Some People Are Dead: Part Essay, Part Memoir, Parts Unknown

Everybody has got to die, but I have always believed an exception would be made in my case. Now what? - Last words of William SaroyanBut there are no exceptions. Now what? James Scott Bell spent a good chunk of 2015 thinking and writing about that. Some famous people died that year. So did others not so famous. It doesn’t matter, because each life is a story. And if we look deeply enough they all have something to say.In Some People Are Dead, Bell weaves his musings on the departed into a form of essay combining memoir and reflection, thoughts on how to live and how to die, and an occasional peek inside the mind of a writer. It’s a book you don’t have to read in one sitting. The entries are short, so it’s perfect when you’re waiting in line for coffee, or at the doctor’s, even in the checkout line at the grocery store. I advise against reading it in commuter traffic, says Bell. But on lunch break at the office, perfect. Some People Are Dead is a book full of humor and insight, a bit of ranting, but mostly wonder at the gift of life and how we can live it to the full.