-
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
- And Other Lessons from the Crematory
- Narrated by: Caitlin Doughty
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $20.99
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
From Here to Eternity
- Traveling the World to Find the Good Death
- By: Caitlin Doughty
- Narrated by: Caitlin Doughty
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fascinated by our pervasive terror of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set out to discover how other cultures care for their dead. In rural Indonesia, she observes a man clean and dress his grandfather's mummified body. Grandpa's mummy has lived in the family home for two years, where the family has maintained a warm and respectful relationship. She meets Bolivian natitas (cigarette-smoking, wish-granting human skulls) and introduces us to a Japanese kotsuage.
-
-
Incredible Read
- By Miss Cambria on 02-28-18
By: Caitlin Doughty
-
Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?
- Big Questions from Tiny Mortals
- By: Caitlin Doughty
- Narrated by: Caitlin Doughty
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?, Doughty blends her mortician’s knowledge of the body and the intriguing history behind common misconceptions about corpses to offer factual, hilarious, and candid answers to 35 distinctive questions posed by her youngest fans. In her inimitable voice, Doughty details lore and science of what happens to, and inside, our bodies after we die. Why do corpses groan? What causes bodies to turn colors during decomposition? And why do hair and nails appear longer after death?
-
-
Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?
- By Babs on 10-24-19
By: Caitlin Doughty
-
Ghostland
- An American History in Haunted Places
- By: Colin Dickey
- Narrated by: Jon Lindstrom
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Colin Dickey is on the trail of America's ghosts. Crammed into old houses and hotels, abandoned prisons and empty hospitals, the spirits that linger continue to capture our collective imagination, but why? His own fascination piqued by a house hunt in Los Angeles that revealed derelict foreclosures and "zombie homes", Dickey embarks on a journey across the continental United States to decode and unpack the American history repressed in our most famous haunted places.
-
-
Don't Listen to The Whiners
- By Madeira Darling on 09-26-19
By: Colin Dickey
-
Stiff
- The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
- By: Mary Roach
- Narrated by: Shelly Frasier
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For two thousand years, cadavers have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They've tested France's first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender reassignment surgery, cadavers have been there alongside surgeons, making history in their quiet way.
-
-
I worked with cadavers for years, but....
- By Linda on 11-11-12
By: Mary Roach
-
Gory Details
- By: Erika Engelhaupt
- Narrated by: Mari Weiss
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Filled to the brim with far-out facts, this wickedly informative narrative from the author of National Geographic's popular Gory Details blog takes us on a fascinating journey through an astonishing new reality. Blending humor and journalism in the tradition of Mary Roach, acclaimed science reporter Erika Engelhaupt investigates the gross, strange, and morbid absurdities of our bodies and our universe.
-
-
Entertaining, educational, and unique!
- By Ashlee on 06-27-21
By: Erika Engelhaupt
-
Working Stiff
- Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner
- By: Judy Melinek MD, T. J. Mitchell
- Narrated by: Tanya Eby
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just two months before the September 11 terrorist attacks, Dr. Judy Melinek began her training as a New York City forensic pathologist. With her husband and their toddler holding down the home front, Judy threw herself into the fascinating world of death investigation-performing autopsies, investigating death scenes, and counseling grieving relatives. Working Stiff chronicles Judy's two years of training, taking listeners behind the police tape of some of the most harrowing deaths in the Big Apple.
-
-
Great story - but not for the faint of heart!
- By R. Freeman on 08-20-14
By: Judy Melinek MD, and others
-
From Here to Eternity
- Traveling the World to Find the Good Death
- By: Caitlin Doughty
- Narrated by: Caitlin Doughty
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fascinated by our pervasive terror of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set out to discover how other cultures care for their dead. In rural Indonesia, she observes a man clean and dress his grandfather's mummified body. Grandpa's mummy has lived in the family home for two years, where the family has maintained a warm and respectful relationship. She meets Bolivian natitas (cigarette-smoking, wish-granting human skulls) and introduces us to a Japanese kotsuage.
-
-
Incredible Read
- By Miss Cambria on 02-28-18
By: Caitlin Doughty
-
Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?
- Big Questions from Tiny Mortals
- By: Caitlin Doughty
- Narrated by: Caitlin Doughty
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?, Doughty blends her mortician’s knowledge of the body and the intriguing history behind common misconceptions about corpses to offer factual, hilarious, and candid answers to 35 distinctive questions posed by her youngest fans. In her inimitable voice, Doughty details lore and science of what happens to, and inside, our bodies after we die. Why do corpses groan? What causes bodies to turn colors during decomposition? And why do hair and nails appear longer after death?
-
-
Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?
- By Babs on 10-24-19
By: Caitlin Doughty
-
Ghostland
- An American History in Haunted Places
- By: Colin Dickey
- Narrated by: Jon Lindstrom
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Colin Dickey is on the trail of America's ghosts. Crammed into old houses and hotels, abandoned prisons and empty hospitals, the spirits that linger continue to capture our collective imagination, but why? His own fascination piqued by a house hunt in Los Angeles that revealed derelict foreclosures and "zombie homes", Dickey embarks on a journey across the continental United States to decode and unpack the American history repressed in our most famous haunted places.
-
-
Don't Listen to The Whiners
- By Madeira Darling on 09-26-19
By: Colin Dickey
-
Stiff
- The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
- By: Mary Roach
- Narrated by: Shelly Frasier
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For two thousand years, cadavers have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They've tested France's first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender reassignment surgery, cadavers have been there alongside surgeons, making history in their quiet way.
-
-
I worked with cadavers for years, but....
- By Linda on 11-11-12
By: Mary Roach
-
Gory Details
- By: Erika Engelhaupt
- Narrated by: Mari Weiss
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Filled to the brim with far-out facts, this wickedly informative narrative from the author of National Geographic's popular Gory Details blog takes us on a fascinating journey through an astonishing new reality. Blending humor and journalism in the tradition of Mary Roach, acclaimed science reporter Erika Engelhaupt investigates the gross, strange, and morbid absurdities of our bodies and our universe.
-
-
Entertaining, educational, and unique!
- By Ashlee on 06-27-21
By: Erika Engelhaupt
-
Working Stiff
- Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner
- By: Judy Melinek MD, T. J. Mitchell
- Narrated by: Tanya Eby
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just two months before the September 11 terrorist attacks, Dr. Judy Melinek began her training as a New York City forensic pathologist. With her husband and their toddler holding down the home front, Judy threw herself into the fascinating world of death investigation-performing autopsies, investigating death scenes, and counseling grieving relatives. Working Stiff chronicles Judy's two years of training, taking listeners behind the police tape of some of the most harrowing deaths in the Big Apple.
-
-
Great story - but not for the faint of heart!
- By R. Freeman on 08-20-14
By: Judy Melinek MD, and others
-
All That Remains
- A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes
- By: Sue Black
- Narrated by: Angela Dawe
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dame Sue Black is an internationally renowned forensic anthropologist and human anatomist. She has lived her life eye to eye with the Grim Reaper, and she writes vividly about it in this book, which is part primer on the basics of identifying human remains, part frank memoir of a woman whose first paying job as a schoolgirl was to apprentice in a butcher shop, and part no-nonsense but deeply humane introduction to the reality of death in our lives. It is a treat for CSI junkies, murder mystery and thriller fans, and anyone seeking a clear-eyed guide to a subject that touches us all.
-
-
I wanted a science book about forensics. I got a mostly-memoir instead.
- By A Customer on 11-29-19
By: Sue Black
-
Quackery
- A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything
- By: Lydia Kang, Nate Pedersen
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What won't we try in our quest for perfect health, beauty, and the fountain of youth? Well, just imagine a time when doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants. When liquefied gold was touted as immortality in a glass. And when strychnine - yes, that strychnine, the one used in rat poison - was dosed like Viagra. Looking back with fascination, horror, and not a little dash of dark, knowing humor, Quackery recounts the lively, at times unbelievable, history of medical misfires and malpractices.
-
-
Comprehensive is an understatement
- By Amber on 11-08-18
By: Lydia Kang, and others
-
Confessions of a Funeral Director
- How the Business of Death Saved My Life
- By: Caleb Wilde
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Death. It happens to everyone, yet most of us don't want to talk about this final chapter of existence. Sixth-generation funeral director Caleb Wilde intimately understands this reticence and fear. The son of an undertaker, he hesitated to embrace the legacy of running his family's business. Yet he discovered that caring for the deceased and their loved ones profoundly changed his faith and his perspective on death - and life itself.
-
-
Good Story, But narrator is the wrong guy
- By Dale R Clock on 01-17-18
By: Caleb Wilde
-
Morgue
- A Life in Death
- By: Vincent Di Maio, Ron Franscell
- Narrated by: Tony Ward
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vincent Di Maio, MD, son of a famous New York City medical examiner, is one of the lions of forensic science. In this clear, gritty, and enthralling narrative, Di Maio himself guides us into the inner sanctum, through the cases that have made him famous, from the exhumation of assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and the racially charged shooting of Florida teen Trayvon Martin to the unmasking of a serial baby killer and the mysterious death of troubled genius Vincent van Gogh.
-
-
Not what I was hoping for...
- By Dawn Lamothe on 10-17-19
By: Vincent Di Maio, and others
-
Mortuary Confidential
- Undertakers Spill the Dirt
- By: Todd Harra, Kenneth McKenzie
- Narrated by: Susan Larkin, Allan Robertson
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From shoot-outs at funerals to dead men screaming and runaway corpses, undertakers have plenty of unusual stories to tell - and a special way of telling them. In this macabre and moving compilation, funeral directors across the country share their most embarrassing, jaw-dropping, irreverent, and deeply poignant stories about life at death's door.
-
-
Enjoyable
- By donna60 on 05-27-22
By: Todd Harra, and others
-
Troublemaker
- Surviving Hollywood and Scientology
- By: Leah Remini
- Narrated by: Leah Remini
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The outspoken actress, talk show host, and reality television star offers up a no-holds-barred memoir, including an eye-opening insider account of her tumultuous and heart-wrenching 30-year-plus association with the Church of Scientology.
-
-
✫✫ 5 Stars ✫✫
- By ❤️Cyndi Marie❤️🎧Audiobook Addicts🎧 on 07-10-18
By: Leah Remini
-
Me Before You
- A Novel
- By: Jojo Moyes
- Narrated by: Susan Lyons, Anna Bentink, Steven Crossley, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Discover the love story that captured over 20 million hearts in Me Before You, After You, and Still Me. They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose...Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life - steady boyfriend, close family - who has never been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex-Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident.
-
-
Not for me
- By Matthew Family on 03-01-19
By: Jojo Moyes
-
Tuesdays with Morrie
- 20th Anniversary Edition
- By: Mitch Albom
- Narrated by: Mitch Albom
- Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. Someone older, patient, and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly 20 years ago. Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you, receive wisdom for your busy life today the way you once did when you were younger?
-
-
Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live
- By AudioAddict on 04-17-16
By: Mitch Albom
-
The Secret Life of the American Musical
- How Broadway Shows Are Built
- By: Jack Viertel
- Narrated by: David Pittu
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For almost a century, Americans have been losing their hearts and losing their minds in an insatiable love affair with the American musical. It often begins in actors and reaches its passionate zenith when it comes time for love, marriage, and children, who will start the cycle all over again. Americans love musicals. Americans invented musicals. Americans perfected musicals. But what, exactly, is a musical?
-
-
Great review lacked music
- By joseph f mcgovern on 10-14-18
By: Jack Viertel
-
The Shack
- By: William P. Young
- Narrated by: Roger Mueller
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mackenzie Allen Phillips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation, and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, in this midst of his great sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack one wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change his life forever.
-
-
Was unsure
- By Joshua on 02-19-19
By: William P. Young
-
Many Lives, Many Masters
- The True Story of a Psychiatrist, His Young Patient, and Past-Life Therapy
- By: Brian L. Weiss M.D.
- Narrated by: Brian L. Weiss M.D.
- Length: 1 hr and 28 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Brian Weiss is a highly respected psychiatrist from the mainstream of the medical establishment. Catherine is one of his most difficult cases, a 27-year-old woman racked by phobias and anxieties. In the course of Catherine's treatment, Dr. Weiss makes a startling discovery. Under hypnosis, she recollects, in vivid detail, events from past lives ranging from the prehistoric times and ancient Egypt to the 20th century and the fires of World War II.
-
-
Abridged!
- By Mary on 06-02-19
-
Never Home Alone
- From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live
- By: Rob Dunn
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A natural history of the wilderness in our homes, from the microbes in our showers to the crickets in our basements Even when the floors are sparkling clean and the house seems silent, our domestic domain is wild beyond imagination. In Never Home Alone, biologist Rob Dunn introduces us to the nearly 200,000 species living with us in our own homes, from the Egyptian meal moths in our cupboards and camel crickets in our basements to the lactobacillus lounging on our kitchen counters. You are not alone.
-
-
The most astonishing book I've read this decade!
- By Paula on 04-17-19
By: Rob Dunn
Publisher's Summary
Most people want to avoid thinking about death, but Caitlin Doughty - a 20-something with a degree in medieval history and a flair for the macabre - took a job at a crematory, turning morbid curiosity into her life’s work. With an original voice that combines fearless curiosity and mordant wit, Caitlin tells an unusual coming-of-age story full of bizarre encounters, gallows humor, and vivid characters (both living and very dead). Describing how she swept ashes from the machines (and sometimes onto her clothes), and cared for bodies of all shapes and sizes, Caitlin becomes an intrepid explorer in the world of the deceased. Her eye-opening memoir shows how our fear of dying warps our culture and society, and she calls for better ways of dealing with death (and our dead). In the spirit of her popular Web series, "Ask a Mortician", Caitlin’s engaging narrative style makes this otherwise scary topic both approachable and profound.
Caitlin Doughty, the host and creator of the "Ask a Mortician" Web series and the collective Order of the Good Death, is on a mission to change the way we think about death.
More from the same
What listeners say about Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- J. Mattox
- 05-17-17
Loved it So Much I Bought it After Reading it Free
Any additional comments?
I listened to this audiobook for free from my library, and it resonated with me so much I came back and bought it here at Audible. I would describe this book as gorgeous. Caitlin's raw, emotional, funny, and heartfelt stories about her experiences with death will move you. You will begin thinking about death and the funeral industry in different ways, and that's a good thing.
Something wonderful that Caitlin does throughout her story is reinforce the idea that you're not "weird" if you're drawn to death, (This historic cemetery tour guide thanks you to remember that) and in fact, a realistic understanding of death as a part of life is healthy, and even necessary. Caitlin spent an early part of her life terrified by death, and it wasn't until she began accepting it that she could move on.
I love that she's revolutionizing the funeral industry. She's letting people know that there's nothing inherently dangerous about dead bodies. She's dispelling the notion that it's somehow illegal for families to care for their own dead. She's waving frantically behind the funeral director trying to sell bereaved and vulnerable people a 25k funeral. She's reassuring you that if you need a little more time - an hour, an evening, a day - to say goodbye, you can have that.
She's taking us out of the white vans, body bags, concrete burial vaults, and overpriced caskets, and putting us back into the earth where we can continue to feed the planet, and live on as energy forever.
78 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 06-02-16
Ms. Frizzle Takes the School Bus to a Morgue
Would you listen to Smoke Gets in Your Eyes again? Why?
In the name of all things unholy and weird, yes! I listened to this book at work and found myself snorting with laughter at irreverent and socially unacceptable times. It is wonderfully informative, thought provoking and hilarious.
Who was your favorite character and why?
The dead. Doughty has a distinct and alarming ability to animate the dead in a way that demands that we respect them, but allows us to laugh with them at the absurdities of death and dying.
What does Caitlin Doughty bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Doughty's narration is a bit forced at first, but listening to her settle into the reading is kind of like watching a friend get over stage fright and slowly take command of the audience. As one would expect, Doughty brings a certain honesty to the more personal anecdotes in the book that I may not have appreciated as much without hearing them told by the author. The narrative does take on a slightly detached tone overall, which is what creates the dry humor, but it makes the personal moments of sadness a bit disarming. I'm sure that's the point, but I am glad that I got to hear them from Doughty herself. Her narration takes on a different cadence and a lower decibel when she recounts some episodes from her childhood that caused the images to stick in my memory of this book.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No, I enjoyed looking forward to listening to a chapter or two a day. The pacing is steady and unhurried. The format is such that each chapter can almost stand alone so it does not lend itself to binge listening. This is a story you can enjoy in small chunks.
97 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bonny
- 09-29-17
Honest details about mortality can help
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes is a quirky, slightly odd memoir that is exactly what the title says. I think the author's basic premise is truthful, that we are out of touch with our own mortality, and reading this book with its intimate details of death and decay may help lessen that denial. I would advise being sure you want to read about those sometimes disturbing but truthful details of what happens after death, how corpses are prepared for traditional funerals, and what exactly happens during cremation. I welcomed the honesty, but I know that others might not.
While I appreciated the parts about working in the crematory and current funeral practices, some of the author's writing about her personal life was disjointed and felt out of place with the rest of the book. Her contemplation of suicide and obsession with Luke bothered me more than decomposition and sweeping out the cremation machines. When I told a friend I was reading this, she thought it sounded morbid and ghoulish, which illustrates Doughty's point fairly well. Death will happen for all of us, and it won't be morbid or ghoulish if we learn more and talk about it. This book can help with that.
32 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Karissa Hribko
- 10-27-14
Really Great to Listen to.
Would you consider the audio edition of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes to be better than the print version?
I've never read the print version, but I really liked this as audio, it reminded me of listening to stories on NPR. I Listened to it everyday on my way to work, or when I was doing random stuff around the house. It was nice to be able to hear it and be transported away from the task at hand.
What does Caitlin Doughty bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
It was nice to hear her read it. I'm an avid fan of Ask a Mortician, so it just made sense to not just read it myself but hear it from her point of view. It really sends home that this was her experience and just a random work of fiction.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
I never wanted to get out of my car, I'd get to work and sit there until the very last second before I would become tardy.
Any additional comments?
This was my first purchase on Audible and it really turned me on to listening to audio books on my commute instead of random radio. Check out The Order of the Good Death too, all of Doughty's stuff is awesome!
38 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Angelina
- 04-12-17
Didn't want it to end.
I've never been so happy with an author-narrated book. She's phenomenal. The book is beautiful, honest, and filled me with hope & positive feelings about a subject I've always been terrified of.
22 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Christine
- 03-23-19
Great book
A wonderful memoir and a great/interesting/disturbing look into the business of death in this country.
If you have ever wondered what it would be like to work in a crematorium, this is the book for you! But it is also a deep dive into what our society does with its dead, and traditional funerals--with their costs, toxins, and formalized grief--don't come off well (as they should not). So if you are making end-of-life decisions, you may also want to read this book.
But it is also a memoir of a young woman in her first job. She observes the different cultural practices of the dead's families, she ruminates on suicide and mental illness, the men she works with, and her youth in Hawaii.
All in all, if you like memoirs, as I do, and enjoy learning when you read, I think you will enjoy this book.
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Roxi
- 11-30-14
MUST read
If you could sum up Smoke Gets in Your Eyes in three words, what would they be?
realities of death
What did you like best about this story?
Ms. Doughty is genuine and caring, graphic and honest about a subject that is often presented very clinically or euphemistically, when presented at all.
What about Caitlin Doughty’s performance did you like?
I prefer memoirs that are read by their authors because tone of voice, even when reading a well-written book, communicates so many nuances of meaning. She told her story well.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
I could not get enough of this book. I was so disappointed to reach its end.
Any additional comments?
Everyone should read this book. Its vital message is presented so well that everyone will enjoy it too.
47 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Saster
- 09-20-14
Important Book on Confronting Mortality
What made the experience of listening to Smoke Gets in Your Eyes the most enjoyable?
Despite the subject matter being dark and difficult, Doughty makes it accessible through her humour, candid demeanor, and extensive knowledge of the subject matter.
What about Caitlin Doughty’s performance did you like?
She is a gifted reader and her wit and humour come out even more vividly hearing her speak her own words.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
There are too many to list, but I was consistently moved by following along with Doughty's own emotional journey as she discovers more and more ways that we are disconnected from death, and by extension, disconnected from life itself.
Any additional comments?
Doughty's passion for the subject matter comes through clearly and effectively. She brilliantly weaves the history death in with her own personal experiences in the contemporary death industry.
Her argument for changing the way we interact with own mortality is a powerful challenge.
19 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ravenov
- 04-19-17
death should not be a mystery
loved this book and the insight it provides. covering the reality behind the curtain and the misinformation often given to grieving people
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Diana
- 03-20-18
Outstanding - wise, compassionate and funny
This is a terrific view of what happens in the funeral industry and more importantly shows the way to a more natural way of treating death.
I hope the ideas shared in this book will come to pass and the way bodies are treated in the future will be less invasive, artificial and chemically-treated. The frank discussion of "upselling" in the funeral industry is most appreciated too.
The wonderful bits of cultural history in how dead have been treated previously and elsewhere, and the importance of ritual, show what may be missing in our lives today when someone we know dies and there is a disconnect in the funerals of today.
There was so much respect for human dignity in this book, and compassion, that the humor was never inappropriate but just right - because finding joy and making ironic observations is what people do.. .
A life-changing book. Hopefully, too, this book will make changes in the funeral industry of the future. We can do better, and be better.
4 people found this helpful