Six top books that explain death in America

Caitlin Doughty is a mortician, activist, and funeral industry rabble-rouser. In 2011 she founded the death acceptance collective The Order of the Good Death, which has spawned the death positive movement. Her books Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and From Here to Eternity were both New York Times bestsellers.

Doghty's newest book is Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death.

At The Week magazine she tagged six books that explain death in America, including:

The Land of Open Graves by Jason De León (2015).

The disappearance of Central and South American migrants during their desert crossings into the United States has become an invisible epidemic, encouraged and aided by decades of deadly public policy. Anthropologist Jason De León's account, illustrated with photos by Michael Wells, explains how and why the cruel Sonoran Desert consumes and vanishes the dead.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue