A variation of the question Kate Sweeney most often gets goes something like this: “What’s a nice girl like you doing writing a book about death?”

Sweeney, a young Atlanta author and public radio producer, has just come out with a book called American Afterlife: Encounters in the Customs of Mourning…

A couple of recent obituaries have received widespread notice online and in the media. One, for an actor, was so low-key it was almost unrecognizable; the other was so quirky its subject was unmistakable.

What they shared in common was they were both first-person obits.

That’s not so unusual these days as people are taking charge of their end-of-life activities…