General Chat

Please review The River and five People you meet in heaven.

This thread put up early as I am out tomorrow.

Ann
Glos

Five people you meet in heaven – Mitch Albom

I found this book so easy to read in fact I read it in 5 hours. I seemed to be with the lead character right from the start and thought the transition between past and present was very cleverly done. I thought the way he met each of the 5 people was done very well and I had the fifth person down to 3 possibilities only to find it was someone completely different. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the whole story was very nicely woven between past and afterlife. I would recommend this book to everyone.


I have only just got the River from the library, can I be late with that review please.

Gill

Review Five People you meet in heaven by Mitch Albom

Not a book I would have chosen to buy, quite a small book to read really. Until I grasped what was ‘going on’, I found it very difficult. And strange.
It is a story that makes you think ‘what if it is true?’ ‘Is this what will really happen?’ It could be.
Interesting theory that we touch the lives of people we never knew through the lives of those we did.
Quote from the book I likes:
“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.
I didn’t really enjoy this book and will not be looking for other books by this author.


Ann
glos

Review The River by Tricia Wastvedt

A very well written book, beautifully descriptive and well written characters. But I found it a hard book to read. I had to keep checking back to see which character was which at first and found the jumping around between time zones a bit disjointed.
It was a very atmospheric book verging on the psychological with the reader not knowing what was going to happen next.
The ending was totally unexpected, and, to me a bit unbelievable, but that was probably because of the apparent time lapse and the ‘real’ time lapse. I thought longer had elapsed since Anna’s ‘accident’ than it had.
Isobel as a character aggravated me, I don’t know why, maybe she is supposed to. She made me feel very uncomfortable. Anna’s character rang true though as Did Robert’s.

I am not sure I would go looking for other books written by this author.


Ann
Glos

gill, no problem with a late review of course.


Who deleted?
Ann
glos

I haven't joined your Readers Group as I read spasmodically and have to read depending on my mood, ie. a frivolous easy book or a deeper one, but I wanted to say how much I love Five People. It is very thought provoking and I really think everyone should read it and maybe they would think more about how their actions affect others. It is a book I will read often.

I read a lovely book the other day called 'The Island' by Victoria Hislop. Set mainly in Crete it is interesting and sad, I couldn't put it down.
Lizx

Liz, yes we have read the Island some time back, an excellent book. While I didn't particularly enjoy Five People, it was very thought provoking. wont read it any more though because I took it on holiday and left it there with the other books I took. needed the weight to bring home a bottle of Amaretto.

Ann
Glos

Got your priorities right then Ann lol

So you were doing some Book Crossing then!
Do you know anyone who does that?

I get lots of my books, including the Island, from my local supermarket, they have a bookcase full of books, videos and magazines etc which you take and leave 25p in a box that has had to be chained up cos it kept getting stolen. The money goes to local charities and they hope you take the book back after you have read them.
Lizx

I tried book crossing. Left a book in our local garden centre. somebody took it but it was never recorded on the site. I still get the e mails but they are always in an obscure place in cheltenham, or there is the person who leaves books in glos Cathedral, I always think it will have been removed by the time I get ther, a bus ride and a walk away!! My books were left on the 'library' shelves in the timeshare complex for other holiday makers to read. I read several from there too.

Ann
Glos

Five People you Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom

I got off at a cracking pace with this one and couldn't put it down at first. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the fifth person I was totally bored so left it for a couple of days. I did eventually finish it though and have to say I was rather disappointed. If, when you go to heaven, you just end up in the same place you were when you were alive, I think I'll take my chances with Hell! lol

I suppose what I was really looking for was some big revelation....the answer. Of course nobody will know that until they get there and maybe I shouldn't have expected too mcuh.

The River - Tricia Wastvedt

Sorry folks, I didn't finish this book.

In the first few chapters everybody seemed to be constantly tired and falling asleep. Then everybody in the village was living in tree houses! But what really did it for me was when the author compared the sound of something frying in a pan to a horse pissing.

I don't know what on earth was going on in the author's head but I didn't want to stick around to find out! lol

Jeanette x

Five People You Meet In Heaven

I really enjoyed this book and had it finished in four days, I do have to say that I was not looking for any revelation from this book and was just looking for a well written story, which it was. I found Eddie the lead character easy to relate to and could feel his frustration and trying to find out whether he had saved the little girl or not upon his own death.

The River - I have only got about a quarter of the way through it so far and am not sure it is going to get finished before it has to go back to the library. The way this book is written so far is so one of my pet peeves about stories, I hate the jumping around with timelines and characters, one of the reasons it is taking me so long to read is that I have to keep working out which characters I am reading about in relation to other parts of the story I have read so far (I do hope this makes sense).

Michelle

yes it makes sense Michelle. I found by the time I was halfway through I had got it OK and the story then unfolded.

ann

Five people you meet in Heaven.

Agree a lot on what has already been said.Enjoyed this quick reading book,easy to read,no swearing,no sex,.
Interesting title,moving story.

Being new,i did not have time to read the second book! Helenx

Thank you Any more??

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

I loved this book. Eddie was a lovely old man and had lived an ordinary life, like any of us, but had'nt realised the importance of himself and how he would affect the lives of others (do any of us?)
The love he felt for his wife was immense and he had missed her terribly after her death.
The devastation when he realised the little girl had been in the hut and had burned to death and the forgiveness of the little girl and that he had saved the girl at the fair moments before his death was very heaven like and i think hopeful thinking on the part of the author.
All in all though enjoyed the book

Cathy

The River

Initially i found this book quite awkward. There seemed to be a large cast of characters and lots of leaping backwards and forwards between the years.
I managed to get settled and then i was quite eager to get to each persons chapter to see what was happening to them.
So many people were affcted by the tragic deaths of Catherine and Jack and Isobel coped dreadfully with repurcussions still happening so many years later.
I felt sorry for Robert and how he retreated to an almost womblike existence.
I liked Anna and felt sorry for her trying to cope with a break up, a new baby and Isobel.
I though the author wove a wonderful cast for us, all intertwined, and each with their own part to play.
I enjoyed this book very much considering i would never normally have picked it up.

Cathy

that is what the book club is all about Cathy, reading books we would not normally read.

Ann
Glos

The 5 People you meet in Heaven

I was really pleased this was chosen as I have had it on my shelf for ages. However I found it quite disappointing really. Eddie was a likeable enough character but the book did not really grab my attention. I think the concept of the book was great but somehow it all seemed a bit shallow - it was hard to get to know the characters other than Eddie and for the book to work you needed to identify more with how Eddie had impacted their lives.
It was an easy book to read but, having read it once it won't get back on the shelf to be reread at a later date.

The River
I agree with others who have said this book took a lot of getting into I found the constant change of time really confusing and, just when I thought I had sorted the characters out, another one seemed to pop up. I did make it to the end but it wasn't a book I particularly enjoyed so I won't be looking to read others by the same author.

Kate

Five people.
Thought provoking quick and easy to read, a touching quality to it.
my son tells me its going to be made into a film....

his next book 'one more day', is also a good read.

The River,
had to pay full price for this from waterstones, as I couldnt find it anywhere....
well I dont know what to say, I had to really stick at it. the way it flipped from one time to another, annoyed me a little....
two years ago my hubby and I went to scotland and I brought a book about St Kilda, which told of how the islanders lived and then how they were asked to leave, so when I was reading about Robert, I could understand the person he may have been, and the struggle he had at times, (walking barefoot etc, ).
I also had to read the ending twice, because I thought I'd missed something!...
didnt quite get the sarah, and josef relationship... and what really happened to his parents, they had a big entrance, and then miserably dissappeared....or was that me......
the discriptions of parts were fine........ the explanations of events seemed a bit wishy washy.
it was ok. but not a book I would keep like Five people...

look forward to next read.....
soz this quick, a bit busy at the moment
xxxxcmdxx

Well, nobody can say we don't try different authors can they?