The Five People You Meet In Heaven

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Summary: if you like Mitch Albom...
Review: I will never go without another one of Albom's books if, for nothing else, his style of writing. The back & forth from past to present is beautifully executed in both The Five People & Tuesday's. The Five People is an alluring fiction of what could be, and one that stays with you and leaves you buzzing long after you've marked your page for the day. The story of Eddie's life told in a new sort of retrospect is wonderfully entertaining... a story I would reccomend for anyone interested in a little leisurely reading!

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Summary: A Touching Tale
Review: As a big fan of Tuesdays with Morrie, I felt compelled to read this book. And I must say I was not disappointed. Once again, the same author asks compelling questions regarding the meaning of life, regrets and mortality. It all sounds kind of heavy but it is not; in the end, it's a very entertaining novel and I found myself enriched by the experience. Also recommended: Tuesdays with Morrie by Albom, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez

Rating:
Summary: it was ok...., but
Review: This book was ok (I am glad that I got it from the library), but one incident sticks in my mind and kind of ruins it for me. Eddie wanted to know if he saved the little girl in the park when he died, so why didn't he just look around Ruby's diner to see if she was there, since the diner was a haven for people who had been killed or injured in some way at Ruby Pier.

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Summary: Best book I read in a while
Review: I loved this book so much that I am going to give this as a gift to many people this year. Really gave you a new way at looking at things.

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Summary: A 'holy book' for the ages
Review: I've always been one for controversy.

Not the type that makes people mad and scream and cuss, but the type that makes people take a second look at something and consider it in a way it's never been considered before.

This does not mean I believe in the Heaven (or heavens) in Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven, but I'm glad he has taken such a sacred concept of Heaven, questioned it, and made it an entirely enlightening experience, for both the religious and non-religious.

Meet Eddie. He is your typical rough-exteriored, grouchy old guy. Eddie works at an amusement park called Ruby Pier and (despite his rough exterior) the children absolutely love him, asking him to make them pipe cleaner animals all the time.

But as we know, all people have a story and... well, Eddie's life was rough, lacking real meaning. And this story is his life.

Only not in the typical way. When the belt on a ride scrapes loose and the ride falls, almost on a young child, Eddie pushes the child away, feeling what he believes to be her tiny hands right as he dies. He awakens in the Ruby Pier of the past, the way he remembers it when he was a kid, with old wooden teacups and vintage signs advertising things like cigars. It is there he meets the Blue Man, a sideshow freak that Eddie ran into in childhood, but never particularly knew. The Blue Man explains the impact Eddie had on his life and teaches him the 'moral of his story'. He then tells Eddie he will meet four other people (five in total) who will share him stories and will teach him lessons from those stories. Some will be people he knew, some not. But each, in some way, has been impacted by or has impacted Eddie's life. In this book, the focus of Heaven is to show that each life has some meaning.

I absolutely loved this book and read it in the period of one night. In many ways, I could feel the emotions Eddie was going through as he experienced the pains and joys of reliving these past moments of his life through his spiritual guides and found much of their advice thought-provoking and soul-sustaining. The story is truly an epic in its own right -- not epic in the sense of encountering monsters and demons, but an epic in the sense that it's a story about conquering the soul. It's a journey we must all take to find meaning in our lives.

I also liked how the author showed how mundane mortal life can really seem when you consider the short snippets that recall Eddie's hard life and those that show Eddie's friends undergoing sorrow in preperation for his funeral. Such segments shows that they (and in many ways, we) just don't get it.

I recommend this book. It is a book I feel people will pick up again and again when they undergo many hard times and many good times. It helps us realize how important God is in our life (although he's not mentioned much in this novel) and how books like this, almost holy in nature, can help us bring us closer to him.

Rating:
Summary: Easy read and thought provoking
Review: This story had its twists and turns. Some of it was fairly boring but the idea of meeting different people for different REASONS (the REASON, not the person, being the main idea) was thought provoking.

I finished this in one day.

Rating:
Summary: A Story You'll Appreciate
Review: The best way to describe "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" is 'pleasant.' That sums it up rather nicely. It is a short book. It didn't even put a dent in my evening to read it. At the same time, it was long enough to tell the story it needed to tell. I didn't feel cheated by the shortness of the book, actually rather appreciative. The use of flashback is reminiscent of "My Fractured Life," although with an obviously more gentle take on tragedy, although no less moving. The tenderness is reminiscent of "The Secret Life of Bees," but without the length. All together, a pleasant experience to read.

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Summary: What About Dogs?
Review: A lot of people think dogs don't go to heaven which really worries me. I mean, we only get ten stinking years to live if we're lucky!

What if some little boy or girl wants to see their pet in heaven? So sad.

Plus, I don't even really know five "people." I mean, I figure I'll see my master and then probably some of his buddies since they are over at the house a lot. They seem nice enough, but none have had a very significant impact on my life. I wish my master would get married and have kids, so then I could see them all in heaven.

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Summary: It made me think and cry.
Review: After reading this book you will wonder who will be in heaven waiting for you! No person's life is worthless, it teaches; and Your life touches so many others in ways you've never realized. A thought provoking book. A quick read.

Rating:
Summary: Perplexing
Review: I've read 'The Five People You Meet in Heaven' three times but the fundamental premise continues to cause disquiet. The fault undoubtedly lies within me, because the text is both lucid and encompassing. The two issues that continue to trouble my curiosity are these; if there are only five people in that vast expanse, it is highly unlikely that we'll see them, let alone meet them; and what a dry old meeting it would be if they all turned out to be Amish or Mormons or, perish the thought, Jehovah's Witlesses. I'll read it again in the hope that my despair is unfounded.