Rating:  Summary: Profound Review: Mitch Albom's "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" takes no time to read, but stays with you forever.It is a view of life after it has ended. Eighty-three year old Eddie (head mechanic at an amusement part) is killed in a park accident---his final act, his attempt to save a young girl. He seeks validation for his life from the five people he meets by asking if he succeeded in rescuing her. Eddie learns that one's life is not substantiated by any one act, but by all one has done---and how each life affects so many others. We get Eddie's life story in flashback form. And, it turns out to be both full and meaningful. A book like this could become sickenly sweet and gag you----however Mitch Albom makes it passionate, touching, heartfelt and profound.
Rating:  Summary: JMO Review: If you like the art of Thomas Kinkade, you'll probably like this book.
Rating:  Summary: Excellent! Review: This is a wonderful book about how a seemingly simple life affects so many others. Whether you are looking for a interesting read for a rainy day, or searching for meaning in life, you are sure to enjoy this wonderful book. And if you like this book, pick up "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom as well.
Rating:  Summary: Arrogance Review: Growing up in the Detroit area, you would be hard pressed to not know Mitch Albom. Mitch has brought a great deal of joy to many peoples lives over the age of 70. From his radio show, columns in the Detroit Free Press, to Tuesday's with Morrie Mitch one word can sum up Mitch...Arrogance. Whether it is the controversy involving his dealings with the University of Michigan's basketball team, or a stern lecture about what is right on his horrible radio show, Mitch knows it all. Just ask him he will tell it like it is. This book is no exception. Mitch's style of writing is similar to something you would expect from a first time author. Very basic and lacking in creativity. Do yourself a favor avoid Mitch at all costs. Those that come contact with his radio show, columns or books usually become incensed with rage. That is unless you are a putz like him.
Rating:  Summary: Direct, honest story about an ordinary man Review: While I read "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" I was struck by a rather pleasant resemblance to Jonathon "Livingstone Seagull" (showing my age here, aren't I) and "All I Ever Needed to Know I learned in Kindergarten." Each of these books has the I-knew-this-already-but-this-author-sure-says-it-better-than-I-could factor. In this case, what I knew already and Albom says better is that all lives are interconnected - a twenty-first century variation on "no man is an island." Albom starts with the death of a very ordinary person, 83-year-old Eddie who is the head maintenance man at a place called Ruby Point Amusement Park. From the first lines, we know that Eddie is going to die - soon. Albom tells us that. But, it's what happens next that is important, what happens to Eddie when he gets to heaven. There, he starts his journey to reconciliation and peace. To do that, he meets five people, who are in various stages of their own journeys. Each of the five had passed through Eddie's life, changing it, or being changed by it. It is a wonderfully told story, simple direct and very honest. Albom treads carefully between inspiration and sentimentality. He intersperses Eddie's experiences in heaven with vignettes from his life. Rather like the little pieces of a picture puzzle, all of these bits of information eventually come together in a portrait of Eddie, an ordinary man who never realized what effect he was having on those who crossed his path. This is a quick read, possibly in one sitting, but extremely enjoyable - a good gift item for those friends who like a bit of contemplative reading.
Rating:  Summary: I Loved This Book! Review: I absolutely loved this book. I have never read a book that made me feel so many things so intensly. Each of the five people introduced brought another layer to the story and to this man's life. I would highly recommend this book. In fact, I already have. I want every one I know to read this book just so I can talk about it. It has truly changed the way I see the world.
Rating:  Summary: Amazing Review: This is an amazing book, both prolific, part melodramatic...but extrememly well written. In the last few days I have read several awesomely written books. This one, Nightmares Echo and Secret Life of Bees.
Rating:  Summary: sweet and simple Review: i liked this book. there's no need to try and read too much into it or call it preachy. it's only preachy if you feel like you're in need of preaching to. for me, it only reinforces the notion that one should make the most out of life. this book had a whole lot of heart, more than i can say for most people.
Rating:  Summary: Delightful Review: This was a wonderful read, and worth the expense of time and money. Not quite the life-changing experience of Tom Leonardi's book "Secrets of Sensual Lovemaking" -- but many worthwhile nuggets here for observant readers with good comprehension skills who enjoy a good story.
Rating:  Summary: A simple and heavenly read!! Review: The Five People You Meet In Heaven is Mitch Albom's second novel I have read -- and if you liked Tuesday's with Morrie, I believe you will like this one too. Don't expect anything earth shattering....there is not necessarily ONE profound message that this book sends. Rather - it sends five messages -in the form of people, as they are each presented to Eddie - head of maintenance at Ruby Point amusement park, after he dies trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. Heaven, instead of a lush garden, is a place where the similar earthly pain is revisited WITH each of the five people that Eddie meets. They are each part of Eddie's life and are people he knows, or they can be distant strangers whose lives have impacted or have been impacted by that of this tired and hopeless 83 year old man. Though pain is experienced in heaven, there is also a beauty that Eddie finds in bringing closure to each of the five people he meets in his heaven, for even though death is looked at as an "end" Eddie is able to see how it IS really the beginning.... It is the beginning of the journey to finding out what meaning one's life carries with it....and also what one's life has meant to others, and how it has changed them. Even if you didn't realize it when you were on earth. The skies of heaven shed light on those reasons. While this book was simple and perhaps not as complex and detailed as the drawn out death we see in "Tuesdays With Morrie," I did find that it shed a brighter light on the whole idea of death itself. In his first book, I felt that Albom was making the reader feel comfortable - and coming to terms with - the fact that death is nothing to fear. Yet in this novel, I found that there was a more positive message, because it doesn't focus only on endings and accepting one's wrongdoings.....it is rather more focused on new beginnings, and remembering not just one's own wrongdoings - but those of others (or the perceived ones of others). It makes me think, who would be the five people in my own heaven?
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