"For Small Creatures Such as We: Ritual for Finding Meaning in our Unlikely World" by Sasha Sagan

 

Publisher:  G. P. Putnam's Sons

Copyright: 2019

ISBN: 9780593087541

This book is an examination of how we humans interact with the natural world, and with each other. It is the story of Ms. Sagan and her life as the daughter of the astronomer Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan. She was raised in a secular household, and this forms the basis of her outlook on the world, which is to say the least a very good one that demonstrates that science has revealed truths more impressive and amazing than any religion, myth or fable.

She reminisces about hr life with her parents, how she met her husband, and how they are now raising their daughter in the same manner. She examines how her life has been influenced by her relatives, and how she has taken some of the rituals and developed others to enhance her family's life.

An excellent book that gives not only a good overview of a secular life, but also some insight into what it means to be secular in a world that seems to be dominated in certain places by religion, mythology, fables, and much more - some of which are very detrimental to the person and society at large.

Highly recommended.

"Will My Cat Eat My Eye Balls?: Big Questions From Tiny Mortals About Death" by Caitlin Doughty

Publisher:New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, [2019]
Edition:First edition.
ISBN: 9780393652703
Characteristics: xv, 222 pages :,illustrations ;,22 cm

"Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?" is Ms. Doughty's third book on the subject of death and all the ins and outs of it. Once again she does a wonderful job of bringing a typically unmentionable subject to the forefront. In this book she ventures out a little further and answers questions posed by children, some of which are very eye-opening.

In addition to the title question she answers questions such as "Will my body sit up or speak on its own after I die?", "Can I preserve my dead body in amber like a prehistoric novel?", ""Can we give Grandma a Viking funeral?" and "Can Someone donate blood after they die?" and 29 others.

Her sense of humour in answering these questions should definitely appeal to all young readers, and I'm sure most adults will get a chuckle as well.

For the who don't know Ms. Doughty is the author of two other books entitle "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" & "From Here to Eternity" the latter of which I reviewed previously (the first came out before I started doing reviews, but I will endeavour to add it shortly). She is also the creator of the "Ask a Mortician" web series, the founder of the Order of the Good Death, and she own and runs a funeral home in the Los Angeles area.

Looking forward to her next book, with eager anticipation.