Customer Reviews

OBIT. Inspiring Stories of Ordinary People who Led Extraordinary Lives

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Jim Sheeler notes in his introduction: "The death beat is supposed to be the worst job in the newsroom. For those of us who understand, it's journalism's best kept secret -- a place of raw emotion and endless wisdom, a place where you find lessons of life more brilliant that anything you'll find from the traditionally designated 'noteworthy' people who usually appear in the rest of the newspaper." I've been writing obits for years, yet after reading this book I now aspire to cover the death beat like Sheeler does -- with compassion and grace.

The deceased are the main focus of each chapter, but Sheeler is there too, buried in the spaces between each inked line. A master wordsmith and medium, he has the uncanny ability to give a voice to ghosts and record their legacy. Read this collection, and you too will hear the whispered tales of nurses and bartenders, pilots and farmers, mountain makers and carousel caretakers.

Take your time, though. "Obit" is simply too rich to read in one sitting. This collection of "inspiring stories of ordinary people who led extraordinary lives" is meant to be savored. As such, I devoted the last half hour of each day to a different deceased man or woman, then carried their stories into Morpheus' realm. There they inspired my dreams. And when I woke up, hours later, the dead were alive once again, filling my mind with thoughts of love, loss, courage and generosity.

Pulitzer Prize-winning feature writer Jim Sheeler presents Obit: Inspiring Stories of Ordinary People who Led Extraordinary Lives, an anthology of brief yet heartwarming portrayals of men and women who led energetic, compassionate, sometimes humorous, always shining lives. Each biographical portrayal is only a few pages long - yet that is more than enough space to expand beyond the traditional printed obituary and reveal the wonder, the color, and the personality infused into each individual's unique life. Obit is ultimately an anthology celebrating life, not death, and an emotionally moving read whether explored a few pages at a time or all at once.

OBIT. Inspiring Stories of Ordinary People who Led Extraordinary Lives. This book is reminiscent of well written Readers Digest short stories. Obit will force the reader into reflection on one's own fleeting life. When the time comes and none shall escape it. Will the last things said about you just be a "footnote on the backside of life"? Or will the reading of your obituary bring a tear to a strangers face?

There is a quiet dignity in the lives of everyday people. Look at the obituary pages and there are stories. Jim Sheeler began his career as a feature obituary writer in the weekly Boulder Planet and then moved to The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News. Now he authors a weekly feature obituary.

Obit features some of those stories. Taking the snippets of information from obituaries, he seeks out family and friends to create a more intimate portrait of the deceased. Along the way he shares their hopes and dreams, their struggles and joys. Within these portraits are the wisdom of many years, memories of the old ways and of Colorado before its expansion, and lessons on living and dying well, as well as heartbreak and tragedy. Far from being morbid or dull, these brief features capture some of the best we see mirrored in each of us. In this increasingly disconnected world, it is a gift to take the time to get to know our neighbors. Sadly, sometimes it only comes after death.

Jim Sheeler's Obit is a great insight into ordinary people's lives. Jim is a picturesque writer who won a Pulitzer Prize for this book. It is an easy and entertaining read that will get you to think twice about how you live your life. Then when you finish this book try his new book Final Salute -- a much more somber yet important story that needed to be told.

"Obit"; Inspiring Stories of Ordinary People Who Led Extraordinary Lives by, Jim Sheeler is the literary equivalent of the old potato chip slogan: "I'll bet you can't eat just one!"

You can't just read one of these stories and not open up the bag and grab another...and another...and another. Sheeler's "Obit" is addicting and soulfully gratifying.

To my knowledge, most hotels and motels throughout this country still have a copy of the bible in each room for their patrons. I think it should be mandatory that each one of those motels place a copy of "Obit" next to those bibles. After all, Death is the best inspiration of life that I know of (author, Thomas Lynch would agree with me).

Here is a collection of stories about real people, real lives, real death, real writting and...real inspiration!!

By this book and keep it next to your bible, or...in your suitcase, or...carry it where ever you may go. If, you appreciate good stories, and superb writting then... this book is for YOU!

The book is a quick read, didn't cry at any of the stories as I thought I would :-) but the stories where o.k., not as "gripping" as I thought they would be as I could proably find some people who did alot for their community, sacrificed for their children etc. All in all, a fast read & was written well.

Outstanding compilation of ways to handle grief and a great and gentle way of honoring the fallen.

Received the book in good condition & arrived in a timely manner. I am enjoying the book as it allows us a more detailed look into these peoples lives. Reminds me of "The Rest of the Story."

A friend of mine sent me this book to include in my annual write-up of the "most inadequate blurbs." OK, this one is by Westword, whatever that is, and it reads in its entirety: "Many of Sheeler's subjects are lifeless, but his prose certainly isn't." As a blurb, it's distinctive on two counts: you don't see many books blurbed with the equivalent of "Not Lifeless!" and secondly, as a sentence, it has the most misleading use of the word "Many" I've ever seen. What do you think Westword was intending by using the word "Many." If he had read the book he would have known that it is a large collection of obituaries. There aren't a few live people mixed in for variety. No, it's all dead, all the time--I should say, all lifeless all the time. Anyhow I got to reading the book and I must say, it is certainly worth a read.

Jim Sheeler is no Alden Whitman (the man who for so many years wrote obituaries for the NY Times of the most famous people on earth). I take it that he prides himself on doing the little people, the meek of the earth, and his beat is Denver, Boulder, and the surrounding lands of Colorado. I don't know how he selects his subjects, but he writes on and on about their lives, their families, the things they did over the years, and how sad it is that they've died. I found myself sniffling a bit, especially over the young ones, one boy died at 15, a budding opera buff and enthusiast who had a fatal heart ailment, or another boy, the bad boy of his little village, who died overseas serving his country.

But strangely I found myself growing cold to the deaths of a whole pack of country folk. It's Sheeler's fault, he just doesn't seem able to animate these people, make them come to life for the reader. All of them have the same format, and about the same number of words, so a profile of a nonagenarian clocks in at about the same length as a child, giving rise to the suspicion that, with all his bruited tenderness, Sheeler's just cranking them out like loaves of bread. And sorry, despite the subtitle, I didn't feel the "extraordinariness" of any of these people's lives. Says on the front of the book he won the Pulitzer Prize. For what? I ask. Was it Colorado's turn?