I find old cemeteries totally fascinating so I couldn’t resist requesting this on Netgalley. The author visits cemeteries around the world, and there’s a lot of interesting historical info blended with her personal experiences. Some are fascinating, some are a little dull. I’d say pick it up if the topic is something you’re super into, but if you’re not a big fan of cemeteries it’s probably not going to be an engrossing read for you.

I finally finished "Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel" by Loren Rhoads.The subject matter is a bit different, but the writing and infomation draws you in. i think this is a book that many will shy away from due to the subject matter. Do not do that. You will b e missing out on a good read. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

Loved this! Interesting content throughout. However, you have to be into the history, architecture, peacefulness of cemeteries to appreciate this book. Even though I really liked this, I would say it may not be for everyone. Thanks for sharing with me.

For anyone who has felt at ease or fascinated by cemeteries, this book will assure you that you are not alone in that feeling. The photography encaptures the mood of each site as it talks about the history.

As the author, Loren Rhoads points out there is a cemetery everywhere you go. With the popularity of Genealogy now taking over the country, cemetery's are popular places to visit as a destination. I grew up in a caretaker family of a small cemetery and as I mowed grass in the summers I would read a lot of tombstones. As I got older I could put families together from around the various plots. Loren Rhoads gives a thorough sometimes funny account of visits around the country and the world. This a really a set of essays about cemetery visits. Each is stand alone and covers sadness to ghostly encounters. Loved this book, I'm sure there would be enough information to have Part 2. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I love visiting old cemeteries, the headstones, mausoleums, crypts and often times the people buried in them , are so worthy of a visit! Loren Rhodes has now added to my bucket list of cemeteries to visit. Why not take a peek at this book and try to visit a few yourself? Most places have pioneer cemeteries, and larger cities over times have amazing and historical cemeteries right near by. Some cemeteries even offer tours.Really bring history alive for children to see the graves of people they read or hear about in school. People who enjoy travel should include this book when planning their trips.

Really an interesting and enjoyable read. As one who loves exploring old cemeteries, and has done so with two GR friends who happened to visit Massachusetts, this was a particularly exciting find. There is a small colonial era burial ground in the town next to mine which I visited with one friend. With the other, I visited Author’s Ridge in the fine old cemetery at Concord MA. In Wish You Were Here, the author presents a combination of objective information about burial grounds, cemeteries of many types across the United States and around the world, a very interesting bibliography and her personal responses to the places she has visited over the years.

As a person who has always been fascinated with historic/old graveyards, I just had to read this book. I have seen many in my home area of New England, some in England, Ireland, Israel, and the graveyard at Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico. Each is different in so many ways as are those Rhoads visits. And she is sensitive to these differences both dictated by the surrounding society, by changes in culture, and by the financial pressures of cemetery maintenance. At times she rambles freely through open areas searching for graves she knows are within, at others she participates in organized tours. Throughout this book she provides history of each cemetery from its inception to the time of her visit. Some she visits more than once.

The author is in So. California at one point and visiting some graves of celebrities who are of interest to her. The contrast between the multi-level extravaganza for Al Jolson and the simple marker for Bela Lugosi is immense. Her deepest emotions were with Lugosi. I have never done this sort of cemetery tour. Discussing a trip to Japan and visits to a shrine, temples and small graveyard, the author is struck by how little she knows of Japanese culture, of Buddhism, of social propriety in a country so different from her own. This limits her ability to gather information as she usually does.

As the book progressed, I found myself increasingly immersed in Rhoads' style. Her personal responses really spoke to me and gave me visuals to add to the one photo per chapter the book averages. While I initially was disappointed there weren't more photos, after some reading I found that the descriptive words provided more than ample detail.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I've always been fascinated by graveyards and thought this book would be a fun look at my interest. This book is so much more than just a list of graveyards. It's history, love, hate, all the big emotions. The research is impeccable and delivered in a very readable way. I couldn't put it down.

Growing up in London in the sixties I remember an early fascination for the decaying and overgrown local Abney Park cemetery in Stoke Newington built in the “Dissenting Gothic” style which resonated with a truly mysterious and at the same time romantic aura. By a strange coincidence I later found out that none other than Edgar Allan Poe was a pupil at the nearby Manor House School between 1817 - 1820 and would have been familiar with this site. One can only speculate but I wonder if this wonderful Gothic site had any influence on his subsequent work?. Wish You Were Here - Adventures in Cemetery Travel by Loren Rhoads is a homage to the importance and appeal that graveyards and cemeteries have exerted over her life as she visits more than fifty sites across the world. These range from the wonderfully atmospherically Highgate Cemetery which contains so many marvelous Victorian gravestones and mausoleums (perfect for a horror film setting) to the rather sterile and featureless Forest Lawn Memorial Park which the author encouragingly critiques here.

Although mainly set in the USA the author also visits Paris, Prague, Venice and several sites in Japan. This is very much the journal of an independent traveler and we learn of her anxiety of when she can or can not take photographs depending on the local customs and rules in place. Each chapter starts with a photograph and the date when the visit took place. We get to know about the history of the cemetery and about some of the famous and not so famous people who are buried there this can be quite poignant especially when referring to young children who perished as the settlers journeyed to the west or the victims of man's inhumanity from Hiroshima to Gettysburg. But equally compelling are to find out about the resting places of some of the famous such as Bela Lugosi one of the author's heroes who resides at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California or Keats and Shelly buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome, though Shelly's heart lies in St Peter's Churchyard, Bournemouth.

I must admit for me this was one of those books that once started I found difficult to put down and I can see myself returning to chapters of it at a later date. One interesting side note is that there are quite a few references to the American Civil War here as might be expected from someone touring the cemeteries of that country but recently when taking a leisurely stroll in the Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh I rather surprisingly in the Scottish capital came upon a monument to the Edinburgh-born Confederate Colonel Robert A. Smith who died in 1862 at Munfordsville, Kentucky in the Civil War, this is just an example of what unexpected finds can be made.

An enjoyable and educating read that I can certainly recommend.

I may be considered weird by some people, but I love roaming around cemeteries. The older the better. I have had an account for years on findagrave.com for years and have posted thousands of photos and added numerous people. I think my family got me started at a very young age when every year on Memorial Day we all loaded up and headed to all the cemeteries we had family buried in and laid flowers on all the graves then had a huge family picnic at the one cemetery my Grand Father donated the land for. I also am big into Genealogy. So cemeteries are kind of my thing. When we go on vacation I love to visit old cemeteries we pass, and I am lucky enough to have a husband who humors me and stops.

After reading this book I honestly believe Loren Rhodes and I would get along quite well. We both love touring cemeteries all over. I would love to go with her on her travels all over the world. The book is very interesting, she tells of her travels to the cemeteries in other part of the world. How some of those cemeteries are very different from our, some of the cemetery customs, and how many are the same as ours here in the states. There are also pictures!! Most of the pictures of of the front gates but I am thrilled to so those as well.

This book is very well written. It has personal accounts of Loren's travels. It also has personal thoughts of hers as well. There is some humor included as well. She also lists throughout the book other cemetery books which I am dying to check out as well.

I received this book from the Author or Publisher via Netgalley.com to read and review.

I love cemeteries. They are wonderful destinations of introspection and peace. I, like the author, enjoy rambling clusters of monument and headstones. Flat, manicured graves don't have the same character and as such, hold no appeal.
In the same way, I enjoy reading books that allow the reader to transport themselves into whatever destination is being recounted. The author gives such descriptions in "Wish You Were Here" that the reader has no trouble visualizing each place traveled. Each location has a different feel and the author conveys that perfectly. Not only do you get a full rendition of landscape, you also get a peek into the history of each venue.
Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel is just that; An invitation to walk the same paths with the author as your guide and lose yourself in some very memorable essays on the places where the living and the dead converse, and no one gets out alive.

I found this book to be very good and enjoyable!!! The subject matter is a bit different, but the writing and infomation draws you in. i think this is a book that many will shy away from due to the subject matter. Do not do that. You will b e missing out on a good read. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.