The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Reviews
Loved it at first, but then at the end it just felt very repetitive and not surprising ?? He met another person and they gave him the lesson, but nothing groundbreaking imo.
but it is a very easy book to read, and super enjoyable.
Eddie’s dad is still sus, no matter what happened at the end.
"It is because the human spirit knows, deep down, that all lives intersect". Overall, I really enjoyed this quick read reflecting on the people our lives touch, even if we don't know it. I liked the writing style, how to book was segmented into different aspects of Eddie's life, and overall the meaning behind it. Sometimes I find books about life, death and time to be cheesy and overly wise. "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" found a sweet spot of connecting with readers without being too much.
Mitch Albom has done it once more & as I read more of his books, I’m turning into one of his biggest fans. The five ppl you meet in heaven follows the story of Eddie 86, a maintenance guy at Rudy pier who leads a simple life (or as he thinks he leads a simple life). But an accident at the amusement park results in his death & furthermore into his afterlife where he meets 5 different ppl, teaching him five different lesson about his life on earth. This story was so heartwarming as well as heartbreaking all at the same time. The author has much good story telling skills, his writting kept me hook from the every beginning. Each person & each lesson is so through provoking and very reflective, making one reflect on our lives on this earth. A very highly recommended book if u like a quick read.
The Five People You Meet in Heaven is one of many books that follow the protagonist as he or she travels into the after life. In this case, it's a maintenance man from a local carnival named Eddie and he dies after being crushed by a falling ride. From there he learns the ropes of Heaven from five mentors whom he knew in his life. These books can either be mind blowing explorations of the human spirit and imagination (The Inferno by Dante Alighieri), fantasy romps that straddle the morose and the fantastical (What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson) or like this book, smaltzy and rife with cliches. The best thing about The Five People You Meet in Heaven is its length and its simplistic vocabulary. The book can easily be read in a couple of hours. The book starts off well, building suspense with Eddie's impending death but it is unable to stay interesting. By the end of the first lesson the book settles into a predictably annoying pattern of flashbacks and lessons with Eddie being gobsmacked by each one until the end when the last mentor has to hit him over the head with the moral of the story.
THIS WAS SO GOOD. and so sad ?! it’s one of those books that is so heartwarmingly sad that i feel the need to stare at the ceiling for a few hours after reading this. so thought provoking and really had me feeling like i should start being more grateful to people in my life. such a quick read too.
fuck eddie's dad
“life has to end, love doesn’t”
😭😭😭😭😭
I was debating whether I should give this book 3 or 4 stars. It was definitely one of the easiest and quickest reads ever and I thought the plot was interesting. At times the book was a bit boring, but because it is so short it didn't really matter. The ending was good though.
Very thought provoking. Probably my favorite book to date! Highly recommend
me when i get to heaven: where the milfs at??? God: get out!!
this book changed me
this story had me crying on the bus
Very short and thought evoking about how everyone’s actions affect other’s lives
I really liked the story's concept of how you meet the five people in heaven in order to understand why you lived and for what purpose. Great read !
It has been such a long time since i enjoyed a book written by a white man this much. Kudos to you Mitch Albom
i love mitch albom books and this book is actually one of the best book i've ever read. i enjoy reading this book so much
I love how everything came around full circle in this book. I read it for the first time several years ago but the concept is still unique and very well executed. Mitch Albom is a great author if you like inspirational books that are though provoking and make you question your definition of faith.
This was a very quick read. The language of the book is simple, but not so much so that it made me feel tired of reading below my level of comprehension. I had previously watched the miniseries with my mother, and I felt that the mini-series was very faithful to the book. However, I also felt that the show carried more of an emotional impact than the book did. I was very pleased that, despite that this is a work of the Christian faith, the author did not preach to the reader. Nothing is worse for me than a preachy book. I feel like this is a good book for someone of any age, though the scenes of the Vietnam war that occur in parts of the book might be a subject that a child might not understand without explanation. There is a bit of violence, but it isn't at all that way.
Not my usual genre but made me feel peaceful
Finally a book without expecting the end ! :) "And in that line now was a whiskered old man, with a linen cap and a crooked nose, who waited in a place called the Stardust Band Shell to share his part of the secret of heaven: That each affects the other and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one." Aside from the debate of heaven and how it is supposed to be , but this book provides an idea of why each one of us lived, the reason of existence. I love it when all events are connected and people are connected too. Great novel.
A beautiful book that stirs the emotions is a way that you cannot describe. It’s crazy how it makes one at peace with the idea of death and unresolved matters; because in the end, everything just falls into place.
Such a good small read! I took forever to finish this but that was just because of life. Regardless, everytime I opened it, I was transported into this world. It truly has valuable lessons that we should listen to. The ending, the final chapter, got me to shed some tears but overall I enjoyed it so much!
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom This was recommended to me by a teacher, and I must say, it was one of the most beautiful books I've read. The story was enchanting and made me laugh and cry. It's a must read, I recommend it to everyone!
Highlights
„That's because no one is born with anger. And when we die, the soul is freed of it. But now, here, in order to move on, you must understand why you felt what you did, and why you no longer need to feel it“
"Lost love is still love, Eddie. It takes a different form, that's all. You can't see their smile or bring them food or tousle their hair or move them around a dance floor. But when those senses weaken, another heightens. Memory. Memory becomes your partner. You nurture it. You hold it. You dance with it. Life has to end" she said. "Love doesn't."
Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do. we do to ourselves.
“Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you’re not really losing it. You’re just passing it on to someone else.”
“Young men go to war. Sometimes because they have to, sometimes because they want to. Always, they feel they are supposed to. This comes from the sad, layered stories of life, which over the centuries have seen courage confused with picking up arms, and cowardice confused with laying them down.”
Taffy. He thinks about taffy. He thinks it would take his teeth out now, but he would eat it anyhow, if it meant eating it with her.
“Life has to end,” she said. “Love doesn’t.”
"Lost love is still love, Eddie. It takes a different form, that's all. You can't see their smile or bring them food or tousle their hair or move them around a dance floor. But when those senses weaken, another heightens. Memory. Memory becomes your partner. You nurture it. You hold it. You dance with it.”
Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves.
“Because of loyalty," she said. "People don't die because of loyalty" They don't?" She smiled. "Religion? Government? Are we not loyal to such things, sometimes to the death?" Eddie shrugged. "Better," she said, "to be loyal to one another."
Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away.
"That's the thing. Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you're not really losing it. You're just passing it on to someone else."
“I took your leg, to save your life.”
“Strangers are just family you have yet to come know.”
"I still don't understand," Eddie whispered. "What good came from your death?" “You lived," the Blue Man answered.
"It is because the human spirit knows, deep down, that all lives intersect. That death doesn't just take someone, it misses someone else, and in the small distance between being taken and being missed, lives are changed”.
"Fairness," he said, "does not govern life and death. If it did, no good person would ever die young”.
When you are an outcast, even a tossed stone can be cherished.
For the rest of his life, whenever he thought of Marguerite, Eddie would see that moment, her waving over her shoulder, her dark hair falling over one eye, and he would feel the same arterial burst of love.
Every life has one true-love snapshot.
But all endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time.
“Lost love is still love, Eddie. It takes a different form, that’s all. You can’t see their smile or bring them food or tousle their hair or move them around a dance floor. But when those senses weaken, another heightens. Memory. Memory becomes your partner. You nurture it. You hold it. You dance with it.”
And even though she was sitting in the seat next to him, Eddie felt her in everything, in the steering wheel, in the gas pedal, in the blinking of his eye, in the clearing of his throat. Every move he made was about hanging on to her.
This book appears on the shelf not-yet-finished
