Dead Presidents: An American Adventure into the Strange Deaths and Surprising Afterlives of Our Nation's Leaders [Paperback]

Entertaining&Carlson shifts deftly among sombre, macabre, and playful stories and shows how the death-tourism industry reveals more than amusing trivia.  [An] amusing survey of presidential death and remembrance. Brady is an exuberant guide to presidential wishes, myths, and monuments, both official and forgotten, and what dead presidents reveal about ourselves, our history, and how we imagine our past and the future. Dead presidents havent been this surprising, entertaining, and even funny since my eighth-grade classmates and I saw animatronic Lincoln whirr to life or, later, when I voted for failed San Francisco mayoral candidate Jello Biafra. Lots of books explain how tough the presidents have it when they are alivescandals, impeachments, gray hairbut here at last is a terrific investigation of the post-life presidency, a rollicking but always thoughtful exploration of the after-the-White-House whereabouts of the forever former chief executives. Brady Carlson is the perfect road-trip companion, smart and good-hearted, a combination that we can only hope for in presidents, alive or dead. The funniest and most entertaining book about death youll read this yearand my favorite book about corpses since Mary Roachs Thoroughly enjoyable. A spirited debut&A brisk, lighthearted travelogue with an exuberant guide. US