tuesdays with Morrie

Title: tuesdays with Morrie: an old man, a young man, and life's greatest lesson

Author: Mitch Albom

Pages: 5 discs

Genre: Non-fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: Mitch Albom hears that his old, most-favorite professor from college is sick with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (i.e. ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease).  His health is declining quickly as the disease attacks his extremities and he is confined to a bed and requires assistance to do just about anything.  Mr. Albom works for a newspaper in Detroit that is on strike, so he decides to make a visit to his professor in the Boston area. His professor invites him back the following week and this quickly becomes their Tuesday tradition until the end of Morrie's life.  Morrie was a strong positive influence on many people and always had thoughts about how to live life to its fullest.  This story and Morrie's thoughts are recorded in this book.

My Review: Not a bad book, and Morrie had some great thoughts, but the book was a bit of a love-fest with the old professor. That's not to say he didn't have a lot of great thoughts and excellent aphorisms. Ted Koppel visited with Morrie and interviewed him a few times on Nightline.  You can see a few of the Nightline clips on youtube.

the five people you meet in heaven

Title: the five people you meet in heaven

Author: Mitch Albom

Pages: 196

Genre: Fiction, fable

Grade: A

Synopsis: This book is about death. The protagonist, Eddie, is an old man that works as a maintenance man at an amusement park in California. The book traces the story of his life and experiences and the impact that he had on other people, whether he knew them or not. Once Eddie dies, and exactly as the title suggests, he meets five people in heaven whose lives he impacted or who impacted his life.

My Review: This was a great one-day read. I left the other book that I'm reading at my parents' and picked this one up to fill the time. The book flows well and incorporates short lessons and stories into the bigger overall picture very easily. After finishing this book I took a few minutes to think about the people that have impacted my life and the people that I may have had an impact on. It was also very clear that nobody can know somebody else's entire story. The impressions that we have about other people consist of partial stories. Hopefully we will not judge others because there is so much going on that we are unaware of.

From the Book: "(p. 91) "Time," the Captain said, "is not what you think." He sat down next to Eddie. "Dying? Not the end of everything. We think it is. But what happens on earth is only the beginning.""