I'm not really sure what about listening to a book focused on death and full of descriptions of dead bodies and decomposition and whatnot was calming, but it somehow was. I think in my case it helped that I listen to the book narrated by the author, so I could have all of her personality while I was experiencing everything, but I'm still impressed by how compelling this book was.

And I'm even prouder that I only gagged and had to pause so that I didn't throw up a few times! Descriptions about embalming are disgusting.

Anyway this was a great book that had a lot of nice tidbits of information from various cultures and regions across the world, along with a pretty critical view of how people deal with death in North America these days. I think the author's on to something with her thesis of the book--which I believe for any readers of my review to discover by reading the book!