Alyssa recommends "Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?"

Over time, public perceptions of death in the United States have changed. The shift from viewings being held in the family home to funeral homes handling nearly every aspect of the process has contributed to a growing discomfort with the concept of death. Mortician and death-positive advocate Caitlin Doughty has built her reputation around de-stigmatizing death. Through her YouTube channel, her work with The Order of the Good Death, and her books, she works to debunk myths surrounding death in hopes of normalizing conversations about our end-of-life wishes and relieving our loved ones of the burden of making those decisions for us.

Doughty’s book Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? addresses common questions asked by children, resulting in a book that is entertaining and informative for readers of all ages. Some chapters tackle questions we’ve all heard, such as “Will I poop when I die?” while others explore more unusual queries, like “What happens if someone eats a whole bag of popcorn before cremation?” Doughty takes some of the gore often associated with death and replaces it with humor, science, and straightforward explanations.

Labels: All Ages

 

Phil recommends "Dungeon Crawler Carl"

During the pandemic, self-published author Matt Dinniman found himself out of work and with plenty of time to write his web novel Dungeon Crawler Carl, now a massively popular series of books .  This wonderfully imaginative LitRPG sci-fi novel is about an ordinary guy named Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s sassy diva of a cat, Princess Donut, as they discover that aliens have transformed Earth into a massive, televised dungeon crawling real-life video game.  Don’t you hate it when that happens?

The enemies they encounter are many, varied, and completely bizarre and they have to continually come up with creative and entertaining ways of dispatching them in order to gain viewers as they work their way down to each level of the dungeon.  Because the story is told in the manner of a roleplaying game there is a lot of minutiae about stats, armor, weapon choices, loot, etc.  However, the quick pacing, sharp humor, and creative world building make it an easy read where you want to know what completely bonkers situation Carl and Donut will encounter next.  It’s very addictive. 

If you enjoy Dungeon Crawler Carl, there is plenty more where that came from – there are eight books in the series so far with two more on the way.  Also, producer Seth MacFarlane has purchased the rights to the series and is making it into a live-action TV show.