Need a new book? Try Mitch Albom: The Five People You Meet In Heaven
I've been a journalist exactly five years now and if this profession has altered me at all - it's made me less able to cry, particularly when it comes to books and films.
So it always comes as a surprise - and I'll admit an unwelcome one - when I get that lump in the throat.
I read The Five People You Meet In Heaven this weekend - I'd heard such good things about it I couldn't resist grabbing it half price in a popular supermarket...
And yes, when I finished it, I had that lump in the throat.
I loved how it was written. The book is so beautifully simple and reminds you of something you already know, but rarely think about - that our lives are so delicately inter-linked.
Author Mitch Albom could almost be quoting John Donne: "No man is an island, Entire of itself, Each is a piece of the continent, A part of the main..."
But before I lose myself in the poetry I read at school... let me give you a brief outline of the plot of this gorgeous little tale.
Fairground maintenance man Eddie dies.
He's 83-years-old.
He goes to heaven.
There he meets five people who have been waiting for him - standing patiently in line so they can help him make sense of the life he has left behind.
And Eddie needs it more than most because he can't help but shake the feeling that his existance - his neat and tidy flat and his meticulous work maintaining fairground rides - has been a bit of a waste.
Some critics have compared this book to The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I don't agree.
That may be because I didn't particularly like The Lovely Bones - but also because I think it's a bit simplistic. So both books are set in heaven - would you automatically compare two books set in the same country?
No, The Five People You Meet In Heaven deserves to be placed on its own little cloud.
It's perfect for anyone who worries about what they achieve - and what they don't achieve. For people who fear they might not fit everything in - and for people who worry they don't have enough ambitions to struggle to fit them all in.
If you've ever questioned whether you've wasted your life - this is the book for you.
Just don't blame me for the lump in the throat.
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Vicki Kellaway - a Merseyside reporter who would happily spend her days lounging about and reading - if she won the lottery. Vicki's in a book club, which consists of six girls who meet once a month to discuss their latest tome, drink a few glasses of wine and eat far too much cheese.
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I've got to agree with you Vicki. I read this book some years ago and loved it too. The very simplicity of the storyline, the writing and the characters make it a dream to read. I can see the similiarities in Albom's other book Tuesdays with Morrie. I would definitely recommend both.
Hey there :) You dropped me a comment in my blog and i just saw it, so here i am giving you one. :)
Well, I got to agree with Michelle, if you haven't read Tuesdays with Morrie, you HAVE to get your hands on the book. Talking bout the lump in the throat? It's a bigger lump with Tuesdays with Morrie, really.