Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them): A Practical Perspective on Death and Dying - Tisdale, Sallie Review & Synopsis

 Synopsis

A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK CRITICS' TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR

 

"In its loving, fierce specificity, this book on how to die is also a blessedly saccharine-free guide for how to live" (The New York Times).

Former NEA fellow and Pushcart Prize-winning writer Sallie Tisdale offers a lyrical, thought-provoking, yet practical perspective on death and dying in Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them). Informed by her many years working as a nurse, with more than a decade in palliative care, Tisdale provides a frank, direct, and compassionate meditation on the inevitable.

 

 From the sublime (the faint sound of Mozart as you take your last breath) to the ridiculous (lessons on how to close the sagging jaw of a corpse), Tisdale leads us through the peaks and troughs of death with a calm, wise, and humorous hand. Advice for Future Corpses is more than a how-to manual or a spiritual bible: it is a graceful compilation of honest and intimate anecdotes based on the deaths Tisdale has witnessed in her work and life, as well as stories from cultures, traditions, and literature around the world.

 

 Tisdale explores all the heartbreaking, beautiful, terrifying, confusing, absurd, and even joyful experiences that accompany the work of dying, including:

 

 A Good Death: What does it mean to die "a good death"? Can there be more than one kind of good death? What can I do to make my death, or the deaths of my loved ones, good?

 Communication: What to say and not to say, what to ask, and when, from the dying, loved ones, doctors, and more.

 Last Months, Weeks, Days, and Hours: What you might expect, physically and emotionally, including the limitations, freedoms, pain, and joy of this unique time.

 Bodies: What happens to a body after death? What options are available to me after my death, and how do I choose-and make sure my wishes are followed?

 Grief: "Grief is the story that must be told over and over...Grief is the breath after the last one."

 

 Beautifully written and compulsively readable, Advice for Future Corpses offers the resources and reassurance that we all need for planning the ends of our lives, and is essential reading for future corpses everywhere. "Sallie Tisdale's elegantly understated new book pretends to be a user's guide when in fact it's a profound meditation" (David Shields, bestselling author of Reality Hunger).

Review

Sallie Tisdale is the author of several books, including Violation, Talk Dirty to Me, Stepping Westward, and Women of the Way. She has received a Pushcart Prize, an NEA Fellowship, the James D. Phelan Literary Award, and was selected for the Shoenfeldt Distinguished Visiting Writer Series. Her work has appeared in Harper's, The New Yorker, The Threepenny Review, The Antioch Review, Conjunctions, and Tricycle. In addition to her award-winning writing career, Tisdale has been a nurse for many years, including a decade in palliative care. She lives in Portland, Oregon. Visit her online at SallieTisdale.com."In its loving, fierce specificity, this book on how to die is also a blessedly saccharine-free guide for how to live. . . . Tisdale does not write to allay anxieties but to acknowledge them, and she brings death so close, in such detail and with such directness, that something unusual happens, something that feels a bit taboo. She invites not just awe or dread-but our curiosity. And why not? We are, after all, just 'future corpses pretending we don't know.'" 

 -New York Times

"Tisdale (Violation: Collected Essays), a former nurse, offers an intimate insider's look at dying, aimed at both caregivers and mortally ill people. By turns philosophical and pragmatic, Tisdale gently prods readers to make plans while they can ... Tisdale's forthright narrative voice, charmingly bossy in style ("Be very careful about odors.... You don't want to be the most nauseating thing that happens in the day"), is so generous and kind in spirit that readers will gladly follow along."

 -Publishers Weekly

"Sallie Tisdale's elegantly understated new book pretends to be a user's guide when in fact it's a profound meditation. It also pretends to be about how to die. Actually, it's about how to live."

 -David Shields, author of Reality Hunger

"Reading the book is like having a nice, long chat with an unsqueamish friend. . . Tisdale writes warmly, sharing what she knows with a natural gift."

 -Portland Tribune

"Sallie Tisdale is the real thing, a writer who thinks like a philosopher, observes like a journalist, and sings on the page like a poet"

 -Meghan Daum, author of The Unspeakable 

"I read Sallie Tisdale and within a few seconds I am under her spell. It matters not whether she's writing about the tyranny of weight loss, the startling lives of blowflies, or what it's like to work in an oncology ward (she is a dedicated nurse as well as a brilliant writer), I'm all in, all the time. I will go anywhere she wants to take me. An alternate image-climbing into a submarine with Tisdale at the controls and diving down down down, into her singular sensibility, her genius for language,her love of our deeply imperfect world."

 -Karen Karbo, author of Julia Child Rules: Lessons on Savoring Life 

"Sallie Tisdale takes subjects that might seem mundane or overdone and renders them unforgettable" 

 -San Francisco Examiner

Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them)

A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK CRITICS’ TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR “In its loving, fierce specificity, this book on how to die is also a blessedly saccharine-free guide for how to live” (The New York Times). Former NEA fellow and Pushcart Prize-winning writer Sallie Tisdale offers a lyrical, thought-provoking, yet practical perspective on death and dying in Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them). Informed by her many years working as a nurse, with more than a decade in palliative care, Tisdale provides a frank, direct, and compassionate meditation on the inevitable. From the sublime (the faint sound of Mozart as you take your last breath) to the ridiculous (lessons on how to close the sagging jaw of a corpse), Tisdale leads us through the peaks and troughs of death with a calm, wise, and humorous hand. Advice for Future Corpses is more than a how-to manual or a spiritual bible: it is a graceful compilation of honest and intimate anecdotes based on the deaths Tisdale has witnessed in her work and life, as well as stories from cultures, traditions, and literature around the world. Tisdale explores all the heartbreaking, beautiful, terrifying, confusing, absurd, and even joyful experiences that accompany the work of dying, including: A Good Death: What does it mean to die “a good death”? Can there be more than one kind of good death? What can I do to make my death, or the deaths of my loved ones, good? Communication: What to say and not to say, what to ask, and when, from the dying, loved ones, doctors, and more. Last Months, Weeks, Days, and Hours: What you might expect, physically and emotionally, including the limitations, freedoms, pain, and joy of this unique time. Bodies: What happens to a body after death? What options are available to me after my death, and how do I choose—and make sure my wishes are followed? Grief: “Grief is the story that must be told over and over...Grief is the breath after the last one.” Beautifully written and compulsively readable, Advice for Future Corpses offers the resources and reassurance that we all need for planning the ends of our lives, and is essential reading for future corpses everywhere. “Sallie Tisdale’s elegantly understated new book pretends to be a user’s guide when in fact it’s a profound meditation” (David Shields, bestselling author of Reality Hunger).

A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK CRITICS’ TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR “In its loving, fierce specificity, this book on how to die is also a blessedly saccharine-free guide for how to live” (The New York Times)."

Advice for the Dying (and Those Who Love Them)

Award-winning writer and nurse Sallie Tisdale offers a lyrical, thought-provoking yet practical perspective on death and dying in this frank, direct and compassionate meditation on the inevitable. _______________________________________ From the sublime (the faint sound of Mozart as you take your last breath) to the ridiculous (lessons on how to close the sagging jaw of a corpse), Tisdale leads the reader through the peaks and troughs of death with a calm, wise and humorous hand. More than a how-to manual or a spiritual bible, this is a graceful compilation of honest and intimate anecdotes based on the deaths Tisdale has witnessed in her work and life, as well as stories from cultures, traditions and literature around the world. Tisdale explores all the heartbreaking, beautiful, terrifying, confusing, absurd and even joyful experiences that accompany the work of dying, including: A good death: What does it mean to die 'a good death'? Can there be more than one kind? What can I do to make my death, or the deaths of my loved ones, good? Communication: What to say and not to say, what to ask and when, from the dying, loved ones, doctors and more. Last months, weeks, days and hours: What you might expect, physically and emotionally, including the limitations, freedoms, pains and joys of this unique time. Bodies: What happens to a body after death? What options are available to me after my death, and how do I choose - and make sure my wishes are followed? Grief: 'Grief is a story that must be told, over and over. . . Grief is the breath after the last one.' Beautifully written and compulsively readable, Advice for the Dying offers the resources and reassurance that we all need for planning the ends of our lives. It is essential reading for all of us.

More than a how-to manual or a spiritual bible, this is a graceful compilation of honest and intimate anecdotes based on the deaths Tisdale has witnessed in her work and life, as well as stories from cultures, traditions and literature ..."

The Future of the Corpse: Changing Ecologies of Death and Disposition

This book demonstrates that American society today is in a pivotal period for re-imaging end-of-life care, funerary services, human disposition methods, memorializing, and mourning. The editors and contributors outline the past, present, and future of death care rituals, pointing to promising new practices and innovative projects that show how we can better integrate the dying and dead with the living and create positive change that supports sustainable stewardship of our environment. Individual chapters describe prevailing practices and issues in different settings where people die and in postmortem rituals; disposition and current ecologically and, in urban areas, spatially unsustainable methods; law of human remains; customs and trends among key stakeholders, such as cemeteries and funeral directors; and relevant technological advances. The book culminates in a presentation of emerging sustainable disposition technologies and innovative designs for proposed public memorial projects that respond to shifting values, beliefs, and priorities among an increasingly diverse population.

Water, Air, and Soil Pollution 117 (January 2000): 313–27. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005186919370. State of New York. ... Tisdale , Sallie . Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them): A Practical Perspective on Death and Dying ."

Memory and Mortality in Renaissance England

Drawing together leading scholars of early modern memory studies and death studies, Memory and Mortality in Renaissance England explores and illuminates the interrelationships of these categories of Renaissance knowing and doing, theory and praxis. The collection features an extended Introduction that establishes the rich vein connecting these two fields of study and investigation. Thereafter, the collection is arranged into three subsections, 'The Arts of Remembering Death', 'Grounding the Remembrance of the Dead', and 'The Ends of Commemoration', where contributors analyse how memory and mortality intersected in writings, devotional practice, and visual culture. The book will appeal to scholars of early modern literature and culture, book history, art history, and the history of mnemonics and thanatology, and will prove an indispensable guide for researchers, instructors, and students alike.

 Tisdale , Sallie , Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them): A Practical Perspective on Death and Dying (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018). Traub, Valerie, Thinking Sex with the Early Moderns (Philadelphia: University of ..."

Living the Food-Allergic Life

If you had an allergy so severe that accidentally eating a forbidden food could kill you in minutes--as you gasp for breath, your throat and tongue swell shut, your blood pressure drops and organs fail--how would it change your life, and your relationship to food? For people with food-induced anaphylaxis, the severest form of allergic response, simply eating in restaurants, accepting invitations to dinner, going on overnight field trips, or traveling through foreign countries means facing one's mortality with every meal. In this book, Mark S. Ferrara weaves history, science, and psychology to recount the story of his struggles with allergic asthma and a life-threatening allergy to nuts--and his difficulties living and working in the Far East and Near East--to show how the quest for self-actualization can lead to an acceptance of transience that borders on the mystical. Along the way, he guides parents in keeping food-allergic children safe at home and at school and offers strategies that adolescents and adults may use to negotiate social spaces involving food. He explains how survivors of anaphylaxis can cope with the sometimes-irrational fears of food that follow that traumatic experience, so they may live happy, healthy, meaningful lives.

 Sallie Tisdale , Advice for Future Corpses ( and Those Who Love Them ) : A Practical Perspective on Death and Dying ( New York : Touchstone , 2018 ) , 1 . 26. Tisdale , Advice for Future Corpses , 173 . 27. Lisa O'Carroll , " Boy Dies ..."

12 Rules for (Academic) Life

These are strange times. Climate crises. Health crises. Collapsing systems. Influencers. And yes - Jordan Peterson. We are currently living in a (Post) Peterson Paradigm. This book – 12 Rules for (Academic) Life - explores what has happened to teaching, learning and politics through this odd and chaotic intervention. Deploying feminism, this lens and theory offers a glass-sharpened view of this moment in international higher education. It is organized through twelve mantras for higher education in this interregnum, and offers new, radical, edgy and passionate methodologies, epistemologies and ontologies for a University sector searching for a purpose. This is a feminist book which targets a feminist audience, both inside and outside higher education. It presents a clear focus on how this Peterson moment can be managed and challenged, when in future such academics deploy social media in this way. This book is also a part of higher education studies, exploring the role of the public / critical / dissenting / organic intellectual in debates about the political economy, identity/politics and leadership. A question of our time – through a climate emergency, a pandemic and polarized politics – is why Professor Jordan Peterson gained profile and notoriety. The Jordan Peterson moment commenced in September 2016 with his YouTube video, “Professor against political correctness,” and concluded with his debate with Slavoj Zizek on April 19, 2019. From this moment, his credibility was dented, if not destroyed. Jordan Peterson infused scholarly debates with Punch and Judy extremism and misunderstandings. Instead, this book offers research rather than certainty, interpretation rather than dogma, evidence rather than opinion, and theory rather than ‘moral truth.’ The goal is to recalibrate this (Post) Peterson Paradigm, to take stock of how this moment occurred, and how to create a revision of higher education.

I note Sallie Tisdale's maxim: “your burden is yours to carry: don't ask a dying person to carry it for you,” Advice for future corpses (and those who love them): a practical perspective on death and dying , (Crows Nest: Allena and Unwin ..."

A Parent's Guide to Managing Childhood Grief

Help your child navigate feelings of sadness and loss with 100 unique, activity-based approaches that help them manage their childhood grief in a healthy and constructive way. The loss of a loved one is a complex, confusing experience for a child to understand. Children may struggle to express, process, and manage their complicated and conflicting feelings, whether the loss is a parent, grandparent, sibling, or even a pet. So, what should you do to help your child process their sadness, loss, and frustration in a more healthy, positive way? In A Parent’s Guide to Managing Grief, you’ll learn everything you need to know about how children grieve and what you can do to support them during their most difficult moments. From there, you’ll find 100 activities that you can use in a group setting, activities that you (or another caregiver) can do alone with your child, and ways to make the most of virtual interactions to support a grieving child. Explore activities like: -Making a scream box -Playing with clay -Feelings charades game -Making a memory bracelet -And many more! It can feel difficult to connect with your child as you process your own complicated emotions surrounding loss. Use these activities to help bridge the gap between you and your child and to help you both find comfort in a difficult situation. You’ll find all the tools you need to help your child (and even yourself) healthily process your grief and move towards happiness, understanding, and acceptance together.

 Tisdale , Sallie . Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them): A Practical Perspective on Death and Dying . Melbourne, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 2018. Lowenstein, Liana. Creative Interventions for Bereaved Children."

Our Last Best Act

As we begin to contemplate death and to embark on practical planning for life's end, many of us long to leave a legacy beyond a transfer of money and property--one that ensures a sustainable earth for our loved ones, our communities, and generations to come. But where do we even begin? With the sudden deaths of both of her parents, Mallory McDuff found herself in a similar position. Utterly unprepared both emotionally and practically, she began to research sustainable practices around death and dying, determined to honor their commitment to caring for the earth. For McDuff, an educator and environmentalist, what started as a highly personal endeavor expanded into a yearlong exploration and assessment of green burials, aquamation, green cemeteries, home funerals, and human composting. In Our Last Best Act, McDuff bridges the gap between environmental action and religious faith by demonstrating that when the two are combined, they become a powerful force for the greater good. Full of practical information and support, this book equips readers to make decisions for their own end-of-life planning. In a world experiencing a climate crisis and a culture that avoids discussions about death and dying, this book opens the conversation about the choices we make--and how it's possible for our death to honor our values, create a sustainable legacy, and help to heal the earth.

and Stephen Jenkinson , Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic, 2015). 3 “Through searching online, I learned that the state required filing a 'notification of death'”: Jessica Gillespie, “North Carolina ..."

It's Your Funeral!

You can’t attend your own funeral. But you can have a blast planning it! Death is scary—but planning your funeral doesn't have to be! It's Your Funeral! will help demystify death, decrease your anxiety, and put the fun back in funeral, whether that means a drunken bacchanal or a somber reflection on just how great you were. Every stage of the legacy planning process is considered, from a burial outfit to a funeral theme. Practical and cheeky questions alike are answered, including: • What is the most eco-friendly burial method? • Can I write my own obituary? • Can my body be shot into space after I die? • How can I manage my digital legacy? Offering a plethora of curious facts, strange stories, and inspiration to help you think outside the coffin, It’s Your Funeral! includes worksheets that will ensure your wishes are recorded for posterity. Planning for death should be the time of your life, so let’s get started!

YOU'VE GOT QUESTIONS , THEY'VE GOT ANSWERS : Tips , tricks , and advice from the experts Advice for Future Corpses and Those Who Love Them ) : A Practical Perspective on Death and Dying by Sallie Tisdale ( New York : Gallery Books ..."

Ripped Apart: Living Misdiagnosed

RIPPED APART: LIVING MISDIAGNOSED This is what it is like to suffer due to doctor mistakes and their refusal to admit the mistakes. It is a story of American hospitals, in which 50% of the patients are in the hospital due to having been in the hospital. It is a personal story with a wider look at the failure of our health care system. This is no polite narrative. The book tells what suffering is – Gary Stern spent three years with his internal organs on the outside of his body – but despite the medical misery and the landmark legal case, the book is a love story, how Carol Stern’s love for her husband overcame the horrors of what they went through. The story of a wife who would not let her husband die until he told her he was ready. A wife who refused to give up, someone who fought the health care system including struggling – successfully – with the White House. There has never been a more honest book written about the dark side of American health care and about love that knows no boundaries.

... and the Netflix show based on Dr. Liosa Sanders' popular column Diagnosis, and the New York Times paperback row-listed Advice for Future Corpses and Those Who Love Them : A Practical Perspective on Death and Dying , ..."

Palliative Touch: Massage for People at the End of Life

With the support of palliative care and hospice a growing number of people are choosing the kinds of experiences they want at the end of life. Massage can offer moments of comfort, wellbeing, and beauty at a challenging time for patients and their loved ones, yet most of us are not prepared with the right skills or knowledge to offer this help. Palliative Touch: Massage for People at the End of Life is written for healthcare providers and complementary therapists who wish to provide safe, comforting touch for people with life-limiting illness, as well as anyone who might wish to support a dying client or loved one to live life to the fullest, right up until the end. Based on more than two decades of field and inpatient hospice experience, this book addresses topics from common end-of-life symptoms and the stages of dying to cultural issues and how these can impact end-of-life care. Readers are guided to engage with the material at whatever level might be appropriate for their needs, with practical tips in every chapter. Beautiful color photographs, actual case studies, and stories from therapists, caregivers, and patients bring this information to life.

 Advice for future corpses and those who love them : a practical perspective on death and dying . Sally Tisdale , 2018. New York: Touchstone. A path with heart. Jack Kornfield, 1994. London: Random House Group."

Reflecting on the Inevitable

Death studies have, over the last twenty years, witnessed a flourishing of research and scholarship particularly in areas such as dying and bereavement, cultural practices and fear of dying. But, despite its importance, a specific focus on the nature of personal mortality has attracted surprisingly little attention. Reflecting on the Inevitable combines evidence from several disciplinary fields to explore the varying ways each of us engages with the prospect of personal mortality. Chapters are organized around the question of how an ongoing relationship might be possible when the threat of consciousness coming to an end points to an unspeakable nothingness. The book then argues that, despite this threat, an ongoing relationship with one's own death is still possible by means of conceptual devices, or 'enabling frames', that help shape personal mortality into a relatable object. In each chapter the subtleties and applicability of key ideas are enhanced through a series of illustrative narratives built up around the lives of four people at different ages living in two adjacent houses. Reflecting on the Inevitable is relevant not only to academics of death studies, but also those training and practicing in people-helping professions, as well as anyone experiencing or attempting to make sense of major life events.

Up until we started talking about it , I had no idea how confused and avoidant I'd been. ... into Life and Death and Sallie Tisdale's (2018) Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them ), offer practical guidance on managing death ..."

Telepon Pertama dari Surga (The First Phone Call from Heaven)

“Bagaimana seandainya akhir bukanlah akhir?” Suatu pagi di Coldwater, Michigan, telepon-telepon mulai berdering. Para peneleponnya berkata mereka menelepon dari surga. Mukjizatkah ini? Atau olok-olok kejam? Ketika berita ini menyebar, banyak orang mulai berdatangan ke Coldwater untuk ikut membuktikan. Pada saat yang sama, Sully Hardings, pilot yang telah kehilangan nama baiknya, baru bebas dari penjara dan mendapati kota tempat tinggalnya sedang mengalami “demam mukjizat.” Bahkan anaknya yang masih kecil membawa-bawa ponsel mainan karena berharap ditelepon ibunya dari surga. Ketika telepon-telepon ini makin sering terjadi, dan bukti adanya kehidupan di alam baka mulai terkuak, kota itu––dan dunia––mulai berubah. Hanya Sully yang tidak percaya. Baginya, tidak ada apa-apa lagi setelah dunia yang penuh kesedihan ini. Dan dia bertekad untuk membuktikannya, bagi anaknya dan bagi dirinya sendiri. Dalam Th e First Phone Call from Heaven, Mitch Albom bertutur dengan fasih tentang kisah cinta, sejarah, dan keyakinan; suatu misteri mendebarkan dan perenungan tentang kekuatan hubungan antarmanusia.

Dalam Th e First Phone Call from Heaven, Mitch Albom bertutur dengan fasih tentang kisah cinta, sejarah, dan keyakinan; suatu misteri mendebarkan dan perenungan tentang kekuatan hubungan antarmanusia."