafting of the main character’s heartbreak into a blinkered, macabre obsession with her dead daughter is absolutely devesting and I loved the way the author painted a picture of the coffin, which gave the mother a window into her daughter’s corpse and fed that obsession rather than brought any kind of comfort.

The escalation from inconsolable grief to near-necromancy recalls the gothic horror of Stephen King’s Pet Semetary and the author expertly mixed this influence with a dash of Edgar Allen Poe to craft a tragic mother who turns to deception and murder to reunite with her daughter.

By Alana K. Drex,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Sleeping Celeste as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Book cover of Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die?

Loren Rhoads Author Of 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die

From the list on about cemeteries.

Who am I?

I grew up down the road from the little graveyard where my grandfather was buried. By accident, I discovered the glorious Victorian-era Highgate Cemetery in 1991. A friend sent me to explore Paris’s Pere Lachaise Cemetery – and I was hooked. I’ve gone from stopping by cemeteries when I travel to building vacations around cemeteries I want to see. I’ve gone out of my way to visit cemeteries in the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Japan, Spain, Singapore, and across the United States. At the moment, I’m editing Death’s Garden Revisited, in which 40 contributors answer the question: “Why is it important to visit cemeteries?”

Loren's book list on about cemeteries

Why did Loren love this book?

Any collection of famous people’s gravesites is going to be idiosyncratic. Ask 10 people whose graves they would like to visit and you will get 100 different answers. That said, this is the most entertaining and reasonably comprehensive encyclopedia of the graves of the famous that you will find outside of Find-a-Grave. I’ve gotten hours of fun from it.

Since it contains very few grave monument photographs, Where Are They Buried? includes a whole lot of people whose ashes have been scattered. I would have loved to leave a rose at the grave of John Lennon, but the Strawberry Fields mosaic in Central Park will have to do.

By Tod Benoit,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die? as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Where Are They Buried? has directed legions of fervent fans and multitudes of the morbidly curious to the graves, monuments, memorials, and tombstones of the nearly 500 celebrities and antiheroes included in the book.

The most complete and well-organized guide on the subject by far, every entry features an entertaining capsule biography full of little-known facts, a detailed description of the death, and step-by-step directions to the grave, including not only the name of the cemetery but the exact location of the gravesite and how to reach it. The book also provides a handy index of grave locations organized by…


Grave Matters

By Mark Harris,

Book cover of Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial

Elizabeth Fournier Author Of The Green Burial Guidebook: Everything You Need to Plan an Affordable, Environmentally Friendly Burial

From the list on if you literally want to go green when you die.

Who am I?

Saving the planet one death at a time is truly what the world needs now: to reduce our carbon footprint and go out in eco-friendly style. As the one-woman funeral service in the rural town of Boring, Oregon, I support the philosophy of old-school burial practices that are kinder to both humans, the earth, and our wallets. I have humbly been baptized the Green Reaper for my passionate advocacy of green burial, and as an undertaker and the owner and undertaker of Cornerstone Funeral, the first green funeral home in the Portland area. I love to devour all literature possible on green burial and environmentally friendly death care.

Elizabeth's book list on if you literally want to go green when you die

Why did Elizabeth love this book?

This is the book where it all began. Mark Harris opened up eyes and hearts to the beauty of burying our loved ones naturally and on our own terms. I had never read such a clear reality of the embalming process and how Americans morphed from simple home burial to the industrial Googleplex of the funeral business. Want to be buried in your backyard or with a sheet off your bed? Read this book! The author is a former environmental columnist with the Los Angeles Times Syndicate and his work has been featured in many fabulous places.

By Mark Harris,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Grave Matters as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Synopsis coming soon.......


The Monkey's Paw

By W.W. Jacobs,

Book cover of The Monkey's Paw

A.M. Kherbash Author Of Lesath

From the list on creepy titles you may have overlooked.

Who am I?

I grew up reading dark fiction, and the only two books I kept from that period were The Wicked Heart and Whisper of Death, both by Christopher Pike. Though both were categorized as horror, the first is a crime mystery that partly follows the murderer, while the latter feels like an episode out of The Twilight Zone. I never cared for pure horror, and a book doesn’t have to scare me for me to find them enjoyable. What I often wanted was a tangible sense of dread paired with insight into the human psyche, which I believe makes for a more potent reading experience. 

A.M.'s book list on creepy titles you may have overlooked

Why did A.M. love this book?

The Monkeys Paw is one of those short stories we either read or heard someone tell us about it. And so it goes overlooked. If you havent read it, do yourself a favor and read it. If you have read it, do yourself a favor and revisit it. Its short, its available, its a horror classic, and its very likely what Stephen King had in mind when he wrote Pet Sematary

By W.W. Jacobs,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Monkey's Paw as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Outside, the night is cold and wet. Inside, the White family sits and waits. Where is their visitor? There is a knock at the door. A man is standing outside in the dark. Their visitor has arrived. The visitor waits. He has been in India for many years. What has he got? He has brought the hand of a small, dead animal - a monkey's paw. Outside, in the dark, the visitor smiles and waits for the door to open.


Pure

By Andrew Miller,

Book cover of Pure

Jude Tresswell Author Of The Refuge Bid

From the list on featuring the lives of coal miners.

Who am I?

I write fictional, contemporary gay mysteries, but I prefer to read facts and I enjoy the research that accompanies my storytelling. Industrial history and geology fascinate me, so it isn’t any wonder that I set my tales in the Durham hills of northeast England. As some of my videos in the link show, there are many abandoned quarries, lead and coal mines in the area. I can become emotional when I think about the socio-political history of mining and quarrying. My latest tale reflects my interest in quarrying and my five recommendations reflect a passion that has its roots in the UK’s once thriving, now defunct, coal industry.

Jude's book list on featuring the lives of coal miners

Why did Jude love this book?

This final choice reprises the idea that a miner’s life was hard, though that isn’t the focus of the story. The plot sounds unpromising, but I loved Pure! Set in the time of Louis XVI, a provincial engineer is tasked with demolishing a Parisian church and relocating the bones of its graveyard. He employs a motley crew of coal miners to carry out the work as he knows they’ll have the necessary strength, stamina, and skill. One little episode that featured them stayed with me. The engineer stands on a platform to address the miners but years of crouching in narrow coal seams have bent and misshapen them so much that they can’t stand straight enough to see him. He was shocked. I wasn’t.

By Andrew Miller,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Pure as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

WINNER OF THE COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD (2011)

A year of bones, of grave-dirt, relentless work. Of mummified corpses and chanting priests.

A year of rape, suicide, sudden death. Of friendship too. Of desire. Of love...

A year unlike any other he has lived.

Deep in the heart of Paris, its oldest cemetery is, by 1785, overflowing, tainting the very breath of those who live nearby. Into their midst comes Jean-Baptiste Baratte, a young, provincial engineer charged by the king with demolishing it.

At first Baratte sees this as a chance to clear the burden of history, a…


Arcadian America

By Aaron Sachs,

Book cover of Arcadian America: The Death and Life of an Environmental Tradition

Catherine McNeur Author Of Taming Manhattan: Environmental Battles in the Antebellum City

From the list on histories of nature in unexpected places.

Who am I?

Catherine McNeur is an award-winning historian, interested in the ways that issues of power impact how humans understand and transform their environments. She has long found the books, art, and other creative expressions that mischievously push at the edges of what we consider “nature” compelling, whether it’s a celebration of the beauty of weeds in an abandoned lot or nature writing on the flora in our guts. After having written about social and environmental battles in New York City, she is now researching the lives, work, and erasure of two forgotten female scientists from nineteenth-century Philadelphia. She lives in Oregon where she is a professor at Portland State University.

Catherine's book list on histories of nature in unexpected places

Why did Catherine love this book?

While some of us like to imagine humans as separate from nature, one moment where that boundary dissolves is with death. Inescapably, we will all eventually decompose and become a part of our environment. In Aaron Sach’s book, nineteenth-century Americans reckon with death through the creation of carefully landscaped cemeteries. What I particularly love about Arcadian America is how Sachs weaves his own memoir about his encounters with mortality in with the history he’s telling, making it a gripping page-turner.

By Aaron Sachs,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Arcadian America as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

How a forgotten environmental tradition of the pre-Civil War era may prove powerfully useful to us now

Perhaps America's best environmental idea was not the national park but the garden cemetery, a use of space that quickly gained popularity in the mid-nineteenth century. Such spaces of repose brought key elements of the countryside into rapidly expanding cities, making nature accessible to all and serving to remind visitors of the natural cycles of life. In this unique interdisciplinary blend of historical narrative, cultural criticism, and poignant memoir, Aaron Sachs argues that American cemeteries embody a forgotten landscape tradition that has much…


Book cover of The Window In the Ground

Richard Farren Barber Author Of Twenty Years Dead

From the list on set in graveyards.

Who am I?

In case it isn’t obvious, I have a thing about graveyards. Maybe it’s being Irish-Catholic – it must be infused into my blood. It’s a rare family holiday that doesn’t involve a visit to the local cemetery. I think it’s the combination of gothic architecture with the sense of a social history collected. I have my own favourites (of course!) from Rock Cemetery in Nottingham to Pere Lachaise in Paris where the family spent an afternoon dodging the most unusual tour guide I have ever come across.

Richard's book list on set in graveyards

Why did Richard love this book?

I know what you’re thinking: is this really a graveyard? To be honest: Who knows?

But… there are things buried underground, so I’m including it because this is a great book. Sometimes you read something which has such a perfect idea at its core that all you can do is devour it with a curl of envy growing in your heart as you think to yourself “I really wish I’d come up with that.” The window in the ground is most definitely one of those books. 

It is.. odd. But good odd. The sort of odd where you recognise the world being described and yet is it different enough from reality to make you question what else might be hidden out there.

By Steve Stred,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Window In the Ground as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"An immensely readable and original coming-of-age horror tale" - Duncan Ralston, author of Ghostland.

On the outskirts of town, hides a secret.

If you follow a path through the trees, read the rules (always twice) on the sign post, go up a hill and across a grassy clearing, that secret will reveal itself.

You see, for hundreds of years, this seemingly normal town has done its part, kept the balance.

But on this day, a rule will be broken.

You might have heard the rumors shared in whispers.

You may have been told about someone who’d seen it with their…