Planning a celebration, whether traditional or very nontraditional ways of a funeral is covered in this nonfiction book. There are worksheets and journaling prompts and being empowered to plan how the end of your life should be. I learned a lot about the different funeral practices and am really thinking about becoming a tree!
Thanks to publisher and netgalley

Informative, practical, and just the right amount of funny! I really enjoyed this, and will also use it to help me think about my (hopefully far in the future) funeral. An all-around win.

No one likes talking about funerals or thinking about the death of loved ones, but these are topics we should be discussing more often. They certainly have been of late in Sophie’s family with some relatives recently sharing their decisions to pre-purchase cremation plans and others updating their wills. That’s why, when Sophie spotted It’s Your Funeral!: Plan the Celebration of a Lifetime—Before It’s Too Late by Kathy Benjamin she knew she had to read it. What she didn’t expect was for it to be laugh-out-loud funny!

It’s Your Funeral is a book that aims to “demystify death, decrease your anxiety, and put the fun back in funeral.” The brightly colored and fun (honestly) book looks at every aspect of funerals from ancient traditions to ideas so modern you’ve probably never heard of them—plastification and body farms anyone? It asks questions Sophie hadn’t even thought about such as which burial methods are the most eco-friendly, explores how to manage your digital legacy (and what you might want to think about protecting from sensitive eyes), and even invites you to think about what songs you’d like to have played at your funeral and the clothes you’d like to be buried in. For the record, if anyone tries to lay Sophie to rest wearing pantyhose—she’s coming back to haunt you. Speaking of hauntings, one page even offers tips on how best to plan for that if it’s a personal goal!

All throughout the book are work pages with space for you to write down your thoughts, ideas, and wishes. You can describe what you’d like done with your ashes (did you know that having them turned into tattoo ink, a vinyl record, or even a firework are all options?), list items you’d like to take with you to the great beyond and where you’d like them placed on your body, make a note of readings you’d like spoken and by whom, and even write your own epitaph and/or obituary. All throughout, the book encourages you to have fun—it’s YOUR funeral after all. Have you thought about what photos of you your loved ones might use for future obituaries or service sheets? Why not leave a folder on your computer titled “Photos Where I Look Super Hot to Use After I’m Dead” with some of your favorites in? Or why not request that your family form a flash mob and “perform an intricately choreographed interpretive dance to Adele’s Someone Like You every year on the anniversary of your death”? It’s really up to you!

This is a book that really got Sophie thinking. It’s one she would like to buy for several people she knows, but also feels slightly awkward about doing so—”Hey! Happy birthday! Here’s a book about planning your funeral…” For now, she’s working through several of the worksheets herself and making sure to talk to her family about her (and their) wishes. She recommends you do the same.

This book is wonderful. It is entirely useful and practical as well as being full of interesting information and hilarious humour! I laughed out loud throughout. I highly recommend everyone buys a copy!

For such a grave topic, this is quite a lively read. I appreciated the humor as a way of bypassing any fears of mortality the reader might face when dealing with a subject many people would rather ignore. There are many practical tips in here and it's such an accessible work. Highly recommend and already starting conversations about this with friends and family because of this book.

Note: I voluntarily requested, read, and reviewed this book. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sending me a temporary digital advance reading copy/advance review (ARC) galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. As always, my opinions are my own and do not represent my co-host or the podcast. I request, read, and review many books prior to publication to explore possible future guests for the podcast. I wish we could interview the author of every one of these books because I'm so impressed by the creativity, thoughtfulness, and wisdom shared through the temporary books I get through NetGalley. I find the idea of simplifying any book into 1-5 stars to be quite silly and reductionist, so I don't participate in that game and instead, just give five stars to each book.

This book by Kathy Benjamin combines some practical advice about planning for your death, with some humorous ideas and stories to make the process a little easier. There is also information about the history of various burial traditions and celebrations, and many worksheets included for you to write down your own plans.

Part 1 – Your Body, covers the different options available to you for handling your body after death. There is some background about historical traditions and how death has been handled by different cultures in the past, as well as descriptions of the pros and cons of various options. There are chapters that discuss both common practices like burial and cremation; as well as less common options like cryonics, or being turned into a diamond or fireworks.

Part 2 – It's Your Funeral, again discusses common traditions, but also identifies some creative ways to celebrate your life. The author covers funeral roles, venues, music, themes, eulogies, and how to lighten the mood.

Part 3 – It's Your Legacy, deals with some practical issues like wills, monuments and digital assets; but also some less serious topics like “coming back to haunt someone”.

There are several worksheets in the book, that allow you write down all kinds of plans or wishes you might have for your remains, or the celebration of your life. This might be one reason to consider purchasing the hardcover book over the digital copy, but of course you could also just recreate the worksheets yourself elsewhere.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. This approach to planning for your eventual death by looking at things with a slight sense of humor, makes it much more palatable. The book discusses many possible decisions that make sense to consider while you're still alive, and adds in some laughs and some historical background as well. I think that this was a wonderful idea, and appreciate the author for writing such a creative and positive book about a difficult subject.

The definitive guide to planning your own funeral! The perfect guide for helpful tips, guides to expenses and the levity it takes to even think about death. We're all going to go someday; might as well be on our own terms.

Truly a fun read. It's one of those books that I think fans of My Favorite Murder would enjoy. It has a very Murderino vibe to it. The humor is dark without being hopeless, the advice is incredibly insightful, highly recommended. 5/5, 9/10.

It’s the one conversation we should all have with our nearest and dearest. At the end of the day it means you get the send off you want.
This is a fun little book. Told in a light hearted way what us a sensitive subject. Personally I like the idea of a mushroom suit myself. There are sections in the book for you to make your own notes.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to see an arc of this book.

Since many people are resistant to having conversations about death and funerals, this book is a good option. It hits many of the important decisions regarding someone's passing, but with a more light-hearted tone than most literature. A good place to get started.

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Fun, informative and uplifting, this book covers a wide range of topics related to dying, including cultural and religious traditions, cost and eco implications and songs/readings/epitaphs.
It's written in a well considered tone - not too serious but keeping things factual and as light as possible. Highly recommended, perfect for opening up conversations with our loved ones about our final wishes.

If you like Caitlin Doughty's death positive message then you'll appreciate this book. You might even be able to get the more funeral squeamish people in your life to open up by sharing it. It was a fun, light read about a heavy topic.

Publish Date: August 16, 2021

Generally, people don't like to talk or even think about our own funerals. But it's such an important conversation to have and it doesn't have to be scary or depressing, as Kathy Benjamin so helpfully shows us in her book It's Your Funeral! This book is short and extremely readable, with moments that had me laughing out loud, and comes with blank pages to start outlining your ideas and plans for your funeral. I definitely think this is a good (and fun!) primer for funeral and death planning, and a good place to start when preparing to have those conversations with your friends and loved ones.

Thank you to Quirk Books and NetGalley for the review copy.

Putting the fun in funeral! This is a recommended purchase for all general nonfiction collections. Pairs well with Caitlyn Doughty's titles.