DAY 17: A BOOK THAT CHANGED YOUR VIEWS ON SOMETHING
For the past 2 years, Tyson and I have traveled with his family to Las Vegas to watch BYU play in the Vegas Bowl. Last year, I wanted a book to read on the way and my awesome Father-in-law let me browse through his collection. I pulled this one out- -"the five people you meet in heaven" by Mitch Albom, and he said that if I hadn't read it before, it was a must-read.
He was right. I absolutely loved it- -the perspective it presents is most interesting. To summarize the storyline (if you're the type that likes to read the back cover before the book), Here is Amazon's review:
Part melodrama and part parable, Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven weaves together three stories, all told about the same man: 83-year-old Eddie, the head maintenance person at Ruby Point Amusement Park. As the novel opens, readers are told that Eddie, unsuspecting, is only minutes away from death as he goes about his typical business at the park. Albom then traces Eddie's world through his tragic final moments, his funeral, and the ensuing days as friends clean out his apartment and adjust to life without him. In alternating sections, Albom flashes back to Eddie's birthdays, telling his life story as a kind of progress report over candles and cake each year. And in the third and last thread of the novel, Albom follows Eddie into heaven where the maintenance man sequentially encounters five pivotal figures from his life. Each person has been waiting for him in heaven, and, as Albom reveals, each life (and death) was woven into Eddie's own in ways he never suspected. Each soul has a story to tell, a secret to reveal, and a lesson to share. Through them Eddie understands the meaning of his own life even as his arrival brings closure to theirs.
If that doesn't make you want to read it, I don't know what will =0)
This book opened my eyes to the (supposedly) inconsequential people around me. I realized what an influence they have in my life, and I in theirs. The 5 people Eddie meets in heaven aren't who he would have expected to meet. Some of them he'd never even known- -but they had
important roles in each others' lives.
His story also taught me that no matter how insignificant I may feel- -my actions still count. To someone. Somewhere.
It makes me wonder who my 5 people would be?
For the past 2 years, Tyson and I have traveled with his family to Las Vegas to watch BYU play in the Vegas Bowl. Last year, I wanted a book to read on the way and my awesome Father-in-law let me browse through his collection. I pulled this one out- -"the five people you meet in heaven" by Mitch Albom, and he said that if I hadn't read it before, it was a must-read.He was right. I absolutely loved it- -the perspective it presents is most interesting. To summarize the storyline (if you're the type that likes to read the back cover before the book), Here is Amazon's review:
Part melodrama and part parable, Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven weaves together three stories, all told about the same man: 83-year-old Eddie, the head maintenance person at Ruby Point Amusement Park. As the novel opens, readers are told that Eddie, unsuspecting, is only minutes away from death as he goes about his typical business at the park. Albom then traces Eddie's world through his tragic final moments, his funeral, and the ensuing days as friends clean out his apartment and adjust to life without him. In alternating sections, Albom flashes back to Eddie's birthdays, telling his life story as a kind of progress report over candles and cake each year. And in the third and last thread of the novel, Albom follows Eddie into heaven where the maintenance man sequentially encounters five pivotal figures from his life. Each person has been waiting for him in heaven, and, as Albom reveals, each life (and death) was woven into Eddie's own in ways he never suspected. Each soul has a story to tell, a secret to reveal, and a lesson to share. Through them Eddie understands the meaning of his own life even as his arrival brings closure to theirs.
If that doesn't make you want to read it, I don't know what will =0)
This book opened my eyes to the (supposedly) inconsequential people around me. I realized what an influence they have in my life, and I in theirs. The 5 people Eddie meets in heaven aren't who he would have expected to meet. Some of them he'd never even known- -but they had
important roles in each others' lives.
His story also taught me that no matter how insignificant I may feel- -my actions still count. To someone. Somewhere.
It makes me wonder who my 5 people would be?
I love this book!
ReplyDeletePS My 16 year old sister has been doing 30 days with me and the first thing she wrote for the book post is I stole hers so she had to pick a different one. It's THAT good :)
Awesome!! I need to go get it!!
ReplyDelete