Rating: 
Summary: Best read in a long time
Review: I bought this book and had a gut feeling it might be really boring. Was I ever wrong! I loved it and could literally not put it down till I was finished. In the end I thought it was a very interesting idea that not only do loved ones effect our lives but also the lives of complete strangers. The one downside to the book was it made me cry in parts. I am a rather soft touch though. Good Luck!
Rating: 
Summary: sorrowful
Review: I dislike Mitch for the fact that he came to Atlanta a couple of years ago to promote his "shallow" book on "Tuesday With..." I have a sister with Lou Gehrig's disease -in her 14th year. So Mitch comes to Atlanta to give a talk on the "Tuesday" book and my sister had bought a copy, the family and friends bought one and so many other ALS patients had as well.. So the HUGE effort it takes to get an ALS person to such an event was a big deal. The dinner sucked for "it" was a dinner for the average "joe" who could swallow normally. FEW people understand the ALS suffering.... And Mitch did little to communicate that idea... I sat there and listened to his "self-grandiosity" and was repulsed. "His" visit was all "about his trite little expereience with ALS" and not about the huge amount of work that it takes to keep an ALS person comfortable for seven days a week, twenty four hours a day.... The final "straw" about my loathing for his self-aggrandizement was when the 8-10 ALS people all had their books, wanting an autograph. Waiting for Mitch to show up at their table, David Jayne, my sister, Susan and others and then, after his farewell, he left the building without even going over to the table of the people with ALS... I have no respect for this "sportscaster". NONE! He is a "user" of a circumstance and "got lucky" with the opportunity... He should really be ashamed of himself and will ultimately have his own struggle to deal with..... Deal with his "greed" for his "message is of Ego". 14 years I have lived with ALS.... Mitch has no clue.... Read my notes of four years and he might "grow up".... Sincerely, Kevin Duffy
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book
Review: Very interesting, creative, confusing little book. I enjoyed its uniqueness and found myself very engrossed in the plot. Very touching in parts with good character development and believable dialogue. I enjoyed the writing style as well which shifts back and forth in time perspective. The ending left me feeling a bit unsatisfied however. I still have a question or two. But I guess that's a good thing too. A good read that makes you think. Recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointment
Review: After having read Tuesday with Morrie a few years ago and having liked that book ALOT, this one was a disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing.
Review: Mitch's latest book is amazing. I'm going to have to stop reading his books on trips - it's embarrassing for a 46-year-old man to start sniffling sitting alone on an airplane. But his book is that good. It touches you, it reaches you, and it tells a story, parts of which that nearly all of us have lived. Though I love Mitch's work in the Detriot Free Press and on the Sports Reporters on ESPN, I hope he keeps writing this type of material, because I can use this kind of inspiration every now and then. Well done, Mr. Albom.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful! - and wonderfully moving!,
Review: This is one of the most beautiful, soulful books I've read in a long time. Well-paced yet unforced, it asks, in very simple language, some of the most profound questions connected with being alive. It follows Eddie, a self-sacrificing war veteran in his journey from this world to the next -- and in doing so, comes to re-examine his so-called 'meaningless' life. There were parts of this books that brought me openly to tears. I recommend this wonderful book highly! Also recommended: A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens, THE LOSERS' CLUB by Richard Perez
Rating:
Summary: So bad it astonishes
Review: This novel is so bad, so over-hyped, so literally poor in its storyline, research, grammar, and literary value, I am just left astonished that anyone can write anything in its defense. For gosh sake, people, don't be taken in by this awful and crude drivel. I am just left shaking my head at the people who continue to buy this awful little nasty book.
Rating:
Summary: Not for "sophisticated" readers?...
Review: In my mind, "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" is a fine book for what it is. Regard it, if you want, as a fable of what might happen to some of us after we're dead. You can argue that it's sentimental, emotional and riddled with more cliches on a single page than what's found in director Frank Capra's entire filmography. But people expecting a seismic shift in their lives -- something wise, shattering and "attitude-altering" from anything receiving great word-of-mouth that skyrockets in popularity -- are forever doomed to disappointment. There are few things worse than when so-called "sophisticated readers" (and I include myself in this group), attack a book mercilessly, feeling so let down by high expectations. "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" moves quickly, is never dull and wears its heart with earnestness. Sure, it's cloying in a way that will irritate those used to so-called "fine literature," those paperweight-thick tomes filled with big words and pretentious phrases. But "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" is remarkable in its simplicity, and it has all the basic story telling elements down that makes for a good read. I really believe it's the kind of title that will never go out of print. People will still be talking about it fifty years from now. And it will forever polarize readers. I think it's too easy for people, some guilty of overt intellectual snobbery -- to scoff at works like "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" -- at the exclusion and denigration of all that is mainstream and "popular," as if the masses who made this book a success are all wrong and they themselves are sure-headed and right. Just don't believe them. "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" is for you if you find other thick and weighty titles a little daunting after a while. It's the perfect "break," a refreshing change of pace for a guy like me used to going through so many books that feel like work, titles filled with depressing themes and sentences as tortuous in construction as they are in their efforts to provide messages that are pseudo-revelatory and profound. I like books for the "masses" just as much as I like prize-winning titles stretching several hundred pages each, some good, some great and some awful. And "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" isn't designed to please critics. It's unfair and just plain mean-spirited to accuse any author of "making money" or "selling out" when it's obvious that he/she has tapped into something that resonates and brings optimism to many people who might otherwise avoid books. There's nothing wrong, in my view, with reaching out to as many people as possible and giving them hope and contentment amidst the turbulence of their everyday lives. I'd like to think "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" is a response to fashionable pessimism, the type found at any gathering of intellectuals (I know, I've been to some, and they're awful). But it isn't. Having said this, author Mitch Albom still surprised this old codger (me) with what he reveals on the last page. (Don't cheat -- it has no text -- but it's a doozy.) This made me even more fond of the book. However simplistic, straight-forward and "seemingly" effortless, I won't fault Albom for knocking out something that feels aimed straight from his heart to yours, even if he doesn't always connect. "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" will always generate arguments, pro and con. Yet its fans will always outnumber its critics. This is a book that will refuse to be dismissed. And this is a great thing, you know, people arguing the merits of books. Hence I'm not embarrassed to admit that "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" falls into my category of "guilty pleasures." But I don't feel guilty. And you shouldn't either.
Rating:
Summary: Spontaneous Fulfilment of Desire
Review: This is a very powerful book. Each chapter makes you think and think so much about your own life and the coincidences that weave through each encounter. When the character Eddie meets the five people in heaven, suddenly the reasons for all these encounters in an otherwise meaningless life unfold showing us that in every case, each life has such incredible meaning. Deepak Chopra's book Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire is essentially a sequal to this book or perhaps even a prequal because it explains those encounters on earth from the perspective of some one who already understands these incredible meanings. This is an important book and stops just short of preaching to make it thoroughly enjoyable and memorable.
Rating:
Summary: So enthralling
Review: I have not finished the book yet but I am loving it so much. Every word is written with such care, I can visualize everything so well and I really like this idea. Although I'm eager to read the rest, I will also be sad not to have more of it.
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