VernetteOutLoud

The Five People You Meet In Heaven

“…all endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time.”

The Five People You Meet In Heaven
by Mitch Albom

My rating* – 5

This review contains spoilers.

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, but an answer.

In heaven, five people explain your life to you. Some you knew, others 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? – Book Description courtesy Amazon

This is the kind of book you recommend to people…but NEVER lend your own copy because you won’t get it back. I actually have a copy just for lending. It’s a pretty easy read…you can read it in a weekend. But the themes are deep and I suppose depending on the stage you are at in your life, those themes can get deeper still.

I read this book shortly after my mum died and then again this month for my book club. I already know that this is a book I’ll read again more than once in my lifetime.

“No story sits by itself. Sometimes stories meet at corners and sometimes they cover one another completely, like stones beneath a river.”

This is one of the major themes of this novel and for me most poignant. There are no random acts in this life. We are all connected in one way or another. Eddie was right where he was supposed to be. Despite him thinking that his life was just a life with no special purpose, therein held his purpose. To lead a regular, maintenance guy’s life and by doing so he achieved an even greater purpose…he was able to ensure that other people got to live theirs to the fullest by keeping the park rides safe.

“There are five people you meet in heaven,” the Blue Man suddenly said. “Each of us was in your life for a reason. You may not have known the reason at the time, and that is what heaven is for. For understanding your life on earth.
…..I am your first person, Edward. When I died, my life was illuminated by five others, and then I came here to wait for you, to stand in your line, to tell you my story, which becomes part of yours. There will be others for you, too. Some you knew, maybe some you didn’t. But they all crossed your path before they died. And they altered it forever.” – Blue Man

There are no ordinary lives. You were put on this earth to achieve a specific purpose and when that is achieved you move on. Forgiveness, love, letting go are all necessary for Eddie to understand why he was on earth and what his time meant.

I especially loved that we start at the end of Eddie’s life. Albom, cleverly moves the story along by marking Eddie’s birthdays. Anyone who know’s me for all of two minutes, knows how much I love birthdays. I believe that, God chose this time in our history to bless this world with your presence, who are you not to acknowledge that? Celebrate away!

Eddie on the other hand…saw his birthdays as simply passing time. Not understanding that each year, brought more wisdom, each moment was significant for him. His life, my life…your life, is a series of beginnings and endings and most times we only see the importance of an event or “lesson” upon reflection. And this book is all about reflection and closure.

Eddie lacked “closure” in his life. He was abused by his dad, who withheld his love with no explanation. He was haunted by his war experience. He grieved for his dead wife and pretty much lived his life in the past, reliving old memories. Eddie was a frustrated old man. His “FIVE” helped him understand what happened so he could finally honor and let go of his past so he could move forward to the next stage of Heaven.

He finally understood that what he did while on earth was needed…the little things all made a huge difference in the lives around him. It all mattered, every trial, misstep, all the tears, hurt, joy, every choice, all added up and made a difference.

After he met his five, Eddie now waits in the line of five for another person…to help that person understand their life on earth because even in the after life we have a duty to help each other out.

No matter how you envision heaven, the after life or the great by and by to be…The Five People You Meet In Heaven will cause you to pause and examine some “profound” moments in your own life and consider their impact and meaning in the grand scheme of things.

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*my personal quality ratings are the scores I give books on a scale of 0-5 based on my personal opinion of a book. 0 is “birdcage liner” and 5 is “off-the-hook good”

Muse

Book Front Cover
Muse by Susie Hanley

My rating* – 3

This review contains spoilers.

Books like Muse, are the reason I joined the book club at work.

This is an urban fantasy set in modern times in a world like ours. Only in this world Muses and Guardians are real. Guardians, who have superhero powers and qualities, protect Muses until they die. This book is written from the point of view of Shelby, a 25-year-old divorced mother of two and talented artist. The book is well written and characters are well-developed, they have layers quite like real world people.

Shelby has worked hard to make a life for herself. Her parents died when she was young, and her husband left her with two kids. When her ex-husband comes back to town, he has more to say than just I’m sorry: he’s a Guardian, and his new assignment is her. She is a Muse now, one coming into her own no matter how hard she fights it, and trouble stalks her wherever she goes. Her ex-husband can’t keep up and, with their history, she doesn’t want him to. To complicate matters, there’s another Guardian around when she needs help, and they are falling for each other. He has a dark past that’s trying to reclaim him, and Shelby is in the way. But she has to accept her Museness and figure out fast what being a Muse really means if she is to keep herself and her children alive. – Book Description courtesy Amazon

However, I have issues with the book: In this world Muses and Guardians are not a secret, so I did not understand why Shelby seemed so ignorant about them. Even though she has reasons for not wanting to know about them, in this world they are everywhere, celebrities even, so she should have known something. I’ve also already connected the dots about her parents…I don’t understand why after learning the truth about herself, she hasn’t made the connection.

I get that Shelby spent half of her teenage years being a single mother but her prickly personality with her ex-husband Cal, was more than a little overbearing at times. There was one instance where she gets information about her “musedom” and from her suitor Guardian, who wonders why Cal didn’t explain things to her…and that was because she never gave him a chance to.

“A Guardian is only as strong as its Muse.” ― Susie M. Hanley, Muse

I like Shelby though. She’s a young mother, student and now Muse and I see potential in her development as a character. There is light and darkness to being a Muse, and Shelby has both within her. I laughed out loud when she described the darkness in her as her “dark passenger”. I thought to myself that it was an Ode to Dexter.

There is a lot of action towards the end of the book which I liked. But when Shelby’s son is in danger it takes far too long for her to tell the necessary parties about the situation. For such a strong and protective mother, that should have been the first thing out of her mouth and then she could have filled in the rest of the story on the way to defuse the situation.

I am a romantic at heart, so when the love triangle was introduced between Shelby, her ex and her super fast Guardian boyfriend; Hanley developed the ex-husband so well that he seemed to have a deeper story to tell, I must admit I’m rooting for him. Team Cal all the way.

My go-to books are memoirs and spiritual/inspirational books Muse felt like a guilty pleasure for me. I’m so over vampires who glow in sunlight and paedophile werewolves and other shades of meh…that this was a welcome and fresh change. I like this world of Guardians each with their own unique super powers and Muses who are talented and strong but also vulnerable and just looking for love. This book has everything, romance, action, suspense, Menage-a-Guardian, I am looking forward to the second book in the series.


*my personal quality ratings are the scores I give books on a scale of 0-5 based on my personal opinion of a book. 0 is “birdcage liner” and 5 is “off-the-hook good”

The Unit

The Unit book cover

The Unit by Swedish author, Ninni Holmqvist

The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist

My rating* – 2

This book was one of our reading picks for the month by my book club. I joined this group because book clubs always expand your reading “palate”. They open your world up to reading material you otherwise might not have chosen on your own. At least this is the case for me since I’ll quicker read a memoir than a novel.

A good book for me is one that causes me to think and when I’m absorbed by a book, I climb into the story and stay there for the duration. I suppose my first foray into dystopian science fiction literature would have been in high school Lit class when we read The Chrysalids by John Wyndham. I actually loved this book and to this day when I think about it I still am tempted to do a piggy count. Dystopian Literature however, has come a long way since ’96.

“One day in early spring, Dorrit Weger is checked into the Second Reserve Bank Unit for biological material. She is promised a nicely furnished apartment inside the Unit, where she will make new friends, enjoy the state of the art recreation facilities, and live the few remaining days of her life in comfort with people who are just like her. Here, women over the age of fifty and men over sixty-single, childless, and without jobs in progressive industries-are sequestered for their final few years; they are considered outsiders. In the Unit they are expected to contribute themselves for drug and psychological testing, and ultimately donate their organs, little by little, until the final donation. Despite the ruthless nature of this practice, the ethos of this near-future society and the Unit is to take care of others, and Dorrit finds herself living under very pleasant conditions: well-housed, well-fed, and well-attended. She is resigned to her fate and discovers her days there to be rather consoling and peaceful. But when she meets a man inside the Unit and falls in love, the extraordinary becomes a reality and life suddenly turns unbearable. Dorrit is faced with compliance or escape, and…well, then what?” (Back of the book blurb)

To be honest, I never read the blurb, a fellow book-club member gave me a synopsis of the book and I started reading. Based on that, the first few pages held a lot of promise for a great story. But as I delved deeper, it really dragged in the middle and I seriously wanted to shake Dorrit.

I could not understand why someone who was such a free spirit and valued her individuality, when presented with the opportunity to leave and regain that freedom, would not choose to take it? She was way too obedient for me, she seemed more concerned with the creature comforts available in the Unit and sex than the horror of what was happening around her. And I don’t think a feminist 50 yr old who would have experienced life before the change of rules in society would just accept life in the Unit.

Dorrit’s favourite place in the Unit was the replica of Monet’s Garden in Giverny. I thought this was quite ironic since Monet did not like organized or constrained gardens. He left his flowers to grow freely with only colour to rule them, which was quite the opposite of everything the Unit was about.

While I get that Dorrit was a creative and an artist in her own right, the constant descriptions of everything was annoying after a while. Whole pages of descriptions left me very bored and to make it easier I would do a quick scan to get to the end of it. I felt that the sex scenes were unnecessary as well. But my biggest problem with this book is the ending. After crawling into this story and almost rooting for Dorrit, it was emotionally unsatisfying.

Because of this, I have been thinking about how to write this review. On the one hand, it caused me to think as I wondered how this society would fit into my island culture. It would certainly solve our vagrancy problem. But on the other, I hated the ending. Maybe Ninni should have ended the story at page 262 and I strongly suggest if you do choose to read this book that you stop reading at that point. Part 4 of the book is short and stupid.

But it is Part 4 that has inspired the most thought. It struck me in the shower, that this is a story about power and vulnerability and it is a story about love. Dorrit’s decision to return was both for her legacy as much as it was for herself. She was giving someone an opportunity she didn’t have as well as giving her legacy a chance to live on, while keeping the promise she made to a fellow dispensable and friend. Her actions were ultimately for the greater good of all involved. But was Dorrit at heart simply weak or brainwashed by society? Maybe she was daunted by the fact that she had no money, no friends, nowhere to live and most possibly no lover?

Or maybe that is the whole idea behind the plot. Here was a society inherently made up of sheeple who allowed their lives and “freedoms” to be dictated by the ruling class. Man has always wanted dominance over all things including his fellow-man. Those with power have always found ways to justify the oppression of those weaker than they are as long it can satisfy some greater good. The residents of the Unit, while living independent lives in the Community ultimately accepted their fate once they got there often times talking about the various experiments they were involved in like it was an achievement. They too were caught up in furthering the greater good. And most certainly Dorrit who even when she had something other than herself to fight for, she chose the sheeple way out. Love was not enough to make her fight. Or maybe her final decisions were her biggest acts of love.

As much as I hate the ending of this book, it caused me to think and that at least made reading it worthwhile.


*my personal quality ratings are the scores I give books on a scale of 0-5 based on my personal opinion of a book. 0 is “birdcage liner” and 5 is “off-the-hook good”

Way of the Peaceful Warrior

Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman

Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman

My rating* – 2.5

A book that changes lives

I have had this book on my Amazon wish list for some time. That’s how it is with me and books. If someone recommends a book on a blog or in an article, I usually look for it on Amazon and add it to my wish list to review at some later date and decide if I want to purchase or not.

It so happened, my friend Lucy during a conversation spoke about the book and at that time Mastin Kipp on his blog shared a quote from the book and I remembered that I added it to my wish list a while back. So when I got home that night, I bought it. It arrived on Friday juste à temps for my trip to Tobago. Perfect. I would be at this Zen eco resort for the long weekend and what better book to read than something about being a peaceful warrior.

This is a part-fictional, part-autobiographical book based upon the early life of the author Dan Millman. The story tells of a chance meeting with a gas station attendant who becomes a spiritual teacher to the young gymnast, Dan. The attendant, whom Millman names Socrates, becomes a kind of father figure and teaches Millman how to become a “peaceful warrior.”

On our laziest day, I took my book down to our private beach and found a nice spot and started reading. I went through a lot of emotions. I liked it, I hated it, it was ok, it was funny and it seemed really contrived at times. It’s a narration of his story with some made up parts. This was the biggest disappointment about this book for me, the whole time all I really wanted to read about was Dan’s real story.

As I was reading I couldn’t understand, why if Dan wanted enlightenment so badly and was actively seeking it by returning night after night to the gas station there was so much resistance to what Socrates had to say. I liked the short stories or fables littered throughout the book. I started looking forward to them as they broke up the monotony of the story. I especially liked the one about Gandhi.

When I got to Book Two, it hit me, here I was in this moment, at the beach reading a book on being fully present to the moment and I was ignoring all the gorgeousness around me. There was a hummingbird flitting from flower to flower to my right, the lovely ocean in front of me. I felt this desperate need to put down this part fantasy, part real life storybook and immerse myself in the moment, in what was real. This is exactly what I did. I got up and went into the water. I had to touch it, be in it. Feel it.

getting my read on!

I eventually went back to the book, if only to finish it. It is a slow read. It takes a while to make its point. I thought maybe that was part of the lesson. In this world were bullet points are the norm, this book required that you slow down and really take the time to get into the message that “there are no ordinary moments”.

Most poignant message for me is that the “warrior is here, now.”

the time always was, is and always will be now! Now is it the time; the time is now … Remember, the time is now and the place is here.

I had a roll eyes moment with the whole Joy/romance thing. For me that wasn’t necessary. Socrates’ “death” was very anti-climatic and I could have done without that particular embellishment as well. And before he vanished in a flash of light in a toilet no less, Socrates could have at least given us a recipe or two for the teas that he shared with Dan; I kept trying to figure out what was in them.

There are lots of quotable quotes. But for the most part, if you are a seeker, you’ve already heard most of these messages in one form or another. It just re-enforced what I already knew, that the time is always now because this is all we have. I give this book a 2.5. It does not live up to its title A book that changes lives. But it is definitely an ok read, if you’re just starting out on the path to being present to the Present.


*my personal quality ratings are the scores I give books on a scale of 0-5 based on my personal opinion of a book. 0 is “birdcage liner” and 5 is “off-the-hook good”