The Next Person You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

From Goodreads, 

"In this enchanting sequel to the number one bestseller The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom tells the story of Eddie’s heavenly reunion with Annie—the little girl he saved on earth—in an unforgettable novel of how our lives and losses intersect.

Fifteen years ago, in Mitch Albom’s beloved novel, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, the world fell in love with Eddie, a grizzled war veteran- turned-amusement park mechanic who died saving the life of a young girl named Annie. Eddie’s journey to heaven taught him that every life matters. Now, in this magical sequel, Mitch Albom reveals Annie’s story.

The accident that killed Eddie left an indelible mark on Annie. It took her left hand, which needed to be surgically reattached. Injured, scarred, and unable to remember why, Annie’s life is forever changed by a guilt-ravaged mother who whisks her away from the world she knew. Bullied by her peers and haunted by something she cannot recall, Annie struggles to find acceptance as she grows. When, as a young woman, she reconnects with Paulo, her childhood love, she believes she has finally found happiness.

As the novel opens, Annie is marrying Paulo. But when her wedding night day ends in an unimaginable accident, Annie finds herself on her own heavenly journey—and an inevitable reunion with Eddie, one of the five people who will show her how her life mattered in ways she could not have fathomed.

Poignant and beautiful, filled with unexpected twists, The Next Person You Meet in Heaven reminds us that not only does every life matter, but that every ending is also a beginning—we only need to open our eyes to see it."

Goodreads - The Next Person You Meet in Heaven

I've had this book hanging out on my bookshelf and collecting dust since it was released.  After rereading The Five People You Meet in Heaven I decided I should definitely read this book.  Once I realized that it was about Annie, the little girl that Eddie saved, I was beyond excited. 

Annie's life was changed when an old man named Eddie pushed her out of the way and saved her life as a child.  Annie suffered some trauma to her hand and an empty memory of the accident.  Annie's mom quickly moved her away to start fresh.  Annie meets a boy named Paulo at her new school, but soon life takes them down different paths.  As adults, they reconnect and immediately fall in love.  Annie and Paulo get married, but Annie keeps seeing Eddie.  She knows that isn't possible because he died years ago.  After the wedding, Annie and Paulo prepare to leave for their honeymoon, but there is a constant barrage of choices that are made that impact lives.  This leads to a major accident that sends Annie on her own heavenly journey to meet her five people. 

Favorite quote from The Next Person You Meet in Heaven

"The tale of your life is written second by second, as shifting as the flip of a pencil to an eraser.  There are so many times our lives are altered invisibly.  The flip of a pencil, from written to erased."

I was so excited that this book followed Annie.  I really enjoyed getting to learn where life led her and the PTSD from the accident.  Even moreso I enjoyed reading about Annie's five people.  As I mentioned last week, this series leads you to inquire what five people impacted you and what five people you've impacted.  But honestly, this book had a plot twist and a half in it.  There are spoilers from this point forward, so go ahead and buckle up.  First thing is that there was this insane storyline of Annie and Paulo being in a hot air balloon accident.  They end up in the hospital and Annie says she will do whatever to save Paulo.  And the next thing we know Annie is in heaven meeting her five people.  This was an insane concept for me because it ends up that Annie doesn't die!  Which this entire concept that you meet five people when you die is crazy enough and there is absolutely no way to ever prove this happens.  But the premise that if you flatline and they revive you, you will still meet your five people is crazy.  Paulo ends up dying in the book and is Annie's final person.  He explains that she needs to save someone else much like she was saved years earlier.  Annie eventually finds out that she is pregnant and that the baby is the person she is supposed to save.  I just think it is a wild concept that you would meet your five people even though you aren't officially dead.  

I also really liked the entire concept of choices impacting our lives second by second.  By choosing to go left instead of right while driving could mean the difference between life or death in some instances.  It makes you really think about all the choices and decisions that we make in a day.  Some seem so small and trivial, but they are a drop that can cause a major ripple and change the outcomes of so many different things.  There were a ton of examples of this after 9/11.  There was a story about a man whose child got sick on 9/10.  So he called in the next morning and in turn it saved his life.  Something so small can change the lives of those around you.  This idea of small changes makes me reflect and think about the things that I have said or done and how things would be different.  The first thing that comes to mind on this is when I left a long term relationship in February.  He snapped at me a couple different times one Sunday.  The next day it felt like there were a thousand different things building up and I couldn't handle it and the way I was being treated.  So I "snapped" and broke up with him.  I told him he needed to take over our lease or move out.  One small moment changed life for me.  I think at where I would be now if we were still together.  I wasn't happy then, would I be happy now?  Probably not.  Things weren't going to get any better.  I went through a month of complete chaos because I had no idea where I was going to live, how I was going to pay for utilities and rent, or how I would manage being on my own again.  There were good days and there were bad.  But I am so much better off and way happier by making that decision to be done.  One small decision can impact your life in wonderful and magical ways, but it can also end in disaster.  

This book was really good, but it didn't have the same magic and flow that The Five People You Meet in Heaven had.  Fans of Mitch Albom will absolutely love this book and if you've read The Five People You Meet in Heaven then this is a must read.  I give this 3 out of 5 stars.  

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

From Goodreads, 

"From the author of the phenomenal #1 New York Times bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie, a novel that explores the unexpected connections of our lives, and the idea that heaven is more than a place; it's an answer.

Eddie is a wounded war veteran, an old man who has lived, in his mind, an uninspired life. His job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident kills him as he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakes in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a destination. It's a place where your life is explained to you by five people, some of whom you knew, others who may have been strangers. One by one, from childhood to soldier to old age, Eddie's five people revisit their connections to him on earth, illuminating the mysteries of his "meaningless" life, and revealing the haunting secret behind the eternal question: "Why was I here?""

Goodreads - The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Awards and Nominations: 

• Lincoln Award Nominee (2008)

I will forever and always be a huge fan of Mitch Albom's books.  The first book I read of his was Tuesdays with Morrie and I was absolutely in love.  So many of his books are moving works of literature that should be reread every few years.  You're guaranteed to get some kind of new and moving advice on every reread.  

Eddie is just a maintenance man who works at Ruby Pier.  He has lived what seems like his whole life working at the pier.  But on his 83rd birthday, he changes the course of his life and of a little girl when he attempts to save her life when a ride comes crashing down.  The next thing Eddie is aware of is that he is on an empty Ruby Pier from decades earlier.  He soon learns that he is dead and that he is going to meet 5 people from his life.  Along the way, he will learn the role and purpose he had on Earth.  

There is no way for me to sit here and act like I didn't get emotional at times over this book.  In February I decided to flip life upside down.  I got out of a long-term relationship, moved, and had to figure out how I was going to financially cover all the changes happening.  It was a lot.  So as I reread this book I found myself asking "What is my purpose?"  I question what impact I've had on those I've encountered.  This book will make you take a deep dive into yourself and make you think of who your 5 people would be.  Who are 5 people that have either dramatically impacted my life or who I've impacted?  As a teacher, I like to think that I've impacted hundreds of lives, but then I stop and ask myself who I've made a difference with.  There have been 1 or 2 kids every year that I feel like I had a special connection with and that I made an impact on them during that school year.  I remember their names and the experience I had with them.  This book also leads me to ask have I made an impact on any of my family or friends?  Are there strangers that I've impacted unknowingly?  I love Albom's concept that when we die we will meet 5 people who have impacted us or who we have impacted.  It makes death seem a little less scary. 

This book is formatted so that you get slivers of the story that will piece together to form the entire story.  There are pieces of present-day, pieces of Eddie's past, pieces of the lessons to be learned, and pieces of the people that Eddie meets.  The unique writing style keeps just enough mystery to the story itself.  I have no complaints about this book.  I did watch the movie shortly after finishing this and there were almost no differences between the two. 

I really enjoyed this reread.  It made me question what my purpose is and what impact I've had and what impact people have had on me.  Since reading it I feel like I've sort of realigned my goals and purpose.  I've been working on myself for the last few months and I'm so glad that this book just further fueled my fire.   

Finding Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family by Mitch Albom

tFrom Goodreads,

""Mitch Albom has done it again with this moving memoir of love and loss. You can’t help but fall for Chika. A page-turner that will no doubt become a classic.” --Mary Karr, author of The Liars’ Club and The Art of Memoir

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Tuesdays With Morrie comes Mitch Albom’s most personal story to date: an intimate and heartwarming memoir about what it means to be a family and the young Haitian orphan whose short life would forever change his heart. 

Chika Jeune was born three days before the devastating earthquake that decimated Haiti in 2010. She spent her infancy in a landscape of extreme poverty, and when her mother died giving birth to a baby brother, Chika was brought to The Have Faith Haiti Orphanage that Albom operates in Port Au Prince.

With no children of their own, the forty-plus children who live, play, and go to school at the orphanage have become family to Mitch and his wife, Janine. Chika’s arrival makes a quick impression. Brave and self-assured, even as a three-year-old, she delights the other kids and teachers. But at age five, Chika is suddenly diagnosed with something a doctor there says, “No one in Haiti can help you with.”

Mitch and Janine bring Chika to Detroit, hopeful that American medical care can soon return her to her homeland. Instead, Chika becomes a permanent part of their household, and their lives, as they embark on a two-year, around-the-world journey to find a cure. As Chika’s boundless optimism and humor teach Mitch the joys of caring for a child, he learns that a relationship built on love, no matter what blows it takes, can never be lost.

Told in hindsight, and through illuminating conversations with Chika herself, this is Albom at his most poignant and vulnerable. Finding Chika is a celebration of a girl, her adoptive guardians, and the incredible bond they formed—a devastatingly beautiful portrait of what it means to be a family, regardless of how it is made."

Goodreads - Finding Chicka

Ever since I read Tuesdays With Morrie in high school, Mitch Albom has easily been one of my favorite authors.  His books are always so thoughtfully written and I feel that they make me question things around me.  My mom told me that she had picked up a new book by him and I knew that I had to get a copy for myself to read.

This book is Mitch Albom's journey back into nonfiction as he tells the story of Chika.  Mitch operates an orphanage in Haiti which is where Chika was left at just three years old.  But soon Chika was having health problems that made Mitch and his wife make the decision to bring Chika to America to hopefully get better care.  Mitch first saw it as a job, but soon found that Chika had completed their family and was a piece that was missing in their life.  Finding Chika is the story of Mitch trying to understand and deal with loss and love in life. 

All of Mitch Albom's books are full of life lessons.  I could reread Tuesdays With Morrie every year and take something completely different away from it.  This book is yet another that I found a nugget of wisdom that really made me stop.  The quote, "The most precious thing you can give someone is your time, Chika, because you can never get it back.  When you don't think about getting it back, you've given it in love."  This quote really stuck with me.  I had a principal who always said, "The most precious thing you can give someone is your time because you can never get it back."  There were extra things that I would do for my kiddos or to make a lesson really "stick".  She always made it seem as if I was wasting my time on silly things.  I also remember talking to her about my boyfriend and the plans we had with each other especially concerning the future, and she said that same quote to me.  But the quote from this book really made me stop and think.  It doesn't matter if I give my time to someone or something, as long as it matters to me.  Who and what I choose to give my time to is my decision, because 98% of the time I'm giving my time out of love.

This book is written in a very unique style, much like Tuesdays With Morrie.  The book rotates from past to present as it tells life lessons and memories of Chika.  The style that it is written in takes some getting used to, but it really tells the whole story.  We can see glimpses into moments that most people take for granted.  I feel like this showed that Chika was just a child and her illness didn't define her.  Albom's writing style also allowed us to get Chika's story, as well as seeing how Mitch was coping with her being gone.  While reading the book I could tell that Chika's passing left a gaping hole in the lives of Mitch and his wife, Janine.  They had altered their calm life to center around Chika and her wild spirit.  In the chapters where Chika "visits", you can tell that Mitch is mourning her and trying to learn how to be a family of two again.   I think this book was very much a way of healing for Mitch, and we the readers were just along for the ride. 

Albom has a very unique writing style, and this book was written a lot like Tuesdays With Morrie.  This book rotates from glimpses of Chika in a specific moment, to the present, to the past while Chika was sick.  Each of these components was just as important as the next as it fully captured Chika's spirit and attitude.  Being able to read a short glimpse of Chika in a specific moment really reminded me that Chika was just a child going through a horrific illness, but yet it didn't bring her down.  There were chapters where Mitch was in the present writing the book and Chika would appear.  This really showed the relationship that Mitch and Chika had.  I definitely feel that Mitch "seeing" Chika was a way for him to cope and deal with the loss that he was experiencing.  The portions of the book that took place in the past told the story of Chika and her fight against DIPG.  Each page and each chapter was written with love and was pieced together in a way that allowed the story to flow and ebb so that the reader was constantly on a roller coaster of emotions. 

This book did not disappoint.  (Mitch Albom's books NEVER disappoint!)  It was full of emotion and real life.  Parents need to read this book.  I don't have kids, but it made me want to stop and cherish every moment I have with my nieces and nephews.  Life happens fast and literally, anything can happen that changes the course of what you had planned.  I give this book 5 stars and recommend it to fans of Albom's or parents who need a good heartfelt read. 

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom

From Goodreads,

"Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, and gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago.

Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded. Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you? 

Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying of ALS - or motor neurone disease - Mitch visited Morrie in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final 'class': lessons in how to live."

Goodreads - Tuesdays With Morrie

Favorite quote from Tuesdays With Morrie,

"The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in."

When I was in high school I really found my love for reading.  I went to a small high school and was blessed to have one of the most amazing literature teachers ever.  She helped me become a better writer.  I still remember having red marks all over my paper because I needed to do a better job.  I took everything she taught me and I have carried that with me into life.  Once I got to college I was very thankful I had been in her class two years in a row, because it honestly helped me survive all the papers I had to write.  She also introduced me to books that I would never dream of picking up.  Books such as In Cold Blood, The Great Gatsby, and even Tuesdays with Morrie.  I still remember to this day how the book was taught to us.  We would do round table discussions where we would move our desks into a big circle.  Each student was assigned a chapter and we had to discuss the meaning with the class.  I still remember the chapter I had, and even what I discussed.  I first read this book in 2009 or 2010 and I loved every moment of it.  I was constantly encouraging my Mom to read this book, but she never took the time.  A few years later my niece was in her literature class when they read this book.  We talked about it and sure enough, she loved it too.  My mom was convinced she needed to read it sometime.  During the summer of 2017 my Dad was admitted to the hospital.  I told my Mom I would pack anything she needed or wanted and bring it to her.  She asked for some books and I ended up packing Tuesdays with Morrie.  I still remember sitting in the ER room with my parents.  My Dad was resting, while my Mom and I were sitting by the door.  The lights were off in the room and all we had was the light from the hallway.  I sat and read the book to her and I remember us whispering and discussing the book.  I left the book with her and a few short days later she had finished it.  I decided I would go ahead and reread the book because it was summer and I didn't have much else to do.  It had been a while since I read it and I figured it would be fun to reread a book I enjoyed so much when I was younger.  I am so glad that I read it because there was so much that I took away from this book now that I'm at a different place in life.

This book is about Morrie Schwartz who was a professor at Brandeis University.  There he taught many students including Mitch Albom.  They were great friends while Mitch was in college and they always got together on Tuesdays.  Once Mitch graduated he got busy with life as a sportswriter and he lost touch with Morrie.  But one night, Mitch saw Morrie on TV.  Morrie was being interviewed on Nightline, which is when Mitch found out that Morrie had ALS.  They reconnected and Morrie decided to teach one final class where Mitch was the only student.

My favorite thing about this book is that there is SOOOOO much life advice in it.  There is something for everyone.  Mitch and Morrie talk about life and death, love and marriage, money and emotions, family and aging.  There's something that everyone can relate to.  But the secret to this book is that it isn't a "preachy" book.  It doesn't tell you what to do to save money or how to handle emotions.  This book is conversations between two very real people.  One person is well experienced at life and knows the end is coming, while the other realizes that he has life ahead of him with plenty of time to make changes to how he is living his life.  When I finished this book I was definitely asking myself if I was truly living life the way that life should be lived.  We live in a world where we are constantly on our phones, and I'm very guilty of this.  We don't ever take time to enjoy the friends and family who are around us.  We don't take time to enjoy what is around us in nature.  This book made me realize the faults in my own life and it made me really try to strive to live life to the fullest extent, because you never know when your time is up.

My favorite quote from this book was, "The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and how to let it come in."  We live in such a hate filled world.  We don't show love to each other.  We are at a place in the world where school shootings are becoming a normal in life, and I take this personally because I'm a teacher.  When they are describing the shooter you typically hear the words "loner" or "depressed".  What if someone in this world had showed them a little bit of love and compassion?  What if they had let love in?  Would we still be in such a hate filled place?  I like to think that we would have a better understanding for each other and we would be more willing to help each other.  There have been times when I've had a bad day and I go through the drive thru and I get a little snotty.  Is it their fault I had a bad day?  What if they are also having an equally bad day?  Everyone has something going on in their life and we all need to be a little more understanding and compassionate.

A lot of Morrie's beliefs were to let love in and live life to the fullest.  I know I personally struggle with loving everyone all the time, because sometimes you have a bad day.  I know that I don't live life to the fullest.  There are times when I trudge through the week looking for the weekend.  I need to change my perspective, and thankfully this book has started putting that into motion.  I loved this book the first time I read it, and I loved it even more the second time.  I give this 5 out of 5 stars and recommend it to anyone and everyone!