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mcerrin's review
DNF so I won't rate but this author and the way she presented her stories put a bad taste in my mouth, and not because they were funeral stories. I kept waiting for some genuine empathy or her to have redeeming moments after she straight insulted people or listed other places a women could commit suicide easily (yikes) but it didn't come. I love a dark sense of humor, but this ain't it.
courtthebookgirl's review
5.0
Full confession: I read this book specifically because I looked at the list of authors coming to my campus for our Living Writers Series, and I always read those titles. Sheri’s book held personal interest to me, as our campus is well-known for our Funeral Services academic program, and I’ve always been fascinated by the topic.
This book was fantastic. Sheri Booker is a wonderful writer- she has a very conversational style that leaps off the page. Although this book is non-fiction, it had the heart of fiction with great stories of family, drama, thriller, and heartache. I enjoyed this book cover-to-cover.
I also had the distinct pleasure of attending Sheri Booker’s Living Writers Series talk for our campus (which, due to the pandemic, was held on Zoom) this evening. Sheri is incredibly engaging, warm, personable, friendly, intelligent, funny, genuine, caring, and a wonderful speaker. I enjoyed this presentation tremendously and it was a nice accompaniment to her book.
Please check this one out if you want to know what a day in the life of a funeral home employee is like!
This book was fantastic. Sheri Booker is a wonderful writer- she has a very conversational style that leaps off the page. Although this book is non-fiction, it had the heart of fiction with great stories of family, drama, thriller, and heartache. I enjoyed this book cover-to-cover.
I also had the distinct pleasure of attending Sheri Booker’s Living Writers Series talk for our campus (which, due to the pandemic, was held on Zoom) this evening. Sheri is incredibly engaging, warm, personable, friendly, intelligent, funny, genuine, caring, and a wonderful speaker. I enjoyed this presentation tremendously and it was a nice accompaniment to her book.
Please check this one out if you want to know what a day in the life of a funeral home employee is like!
mheinlein's review
3.0
This is a well written and interesting memoir. After experiencing a loss of a beloved family member, the author finds a job in a local funeral home. While immersed in the business of death, she is able to learn much about life. I enjoyed following her on her journey.
noramjenkins's review
3.0
Treddyfrin library often surprises me with odd choices on their shelves. This was a lovely surprise!
marystevens's review
4.0
The title tells you the story in a nutshell. Sherri Booker, the daughter of a high school principal and a cop (who won't watch The Wire because it hits too close to home) takes a summer job in a funeral home in inner city Baltimore at 15, just after her great aunt, who had been her favorite person, dies. She has known the funeral director from childhood because he is a pillar of her church and her friend; indeed she comes to see him as her godfather. The summer job becomes a part-time job during the school year and eventually a full-time job. The job draws on all her strengths, conscientiousness, decorum, diplomacy, flexibility, through it all she has a sense of humor. The day the caskets were switched, the time she had a car accident at McDonald's while driving the hearse with a body inside. She sees boys she has known as a child grow up to become drug dealers and ultimately corpses at the funeral home. Her father sometimes attends these services, not just to serve warrants but to keep tabs on the gangsters who attend the funerals. The story is told in a very understated way, I feel that her personality shines through, although the there is little about her own family or school or personal life. It seems that during these years, the funeral home is her life. I really liked this book..
krandall813's review
3.0
Mostly boring. I didn't love her writing style. Quick and easy read, though.
bookbrig's review
informative
medium-paced
3.0
I enjoyed this, and it was a compelling read, but it I think I wanted a different story than the one the author was telling. It's really interesting, and I loved hearing about the mortuary preparations and surrounding community, but I was a bit less interested in the more personal details of the story. My other small issue was the use of a transgendered slur. I recognize that the book is recounting a story about a different time, and so language used might be less acceptable, but the part I found problematic was that the language was incorporated not into what was said at the time, but as a descriptor. I know that I lean toward "politically correct" language, but that's because certain terms really are used as hate-speech and slurs, and I don't think it's unreasonable to replace them with more modern equivalents that aren't hurtful and loaded. If the term were used in a direct quote, fine, but since that really isn't the case - the individual is described to the reader using a slur, as though it's the same type of descriptor as the deceased's age - I wish an editor or someone had caught it and changed the language.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia
ansate's review
3.0
I didn't feel so much as if it was about working in the funeral home as it was about the relationships among the people who worked there. If this had been fiction, and funeral homes were not so fascinating, this would probably be a bonus. [return][return]The editing wasn't very tight - sometimes terms were re-explained chapters after they had been introduced and used without further explanation. (Blue dinghy for example.) It seemed more like Sheri was just noting down her set of stories that she might tell to friends, not making sure they all fit together as a single story - is it busiest Thanksgiving through Christmas or October, January and February? If it were just anecdotes told over the span of months, I'm sure I wouldn't have noticed.[return][return]I think she did learn a lot from the experience, but it seemed like it was more the growing up lessons of being loyal to people who have no reason to be loyal to you, and that a crush realized may not be all it's cracked up to be. Lessons that could have come from a job anywhere.