16 Top science books like All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell

Cover of All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell

All the Living and the Dead

By: Hayley Campbell

4.25

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

A compelling and compassionate exploration of the death industry and the people—embalmers, detecti…

"Death shows us what is buried in the living. By shielding ourselves from what happens past the moment of death we deny ourselves a deeper understanding of who we truly are."

-Hayley Campbell, All the Living and the Dead

"Death shows us what is buried in the living. By shielding ourselves from what happens past the moment of death we deny ourselves a deeper understanding of who we truly are."

-Hayley Campbell, All the Living and the Dead

If you liked the science plot in All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell , here is a list of 16 books like this:

Cover of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

1. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory

By: Caitlin Doughty

4.22

Format: 254 pages, Paperback

Most people want to avoid thinking about death, but Caitlin Doughty—a twenty-something with a degre… read more

Similar categories in Caitlin Doughty's Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory book and Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead

  • science
  • death
  • nonfiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Your relationship to mortality is your own."

-Caitlin Doughty, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory

"In spite of my fear of living, I chose not to die."

-Caitlin Doughty, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory

"A girl always remembers the first corpse she shaves."

-Caitlin Doughty, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory

"The fear of death is why we build cathedrals, have children, declare war, and watch cat videos online at three a.m."

-Caitlin Doughty, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory

Cover of Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Judy Melinek, T.J. Mitchell

2. Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner

By: Judy Melinek , T.J. Mitchell

3.18

Format: 183 pages, Hardcover

The fearless memoir of a young forensic pathologist's rookie season as a NYC medical examiner, and … read more

Similar categories in Judy Melinek's Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner book and Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead

  • true crime
  • medical
  • death
  • nonfiction
  • science
Cover of From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty

3. From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death

By: Caitlin Doughty

4.30

Format: 256 pages, Paperback

A New York Times and Los Angeles Times Bestseller “Doughty chronicles [death] practices with ten… read more

Similar categories in Caitlin Doughty's From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death book and Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead

  • audiobook
  • history
  • death
  • nonfiction
  • adult
  • sociology
  • science
"My next drone folk album will be called "The Cremation Reforms of Octavius B. Frothingham"."

-Caitlin Doughty, From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death

"What dignity translates to, more often than not, is silence, a forced poise, a rigid formality."

-Caitlin Doughty, From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death

"All that surrounds us comes from death, every part of every city, and every part of every person."

-Caitlin Doughty, From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death

"In death, corpses don't hold themselves together. They no longer have to play by the living's rules."

-Caitlin Doughty, From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death

Cover of What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier, #1) by T. Kingfisher

4. What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier, #1)

By: T. Kingfisher

3.89

Format: 165 pages, Hardcover

From the award-winning author of The Twisted Ones comes a gripping and atmospheric retelling of Edg… read more

Similar categories in T. Kingfisher's What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier, #1) book and Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead

  • adult
  • audiobook
"You shouldn't joke about fairies."

-T. Kingfisher, What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier, #1)

"The dead don’t walk. Except, sometimes, when they do."

-T. Kingfisher, What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier, #1)

"Most of us go to the Devil without him having to personally oversee things."

-T. Kingfisher, What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier, #1)

"I had a strong urge to step back from them, and an even stronger urge to poke them with a stick."

-T. Kingfisher, What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier, #1)

Cover of How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler

5. How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures

By: Sabrina Imbler

4.12

Format: 263 pages, Hardcover

A queer, mixed race writer working in a largely white, male field, science and conservation journal… read more

Similar categories in Sabrina Imbler's How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures book and Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead

  • audiobook
  • adult
  • nonfiction
  • science
"But when I think about ponds infested with gallon-big goldfish, I feel a kind of triumph. I see something that no one expected to live not just alive but impossibly flourishing, and no longer alone. …"

-Sabrina Imbler, How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures

Cover of A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them by Neil Bradbury

6. A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them

By: Neil Bradbury

4.12

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

A brilliant blend of science and crime, 'A TASTE FOR POISON' reveals how eleven notorious poisons a… read more

Similar categories in Neil Bradbury's A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them book and Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead

  • audiobook
  • history
  • true crime
  • medical
  • adult
  • nonfiction
  • crime
  • science
"Sometimes what makes things toxic is exactly what allows them to be used for good."

-Neil Bradbury, A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them

"Rather than throw the white arsenic away, it was realised that money could be made by selling the substance as a poison to get rid of all kinds of vermin, including cockroaches, rats, stray animals -…"

-Neil Bradbury, A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them

Cover of Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues by Jonathan Kennedy

7. Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues

By: Jonathan Kennedy

3.94

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

An account of how the major transformations in history—from the rise of Homo sapiens to the birth o… read more

Similar categories in Jonathan Kennedy's Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues book and Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead

  • science
  • history
  • medical
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
"Pathogens thrive on inequality and injustice."

-Jonathan Kennedy, Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues

"Across the whole of the Americas, the introduction of infectious diseases from Europe resulted in a 90 percent fall in the population, from about 60.5 million in 1500 to 6 million a century later."

-Jonathan Kennedy, Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues

"There is one universally incorrect choice: do nothing. This didn't work when humans thought that plagues were a punishment sent by angry gods. Nor does a laissez-faire approach help stop disease when…"

-Jonathan Kennedy, Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues

Cover of Gory Details: Adventures from the Dark Side of Science by Erika Engelhaupt

8. Gory Details: Adventures from the Dark Side of Science

By: Erika Engelhaupt

4.09

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

Science reporter Erika Engelhaupt investigates the gross, strange, and morbid absurdities of our bo… read more

Similar categories in Erika Engelhaupt's Gory Details: Adventures from the Dark Side of Science book and Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead

  • audiobook
  • history
  • medical
  • death
  • nonfiction
  • adult
  • science
"This kind of scientific boldness is something the world could use more of. All too often, we’re hemmed in by our fears and our sense of propriety. Some subjects simply aren’t discussed, or aren’t tak…"

-Erika Engelhaupt, Gory Details: Adventures from the Dark Side of Science

Cover of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

9. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

By: Mary Roach

4.06

Format: 320 pages, Paperback

Beloved, best-selling science writer Mary Roach’s classic, now with a new epilogue. For two tho… read more

Similar categories in Mary Roach's Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers book and Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead

  • audiobook
  • history
  • medical
  • death
  • nonfiction
  • adult
  • science
"There wasn't an anhydrous lacrimal gland in the room..."

-Mary Roach, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

"You are a person and then you cease to be a person, and a cadaver takes your place."

-Mary Roach, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

"Many people will find this book disrespectful. There is nothing amusing about being dead, they will say. Ah, but there is."

-Mary Roach, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

"We are biology. We are reminded of this at the beginning and the end, at birth and at death. In between we do what we can to forget."

-Mary Roach, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Cover of The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell

10. The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality

By: Amanda Montell

3.54

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

From the bestselling author of Cultish and host of the podcast Sounds Like a Cult, a delicious blen… read more

Similar categories in Amanda Montell's The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality book and Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead

  • adult
  • nonfiction
  • sociology
  • audiobook
"While magical thinking is an age-old quirk, overthinking feels distinct to the modern era—a product of our innate superstitions clashing with information overload, mass loneliness, and a capitalistic…"

-Amanda Montell, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality

"Information transmission research suggests that folks with higher anxiety are quicker to engage with, and slower to disengage from, negative information; so "as a trait and state," anxiety itself per…"

-Amanda Montell, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality

Cover of Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And other Questions about Dead Bodies by Caitlin Doughty

11. Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And other Questions about Dead Bodies

By: Caitlin Doughty

4.13

Format: 232 pages, Paperback

Everyone has questions about death. In Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?, best-selling author and mortic… read more

Similar categories in Caitlin Doughty's Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And other Questions about Dead Bodies book and Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead

  • audiobook
  • history
  • medical
  • death
  • nonfiction
  • adult
  • science
"That's why all the questions in this book come from 100 percent ethically sourced, free-range, organic children."

-Caitlin Doughty, Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And other Questions about Dead Bodies

"It’s normal to be curious about death. But as people grow up, they internalize this idea that wondering about death is “morbid"

-Caitlin Doughty, Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And other Questions about Dead Bodies

"Sometimes death can be violent, sudden, and unbearably sad. But it’s also reality, and reality doesn’t change just because you don’t like it."

-Caitlin Doughty, Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And other Questions about Dead Bodies

"I'm bringing body back. Returning corpses, but they're not intact. Kids, this is a Justin Timberlake reference. You're fine not knowing who that is."

-Caitlin Doughty, Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And other Questions about Dead Bodies

Cover of All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell

12. All the Living and the Dead

By: Hayley Campbell

4.25

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

A compelling and compassionate exploration of the death industry and the people—embalmers, detecti… read more

Similar categories in Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead book and Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead

  • audiobook
  • history
  • true crime
  • medical
  • adult
  • death
  • nonfiction
  • crime
  • sociology
  • science
"Death shows us what is buried in the living. By shielding ourselves from what happens past the moment of death we deny ourselves a deeper understanding of who we truly are."

-Hayley Campbell, All the Living and the Dead

Cover of The Facemaker by Lindsey Fitzharris

13. The Facemaker

By: Lindsey Fitzharris

4.29

Format: 315 pages, Hardcover

Lindsey Fitzharris, the award-winning author of The Butchering Art, presents the compelling, true s… read more

Similar categories in Lindsey Fitzharris's The Facemaker book and Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead

  • science
  • history
  • medical
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
Cover of We Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys by Erin Kimmerle

14. We Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys

By: Erin Kimmerle

3.88

Format: 256 pages, Hardcover

Forensic anthropologist Erin Kimmerle investigates of the notorious Dozier Boys School--the true st… read more

Similar categories in Erin Kimmerle's We Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys book and Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead

  • history
  • true crime
  • adult
  • nonfiction
  • crime
  • audiobook
Cover of Still Life with Bones: Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains by Alexa  Hagerty

15. Still Life with Bones: Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains

By: Alexa Hagerty

4.47

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

An anthropologist working with forensic teams and victims' families to investigate crimes against h… read more

Similar categories in Alexa Hagerty's Still Life with Bones: Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains book and Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead

  • audiobook
  • history
  • true crime
  • death
  • nonfiction
  • crime
  • science
Cover of Lay Them to Rest: On the Road with the Cold Case Investigators Who Identify the Nameless by Laurah Norton

16. Lay Them to Rest: On the Road with the Cold Case Investigators Who Identify the Nameless

By: Laurah Norton

3.87

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

A fascinating deep dive into the dark world of forensic science as experts team up to solve the ide… read more

Similar categories in Laurah Norton's Lay Them to Rest: On the Road with the Cold Case Investigators Who Identify the Nameless book and Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead

  • audiobook
  • history
  • true crime
  • adult
  • death
  • nonfiction
  • crime
  • science
Cover of Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America’s Cemeteries by Greg Melville

17. Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America’s Cemeteries

By: Greg Melville

4.00

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

A lively tour through the history of US cemeteries that explores how, where, and why we bury our de… read more

Similar categories in Greg Melville's Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America’s Cemeteries book and Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead

  • history
  • death
  • nonfiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Every life holds an epic tale, even if no one alive remembers it."

-Greg Melville, Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America’s Cemeteries

Cover of Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin by Megan Rosenbloom

18. Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin

By: Megan Rosenbloom

4.01

Format: 275 pages, Hardcover

On bookshelves around the world, surrounded by ordinary books bound in paper and leather, rest othe… read more

Similar categories in Megan Rosenbloom's Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin book and Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead

  • audiobook
  • history
  • true crime
  • death
  • nonfiction
  • adult
  • science
"Human skin books—mostly made by nineteenth-century doctor bibliophiles—are the only books that are controversial not for the ideas they contain but for the physical makeup of the object itself."

-Megan Rosenbloom, Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin

"Anthropodermic books tell a complicated and uncomfortable take about the development of clinical medicine and the doctoring class, and the worst of what can come from the collision of acquisitiveness…"

-Megan Rosenbloom, Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin

"Many confirmed human skin books didn’t begin their print life in this controversial binding but were rebound by collectors, usually doctors who took the oldest or rarest texts in their private collec…"

-Megan Rosenbloom, Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin

"No wonder the public persists in connecting the idea of human skin books with Nazis. It's easier to believe that objects of human skin are made by monsters like Nazis and serial killers, and not the …"

-Megan Rosenbloom, Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin

Cover of What the Dead Know: Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator by Barbara  Butcher

19. What the Dead Know: Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator

By: Barbara Butcher

4.15

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

Barbara Butcher was early in her recovery from alcoholism when she found an unexpected a job at th… read more

Similar categories in Barbara Butcher's What the Dead Know: Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator book and Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead

  • audiobook
  • true crime
  • adult
  • death
  • nonfiction
  • crime
  • science
"People can handle the truth, but not uncertainty. The things they imagine are almost always more painful than the facts."

-Barbara Butcher, What the Dead Know: Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator

Cover of The Day I Die: The Untold Story of Assisted Dying in America by Anita Hannig

20. The Day I Die: The Untold Story of Assisted Dying in America

By: Anita Hannig

4.37

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

An intimate investigation of assisted dying in America and what it means to determine the end of ou… read more

Similar categories in Anita Hannig's The Day I Die: The Untold Story of Assisted Dying in America book and Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead

  • audiobook
  • history
  • medical
  • death
  • nonfiction
  • science
Cover of Last Rites: The Evolution of the American Funeral by Todd Harra

21. Last Rites: The Evolution of the American Funeral

By: Todd Harra

3.66

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

The Untold Story of American Funeral and Mourning Traditions Why do we embalm the deceased? Why ar… read more

Similar categories in Todd Harra's Last Rites: The Evolution of the American Funeral book and Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead

  • history
  • death
  • nonfiction
  • adult
  • sociology
  • audiobook

16 must-read adult books like All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell

Transform Your Habits

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory

Caitlin Doughty

4.22

Transform Your Habits

From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death

Caitlin Doughty

4.30

Transform Your Habits

What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier, #1)

T. Kingfisher

3.89

Transform Your Habits

How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures

Sabrina Imbler

4.12

View all the books

10 must-read adult books like Last Rites: The Evolution of the American Funeral by Todd Harra

Transform Your Habits

From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death

Caitlin Doughty

4.30

Transform Your Habits

Gory Details: Adventures from the Dark Side of Science

Erika Engelhaupt

4.09

Transform Your Habits

The Best American Short Stories 2022

Andrew Sean Greer

3.67

Transform Your Habits

All the Living and the Dead

Hayley Campbell

4.25

View all the books

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