I read this book after it having been recommended to me by several people. Every person I talked to said that this book changed their lives, or at the very least changed the way they viewed life in general. With statements like that, I couldn't not read it! My expectations for this book were very high going into it. How could they not be? I started this book on a Sunday morning, and I finished it that same night. The Five People You Meet in Heaven is about a man name Eddie, who works in an amusement park. On his 83rd birthday he is killed in a tragic accident after he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He is then taken to the afterlife, where one by one, he encounters five people who have either impacted his life in some way or whose lives he has impacted in some way.
This book offered such an interesting perspective into both life and death, and really made me question what I actually thought of both. While I won't go all the way and say that it changed my life, I am in the group that feel that it changed, even if only slightly, the way I feel about life. So many days would go by where I would question who I was or where I was in life, and start to compare my success with other people, just to make sure I was still "doing ok". I would often allow other people and their negativity to disrupt my mood, or impact my day, when in reality I am responsible for my own happiness. I am responsible for how I choose to view the world, and how I choose to live my life.
Mitch Albom does a great job at causing you to think, but question everything you once believed. He puts life and death in a perspective I had never seen before, but does so in a way that doesn't appear as if he's trying too hard to make his point. I do recommend this book to everyone. If you have a chance to read it, do so. It's not a long book, but it can do so much for you in terms of how you choose to see the world.
I am rating this one (out of 5):
