Books about Departed from Amazon.com

Faithful Departed traces the rise and fall of the Catholic Church in Boston, showing how the Massachusetts experience set a pattern that echoed throughout the United States as religious institutions lost influence in the face of rising secularization. The collapse of Catholicism in Boston became apparent with the explosion of the sex-abuse crisis. Lawler shows that the sex-abuse scandal was neither the cause nor the beginning of Catholicism's decline in Boston..
Price: $15.97 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"Purely entertaining . . . Elements of the ritualistic killings are pretty gross and the spooks can be scary; but as the author gently points out, life would be dreary without a few thrills "-The New York Times Book Review

"Cotterill's writing is both evocative and educational."-Entertainment Weekly

"Readers who enjoy Eliot Pattison's Asian thrillers . . . will find that Cotterill shares the same sardonic view of Asian communism mixed with a touch of mysticism . . . a quality that sets the work of both authors apart from most mystery fare."-Library Journal (starred review)

Dr. Siri Paiboun is summoned to the mountains of Huaphan Province, where for years the leaders of the current communist government hid in caves, waiting to assume power. Now a major celebration of the new regime is scheduled to take place, but an arm is found protruding from the concrete walk laid from the president's former cave hideout to his new house beneath the cliffs. Siri must supervise the disinterment of the body attached to the arm, identify it, and determine the cause of death.

The autopsy provides some surprises, but it is his gifts as a shaman that enable the seventy-three-year-old doctor to discover why the victim was buried alive and identify the killer.

Colin Cotterill was born in London and currently lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He received the Dilys Award for Thirty-Three Teeth, the second mystery in the Dr. Siri Paiboun series.

.
Price: $6.74 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A collection of the experiences of men and women who have communicated with the dead using the easy-to-learn techniques developed by Dr. Raymond Moody. As proof of life after death, these stunning testimonials promise to launch even more research and give comfort to people around the world..
Price: $3.26 [Notify me when price goes down.]

New in the "wonderful" (Green Bay Press Gazette) Dolls to Die For mystery series.

When doll restoration artist Gretchen Birch finds the owner of a dollhouse shop murdered, she winds up in the thick of a mystery of miniature proportions..
Price: $3.26 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In candid interviews, terminal patients in the Alive Hospice program talked with authors Bob and Judy Fisher, addressing some of the most important questions we ask about our life and how we've made the journey These end-of-life ponderings are collected into inspirational and provoking thoughts that will encourage each of us to live life fully. Each story is reflected in thematic chapters-priorities, family, simple pleasures, romance, integrity, regret, forgiveness-crafted into a series of "lessons learned," offering motivation to approach life with more vigor. These powerful stories deliver the clear message that if you wait to really live until you know you are going to die, you risk missing much of the joy life has to offer and the chance to leave a positive legacy..
Price: $13.59 [Notify me when price goes down.]

250 movies. One City. From The Departed to The Friends of Eddie Coyle, from Good Will Hunting to Gone Baby Gone, Big Screen Boston: From Mystery Street to The Departed and Beyond is the first overview of all the movies made in Greater Boston. Coverage of the most significant 80 movies make up the bulk of the book, from the biggest Hollywood productions to the most inspired homegrown features and documentaries. Plot, use of locations and quality of accents are just some of the ways the book sifts through the likes of A Civil Action, Monument Ave. and the influential Beanstreets movies of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The section titled Brief Visits, Day Trips & the Rest covers movies that shot further from Boston or stayed in the city only briefly, as well as many smaller films. There's also The Great Boston Movie Trivia Quiz, which is sure to challenge even the most seasoned Boston moviegoer. Big Screen Boston includes photos from over 50 movies..
Price: $13.45 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Mexico's Festival of Communion with the Departed / Los Dias de Muertos, un Festival de Comunion con los Muertos en Mexico

This book offers a remarkable look at Mexico's traditional holiday honoring departed ancestors, friends, and family. Each aspect of the multiday festival is carefully explored: the journey to the cemeteries to spruce up neglected gravesites, the lively marketplace selling breads and candies in the shapes of skulls and skeletons, the peaceful vigil as friends and families crowd the cemeteries to await the arrival of their loved ones through the long night.

San Francisco-based photographer John Greenleigh traveled to small towns in Mexico in four different years to document this extraordinary festival. Accompanied by evocative text by cultural scholar Rosalind Rosoff Beimler, the pictures speak eloquently to a ritual that is at once mocking and respectful of death---and ultimately affirming of human life..
Price: $16.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"We have been drifting into a muddle and a mess, putting together bits and pieces of traditions, ideas and practices in the hope that they will make sense. They don't. There may be times when a typical Anglican fudge is a pleasant, chewy sort of thing, but this isn't one of them. It's time to think and speak clearly and act decisively."

With these robust words Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham, throws down a challenge to current liturgy and practice surrounding All Saints' and All Souls' Days, and sets out to clarify our thinking about what happens to people after they die. Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, what it means to pray for the dead, what (and who) are the saints, are all addressed in this invigorating and rigorously argued book..
Price: $8.78 [Notify me when price goes down.]

When amateur actress Margaret Batten and her lover Miles Finn are found dead in Margaret's ramshackle gray bungalow, all of King George, New Hampshire, is abuzz. Is it foul play? (No, carbon monoxide poisoning.) Were they engaged? (Yes, if you believe the cleaning lady.) And why do Margaret's daughter Sunny and Miles's son Fletcher have the same kind of wispy, shiny, prematurely gray hair? (They're brother and sister, or so suggests Fletcher, annoyingly and at length.) Meeting one's possible half brother for the first time is jolting enough. But for Sunny Batten, the shock is compounded by finding out that her shy, sweet-faced mother was evidently not the "little mouse"--or even the "late bloomer"--Sunny had always assumed her to be. In other words, when the eulogists praise Margaret's vaunted generosity and her "open door," they aren't necessarily talking about the time she asked the Girl Scouts in for lemonade.

But then King George is full of surprises. Home for the first time since high school, Sunny finds herself reassessing the place. She has ample reason to regret her teenage years--she was poor, had no father, was the only girl on the golf team, found a dead carp in her golf bag one time. But how far can a grudge take you in life? Can we ever really know the truth about our parents? What state of mind does it take to shoot par? Lipman addresses such questions with her customary lighthearted touch, sketching out her ensemble cast with rapid and comical strokes. Witness, for example, anorexic congressional candidate Emily Ann Grandjean's most characteristic tic: "constant sips from a large bottle of brand-name water, then the ceremonial screwing of its cap back on once, twice, full-body twists as if volatile and poisonous gases would escape without her intervention." In the end, all loose ends are neatly tied up and all single characters are suitably paired--in other words, the author once again produces the kind of visceral satisfaction readers associate with her work. It's hard not to devour an Elinor Lipman novel in one sitting; put this one away for a time when you won't have to put it down. --Mary Park.
Price: $1.65 [Notify me when price goes down.]