Thinning the Herd: Tales of the Weirdly Departed

I got this book from the library, and I hope to buy it soon. I loved it! I read it from cover to cover, often reading out loud to my husband and mother-in-law. Each story is wittily written, and it makes me a little more comfortable about a dark and foreboding subject. And if you ever want to convince someone that suicide is not the answer tell them to read this book. I've already got a number of people lined up to check it out once I take it back.

I loved this book! It was actually morbidly funny. I loved it so much that I passed it on to my mother-in-law who loved it too...

This is an excellent and well researched book that covers a topic that is somewhat morbid but Ceilan brings a lively wit to the table. If you are going to go out in a weird and strange manner you would want her to hail your spirit off this mortal coil. A great, lively, and excellent read!

I picked up this book and laughed from page one all the way through the end. If you think the Darwin Awards are funny, you'll love this!

For all of those with a slightly offbeat sense of humor, Cynthia Ceilan's book is required reading! Within the book's 290-odd pages you will meet some of the dimmest bulbs, unluckiest people and assorted oddballs who ever danced with death - and usually lost! Ceilan looks at death in a dozen chapters, the titles of which give the reader an inkling of what they're about to read, to wit: 'Inescapable Destiny,' 'So sexy it hurts,' 'It seemed like a good idea at the time,' 'Death's little ironies' and so on. For example, readers are introduced to the couple who crawled into a deflated helium balloon for some kinky sex. They were found the next morning dead from helium poisoning. Or the drunk who decided to scare the hiccups out of his nephew by pointing a loaded handgun at him. The cure worked...a bit too permanently however. Or the Polish gentleman who was so afraid of being burglarized that he booby-trapped every part of his house. He died when he opened his garage door. Yup, he had bobby-trapped that as well! And then there's the Englishman who accidentally set himself on fire while burning some brush. He put the flames out by jumping in a nearby river. However he couldn't swim and... Celian's book is a bit of a guilty pleasure. Many times, even as you're thinking "Oh, that's awful," you're marveling - and even chuckling - at how dumb or thoughtless or unlucky some people can be. Some of the stories deal with people's premonitions of death, deathly coincidences, etc. so THINNING THE HERD casts its net pretty widely. But it's all interesting. Funny in its own right; maybe not for everyone. Recommended.