Ermahgerd…

We love books at our house.

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I got this book for Christmas from Dave – Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, a memoir by Caitlyn Doughty of Order of the Good Death and her Ask a Mortician videos on YouTube.

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Caitlyn is a mortician and an advocate for bringing death back into being the normal part of life that it is, as in making it less taboo to talk about and plan for, and letting people take a more active part in caring for their loved ones in death – if all parties wish – as people once did.  She answers people’s questions – on Facebook and in her YouTube videos – about the funeral industry and about the process of death, decay, burial, etc., what’s necessary/not necessary as far as embalming vs natural or green burial vs cremation and she discusses methods of burial that are not legal here like “sky burial” (this is basically being left out for the vultures).  She is one of those “happy goths” – you know – like Abby on NCIS :-D. She’s intelligent, funny, engaging, and makes the whole death subject even more interesting than it already is. She’s really fun to listen to and I imagine she will be just as fun to read.

From Ron, I got Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, which is now a movie but I’m more interested in reading the book.  Books are just so much better.  Plus, even if I do see the movie, I always have to read the book first. That’s just the proper order of things.

I got Ron a “now a major motion picture” book, American Sniper, an autobiography by Chris Kyle, a U.S. Navy SEAL who is apparently the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history.  Ron’s already half way through it so I think I made a good choice. I got Dave the latest Stephen King novel, Revival , which was on his list. Stephen King is always a good read. It’s been a while since I’ve read him. I think the last one I read was Lisey’s Story. My all time Stephen King favorite is not even fiction – On Writing .

Another book I want to get at some point is The Art of Asking, a memoir by Amanda Palmer, an artist and musician who started out earning money as a living statue. She dressed as a bride and handed out flowers to strangers in the middle of Boston.  She’s a bit wacky.

As a musician, she was half of a band called The Dresden Dolls.  She is a vocalist and typically plays the piano or a ukulele. As a solo artist, she had a disagreement with her music label, dropped it and raised a million dollars to produce her music herself through a Kickstarter campaign enlisting the help of her fans by asking them to “pay what you want to pay” for her music.

She interacts directly with her fans on Twitter and Facebook and through her blog, has used social media to arrange for them to join her on stage, to find venues to play and places to stay (actually couch surfing in her fan’s homes) while on tour, and to meet and help random people.  She is just an all around down to earth, genuine person.  I love her and can’t wait to read her story.

Love of books runs in the family.

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Yesterday, while browsing at BAM, Sarah picked out a Dr. McStuffins book and would not put it down for the almost three hours we were there, so we couldn’t leave without it.

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Laurie Frisbey

About Laurie Frisbey

Laurie Frisbey is the mom of a college graduate, a teenager and a preteen with special needs. She has been an administrative assistant, but is now a SAHM and full-time college student (third attempt) . She is about to embark on a brand new career in CIS at the age of 42.