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cgkinsley's review
3.0
This book had fantastic photographs and covered a wide range of interesting graves! However, I found the descriptions of the graves themselves to be a bit lackluster-- there is always so much symbolism in how graves are designed and decorated and I thought the text would have benefitted from more description of those aspects rather than just bite-sized biographies of the individuals. Additionally, the formatting was rather chaotic and distracted from the overall enjoyment of reading the text. I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for a surface-level guide to famous graves.
Thanks to NetGalley and Amber Books Ltd. for this ARC!
Thanks to NetGalley and Amber Books Ltd. for this ARC!
marginaliant's review
2.0
Many thanks to Amber Books for the review copy.
This romp through the graves of famous rulers, celebrities, artists, performers and more is a perfectly fun book to flip through rather than to read word for word.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of doing the latter. The writing is fine, though it gives the most bland and sanitized accounts of any of these people. Paul Gauguin's behavior in Tahiti, where his grave is located, is not mentioned, nor are Coco Chanel's Nazi sympathies. Frequently careers are explained in a quite short paragraph or even a few lines. You won't learn anything here that a nice Wikipedia skim won't give you.
The real issue is the book's organization. The book contains longer essays about a particular person or cemetery, short essays about figures (typically 1-3 paragraphs), and then assorted photographs accompanied by brief 1-2 sentence captions. Unfortunately these are all scrambled together in ways that make for an annoying reading experience. For example the essay about Mary Shelley stretches from pages 112-121, but is interrupted by photographs with captions of the graves of George Eliot, Victor Hugo, Leo Tolstoy, and Ivan Franko, as well as short essays about Hans Christian Anderson and Oscar Wilde. Some authors get both longer essays and shorter essays, for some reason, and they frequently repeat themselves. This organization and layout is nuts.
So, take it from me: skim, look at pictures.
This romp through the graves of famous rulers, celebrities, artists, performers and more is a perfectly fun book to flip through rather than to read word for word.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of doing the latter. The writing is fine, though it gives the most bland and sanitized accounts of any of these people. Paul Gauguin's behavior in Tahiti, where his grave is located, is not mentioned, nor are Coco Chanel's Nazi sympathies. Frequently careers are explained in a quite short paragraph or even a few lines. You won't learn anything here that a nice Wikipedia skim won't give you.
The real issue is the book's organization. The book contains longer essays about a particular person or cemetery, short essays about figures (typically 1-3 paragraphs), and then assorted photographs accompanied by brief 1-2 sentence captions. Unfortunately these are all scrambled together in ways that make for an annoying reading experience. For example the essay about Mary Shelley stretches from pages 112-121, but is interrupted by photographs with captions of the graves of George Eliot, Victor Hugo, Leo Tolstoy, and Ivan Franko, as well as short essays about Hans Christian Anderson and Oscar Wilde. Some authors get both longer essays and shorter essays, for some reason, and they frequently repeat themselves. This organization and layout is nuts.
So, take it from me: skim, look at pictures.
annarella's review
4.0
I found it informative and entertaining, a book that made me learn something more about people featured.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
redhairedashreads's review
4.0
4 stars - It was really good
This was an interesting book featuring a lot of famous graves. I was surprised by how plain some of them were but others were very elaborate. The book discusses a lot more famous people than are shown in this book, which while cool, I wish all the graves discussed were shown. If you are interested in graveyards this will probably be a good book for you.
*ARC provided by Netgalley for an honest review.*
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