This is an excellent book by a medical doctor about the ways we used to die and how we could improve things today. Dugdale goes into the practices that were once employed and how they helped not just the dying but those who attended them in accepting, understanding and preparing for their own eventual deaths. She talks about the patients and their families who have had her repeatedly resuscitate them when it is clearly too late and prolong their deaths by miserable days hooked up to machines. She also talks about how hospitals were never a place for dying (or even being sick) until recently, and how she believes they should only be a place for urgent care. She presents a detailed look into some rituals that are used after deaths and how healing and helpful they can be for everyone involved, and also offers guides to know when it's wise to keep on with interventions and when it's not, among many other things. She also tells the stories of the deaths of many people she's known as a doctor and a loved one over the years, and uses these to teach lessons in preparing well for death. The book is not gloomy despite its title, and offers an interesting and helpful look at a topic we all need to think about, like it or not. I'll definitely keep much of it in mind moving forward.

I read a digital ARC of this book for review.

For many personal reasons, this book is timely. First of all, it is 2020 and we are in the midst of a deadly pandemic with no real end in sight. Secondly, I am of an age where I ponder death, not because I suffer from serious illness, but when the time comes, I want to “die well”. The author, Dr. Lydia Dugdale, has witnessed the horrific deaths inflicted on people by their well intentioned relatives. This prompted her to explore just what a “good death” should look like. She organizes her findings in such a way that it can read like a bucket list of spiritual and practical information, especially what to avoid and what to do. The springboard is to accept the fact that everyone dies, and no one can live forever. This book will offer one the information to control their own death, and to die with dignity and grace., It should be on everyone's night table.

An excellent and important read. Recommended first purchase for general nonfiction collections as well as high schools.

L.S. Dugdale inspires people to take advanced action and planning for death. This book looks at death from a medical doctor's point of view with cases of patients that show why having a plan for death can be extremely beneficial. For anyone who feels they need to have the discussion about death with loved ones, this can help better explain some concerns. For people in the medical field, like myself, crying may occur due to the patient stories that hit too close to home.

Hyped as the next Being Mortal, this book takes a highly historical approach to dying. The author, a physician, relates stories of her patients and her family including a beloved grandmother, and these stories are illustrative, but overall the author looks at death through the lens of history, religion/spirituality, and dwells I believe far too much on the work of others and archaic medical practices and beliefs about dying. There is nothing new here except her observations. Frankly, I was disappointed and was expecting, based on the description, a more practical guide for today's bedside vigils. The actual art commissioned for the book was buried at the back of the ebook edition I was given in advance. Why wasn't any of it used on the cover or for chapter breaks?

What a wonderful book in this crazy time.
I was a paramedic and and can fully relate and understand what the author is offering. I would often pick up patients in their 80's from a nursing home so they could have a surgery they didn't need, just to be brought back to the nursing home and not wait for the next surgery and so the cycle would go until they died.
I feel everyone who is fearful of death (I mean, of course, it's natural) would benefit from this because it's actually a thoughtful book that will make the end not seem as scary, but it also is a blueprint for living. Wonderful.