A young, healthy accountant dies in the emergency room, and the doctors are unable, or unwilling, to give his wife a clear reason why. Now, it's attorney Jessica Lamm's job to uncover the truth. As the hospital's lawyer grinds the case to a halt, she enlists the help of a colleague. What they discover reveals far more than a simple malpractice suit. The trail leads them deeper into a mire of shady corporations, embezzlement, and drug trafficking. But the more they find, the less Jessica is convinced their prime suspect, the attending ER doctor, is guilty. She will need all her skill and ingenuity if she is going to pin down the real killer.

Funerary practices have long been a classic topic of anthropological inquiry, which has tended to focus on death rituals as expressions and reinforcers of community ties and values. In this book, the author looks at funerals as an urban business, based on her fieldwork at a large Japanese funeral company. Her central theme is the progressive commercialization of what once were primarily religious rituals. The book depicts the process of contemporary Japanese funerals, the practices of those who provide commercial funeral services, and the motivations and behavior of the mourners who purchase those services. In so doing, it examines the role of funeral companies in shaping Japanese cultural practices and changing an important aspect of Japanese society. The author addresses several related questions: What cultural changes accompanied the shift from traditional community funeral rituals to commercial funeral services? How did the mass consumption of commercial funerals produce cultural homogeneity while allowing for differences in individual services? How does the marketing of professional funeral services mediate changing cultural values? How have commercial services served to objectify changing concepts of dying, death, and the deceased in contemporary Japan? The author demonstrates that the funeral industry, the purchasers of funeral services, and Japanese values surrounding death are mutually dependent and are responsible for supporting, representing, and transforming cultural practices. Throughout, the author relates vivid and often moving details and anecdotes to lend a personal element to her study of the commodification of death in Japan.

The New York Times bestselling coauthor of Sex at Dawn explores the ways in which “progress” has perverted the way we live—how we eat, learn, feel, mate, parent, communicate, work, and die—in this “engaging, extensively documented, well-organized, and thought-provoking” (Booklist) book. Most of us have instinctive evidence the world is ending—balmy December days, face-to-face conversation replaced with heads-to-screens zomboidism, a world at constant war, a political system in disarray. We hear some myths and lies so frequently that they feel like truths: Civilization is humankind’s greatest accomplishment. Progress is undeniable. Count your blessings. You’re lucky to be alive here and now. Well, maybe we are and maybe we aren’t. Civilized to Death counters the idea that progress is inherently good, arguing that the “progress” defining our age is analogous to an advancing disease. Prehistoric life, of course, was not without serious dangers and disadvantages. Many babies died in infancy. A broken bone, infected wound, snakebite, or difficult pregnancy could be life-threatening. But ultimately, Christopher Ryan questions, were these pre-civilized dangers more murderous than modern scourges, such as car accidents, cancers, cardiovascular disease, and a technologically prolonged dying process? Civilized to Death “will make you see our so-called progress in a whole new light” (Book Riot) and adds to the timely conversation that “the way we have been living is no longer sustainable, at least as long as we want to the earth to outlive us” (Psychology Today). Ryan makes the claim that we should start looking backwards to find our way into a better future.

Are you alive? What makes you so sure? Most people believe this question has a clear answer—that some law defines our status as living (or not) for all purposes. But they are dead wrong. In this pioneering study, Elizabeth Price Foley examines the many, and surprisingly ambiguous, legal definitions of what counts as human life and death. Foley reveals that “not being dead” is not necessarily the same as being alive, in the eyes of the law. People, pre-viable fetuses, and post-viable fetuses have different sets of legal rights, which explains the law's seemingly inconsistent approach to stem cell research, in vitro fertilization, frozen embryos, in utero embryos, contraception, abortion, homicide, and wrongful death. In a detailed analysis that is sure to be controversial, Foley shows how the need for more organ transplants and the need to conserve health care resources are exerting steady pressure to expand the legal definition of death. As a result, death is being declared faster than ever before. The "right to die," Foley worries, may be morphing slowly into an obligation to die. Foley’s balanced, accessible chapters explore the most contentious legal issues of our time—including cryogenics, feticide, abortion, physician-assisted suicide, brain death, vegetative and minimally conscious states, informed consent, and advance directives—across constitutional, contract, tort, property, and criminal law. Ultimately, she suggests, the inconsistencies and ambiguities in U.S. laws governing life and death may be culturally, and perhaps even psychologically, necessary for an enormous and diverse country like ours.

Did you know that American burial traditions include aerial burial, in which the body is placed in tree branches? Have you ever wondered which religions believe in afterlife or reincarnation? Ever been curious about exactly what the embalming process entails? The answers all lie in R.I.P.: The Complete Book of Death & Dying by Constance Jones. Reminding us that almost no subject in the world elicits such universal fascination as death, Jones has masterfully collected information from diverse sources to explore, illuminate, demystify and enrich our understanding of the myriad issues related to death and dying. Publishers Weekly has praised Jones' approach as "clear-sighted" and "fearlessly inquisitive" and calls R.I.P.: The Complete Book of Death & Dying "invaluable and oddly uplifting." The book is divided into two parts and is equipped with a resource list of organizations, a bibliography and an index. "Part One" explores the cultural dimensions of death and dying, with chapters and sections on myths and legends explaining death, cultural traditions, the scientific study of death, demographic statistics, funerary customs, religious beliefs and historical anecdotes. Jones provides wide-ranging, informative, and occasionally humorous material that is thoughtfully and clearly organized. Topics covered include descriptions of the physiological changes at the moment of death, a history of cremation, and summaries of legal and ethical issues associated with death, such as capital punishment, euthanasia and suicide.

The Valiant heroes. X-O Manowar. Bloodshot. Ninjak. The Harbinger Renegades. Unity. This is how they lived. This is how they died. Now we know. The Book of the Geomancer has recorded it all. But only a young girl Ð the last in a line of the enigmatic mystics who protect the Earth known as Geomancers Ð has seen this future come to pass, from the coming cataclysm to the dawn of the 41st century. Alone with her sworn protector, the Eternal Warrior Ð a soldier battle-forged across five thousand years of combat Ð the duo must defy their allies to stop the Dark Age that now threatens to eclipse our world. Together, they are the number one target of every hero and villain on Earth. Either the Eternal Warrior hands her overÉor they take him down. But can even he single-handedly protect one child when the entire Valiant Universe wages war against him? New York Times best-selling writer Robert Venditti (X-O MANOWAR) joins superstar-in-the-making Robert Gill (Batgirl) and visionary artist Doug Braithwaite (ARMOR HUNTERS) to begin a thousand-year journey into the future of the Valiant UniverseÉand rain, fire, blood and war on the heroes of today. Collecting BOOK OF DEATH #1Ð4.