Read this book at home

I don't cry over books. I didn't tear up when Beth March, Old Yeller, or Albus Dumbledore died, and I don't go out of my way to read 'downer' books. But I heartily recommend Obit: inspiring stories of ordinary people who led extraordinary lives, by Jim Sheeler. The title may lead you to think that the people memorialized in this book had secret pasts, or that they made remarkable contributions to science, art or humanity. But when Sheeler talks about "extraordinary lives", he is referring to those 'oh, wow' moments that we all have in our past. Every person has an intriguing aspect to their history - jazz, war memories, treehouses, poetry, a hardscrabble childhood - that contradicts the idea that anyone leads an ordinary life. The truly beautiful thing about these obituaries (which Sheeler wrote for various Colorado newspapers), is that they tease out the details of people's lives and that they present the subject as a unique individual worthy of attention, even if they never received much during their life. The stories that their family, friends, and coworkers tell about them are testimonies to the way in which one person can affect the lives of so many people. Obit is a really powerful read, and I found it impossible to get through even one of the obituaries without tearing up. I recommend reading this at home, alone, with a box of tissues handy.