It is time for another book review. “Exit Strategy, Thinking Outside the Box,” (available at our library) was written by Kate Robin, a producer for the TV show Six Feet Under. Robin compiled a list of the creative ways people are using instead of traditional burials. The Cremation Association of North America reported that approximately 30 percent of us choose cremation. What to do with those precious ashes instead of placing them on the fireplace mantel has become a $16 billion death care business.

In New Mexico, potter Beth Menczer (www.beth.menszer.com) adds ashes to clay bowls and sculptures. Ashes are added to molten glass to make one-of-a-kind glass sculptures (www.companionstar.com) or crafted into man-made diamonds (www.lifegem.com).

Creative Cremains (www.creativecremains.com) will hollow out golf clubs, musical instruments, jewelry, or almost any object, then fill it with your loved ones’ ashes. They even offer a handmade recycled paper card with flower seeds and ashes that is ready to plant in your garden.

Mourning jewelry that was made popular by Queen Victoria in the 1800s has been revived by Madelyn Pendants (www.madelynpendants.com) with a line of pendants and bracelets with a compartment for your loved one’s ashes. Her company and others will also accept your pet’s ashes.

For years, companies have scattered ashes at sea. Exit Strategy lists numerous companies that will scatter ashes over mountains or water. Angels Flight will add the ashes to fireworks and shoot them off a barge in the Los Angeles area.

Eternal Ascent (www.eternalascent.com) will launch your ashes in a biodegradable helium balloon. When it reaches an altitude of about five miles, the balloon freezes, crystallizes and shatters, scattering the ashes in the upper atmosphere.

Space Services will launch a small vial of ashes into space. However, it was recently reported that these cremains fall unceremoniously back to earth and crash in the desert.

Eternal Reefs (www.eternalreefs.com) will add your ashes to a large concrete ball that will create new underwater habitats. Memorial trees can be planted in the Celebration Forest (www.celebrationforest.com) located in the mountains of northen Idaho. Ashes from loved ones amend the soil around the tree.

Caskets are also changing. Biodegradable coffins are made of unvarnished pine, cardboard, bamboo or wicker. Eco-pods are composed of pressed recycled paper and biodegradable glue.

MHP Enterprises (www.casketfurniture.com) makes caskets into practical furniture to be used before death. Their line includes sofas, entertainment centers and other furniture.

The state of California does not require the deceased be embalmed or put into caskets. According to the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau, people need to be buried 18 inches deep and an appropriate distance from moving water. Forever Fernwood (www.foreverfernwood.com) offers natural burials in Marin county with graves marked by wildflowers and located by GPS (Global Positioning System) coordinates.