This handy guide locates the final resting places and tells the stories of more than 375 notable Minnesotans. Author Stew Thornley travelled throughout Minnesota in pursuit of the historical fact, the little-known tale, the striking monument, and the truth behind the colourful exaggeration. Visiting cemeteries from every era and every region of the state, Thornley recounts the histories of the famous, infamous, and just plain interesting Minnesotans who lie at rest in the state. The book contains a useful appendix with a county-by-county listing of the cemeteries and individuals mentioned within. Perfect for road trippers and armchair travellers alike, 'Six Feet Under' is an enlightening guide to the state's history.
This Cinderella goes from ashes to ashes in the new Victorian-era Fairy Tale Fatal Mystery by the author of Snow White Red-Handed . . . Variety hall actress Ophelia Flax’s plan to reunite her friend Prue with her estranged—and allegedly wealthy—mother, Henrietta, is met with a grim surprise. Not only is the marquise’s Paris mansion a mouse-infested ruin, but Henrietta has inexplicably vanished, leaving behind an evasive husband, two sinister stepsisters, and a bullet-riddled corpse in the pumpkin patch decked out in a ball gown and one glass slipper—a corpse that also happens to be a dead ringer for Prue. Strangely, no one at 15 rue Garenne seems concerned about who plugged this luckless Cinderella or why, so the investigation is left to Ophelia and Prue. It takes them through the labyrinthine maze of the Paris Opera, down the trail of a legendary fairy tale relic, into the confidence of a wily prince charmless, and makes them vulnerable to the secrets of a mysterious couturière with designs of her own on Prue’s ever-twisting family history.
A dead body. A missing will. An evil relative. The good news is, Great Grammy has a plan. The bad news is, she's the dead body. Rosie and Baker are hiding something. Something big. Their great grandmother made them promise to pretend she's alive until they find her missing will and get it in the right hands. The will protects the family house from their grandmother, Grim Hesper, who would sell it and ship Rosie and Baker off to separate boarding schools. They've already lost their parents and Great Grammy--they can't lose each other, too. The siblings kick it into high gear to locate the will, keep their neighbors from prying, and safeguard the house. Rosie has no time to cope with her grief as disasters pop up around every carefully planned corner. She can't even bring herself to read her last-ever letter from Great Grammy. But the lies get bigger and bigger as Rosie and Baker try to convince everyone that their great grandmother is still around, and they'll need more than a six-month supply of frozen noodle casserole and mountains of toilet paper once their wicked grandmother shows up! This unexpectedly touching read reminds us that families are weird and wonderful, even when they're missing their best parts. With humor, suspense, and a testament to loyalty, Ena Jones takes two brave kids on an unforgettable journey. Includes four recipes for Great Grammy's survival treats.
Six wasn't the hero I needed. But he was the man I wanted. And it was my selfish craving, the desire to own him, that would be our undoing. No one tells you that love is a disease. An infection that tears your heart apart, leaving you half the person you were before. A malady that leaves open wounds. An invisible disorder tracing scars in the places you couldn't see if you weren't looking for them. I was sick, but love didn't heal me. Instead, it festered in my marrow, and drove me to unforgivable mistakes. Six was my first mistake, but he wouldn't be the last.
A National Book Award Finalist "One of the most life-affirming books I have read in a long time…brims with humanity, irreverence, and invigorating candor." —Tom Vanderbilt "Every year I bury a couple hundred of my townspeople." So opens this singular and wise testimony. Like all poets, inspired by death, Thomas Lynch is, unlike others, also hired to bury the dead or to cremate them and to tend to their families in a small Michigan town where he serves as the funeral director. In the conduct of these duties he has kept his eyes open, his ear tuned to the indispensable vernaculars of love and grief. In these twelve pieces his is the voice of both witness and functionary. Here, Lynch, poet to the dying, names the hurts and whispers the condolences and shapes the questions posed by this familiar mystery. So here is homage to parents who have died and to children who shouldn't have. Here are golfers tripping over grave markers, gourmands and hypochondriacs, lovers and suicides. These are the lessons for life our mortality teaches us.
There is an element of mystique about the funeral business that often leads people be very curious. This is Chris Mann's story from his early days as a Funeral Director's assistant through to becoming a Funeral Director himself. It covers stories of tragedy and laughter, from funerals attended by high class society to occassions when nobody at all attended.
Curiosity always kills the cat. Investigating the murder of a rather unpleasant spinster in peaceful Kent, Inspector Thanet is perplexed. But it seems that everyone has underestimated this most unlikely corpse. She was a keeper of secrets: a surprising amount of her own and a quite astonishing amount of everyone else's. As Thanet digs deeper, all sorts of things emerge from the shadows: an alcoholic pianist, a wardrobe of disguises, forbidden love affairs - there is a lot more to this tranquil town than meets the eye. And just as Thanet convinces himself he's found the answer, he stumbles upon the true explanation; something more bizarre and tragic than he could ever have contemplated . . .
The spectacular rhymes of Kurt Cyrus, paired with the deliciously grim illustrations of Crab Scrambly, take readers on an adventure through the friendliest and wackiest graveyard you'll ever find! This collection of dead-pan poems is sure to be a perennial favorite and is the perfect off-beat introduction to poetry.