September Book Club Meeting

This month we met and discussed the following books by Mitch Albom: Tuesdays With Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, For One More Day and Have a Little Faith.
Following are a selection of comments from the discussion.

Tuesdays With Morrie is the chronicle of Mitch's time spent with his beloved professor. As a labor of love, Mitch wrote the book to help pay Morie's medical bills.
*written with compassion - mostly positive the way he faced death
*his wife suffered through his death
 *gave ideas of ways of facing death - lucky to have so many people around him - could help others facing death
*a teacher to the end
*made me think about things I should do
*couldn't understand why he wanted to make his death so public
*maybe author got more out of it, learnt a lot about himself, grew up

The Five people You meet in Heaven
*its about forgiveness and being forgiven, full of emotion
*I like the idea that you die and go to heaven and everything is explained
* I've met one of my 5 people - sent briefly to speak to me at a particular time
*found it very confronting - all his books are reflective and about what transpires before death. Don't want to be there.
*thought of Kerry Packer's near death on the polo field. He reckons there is nothing on the other side.
*shmaltzy and light - If you were not religious in any way, meeting these people has a point. Calms people down. There is another way of coping with the thought of death
*very descriptive language used eg how he describes all the colours

For One More Day is the story of Charley, a former baseball player who encounters many problems with his career, finances, family and alcohol abuse. This leads to a suicide attempt and the opportunity to spend the day with his mother who had died many years before.
*about the unconditional love of his mother
*children often try to win the love of the parent who shows them the least amount of affection
*gave good insight into how difficult it was for divorced women and separated families...not just financial but the attitude of the community
*syrupy writing  but made me think about the importance of family
*he never really understood how many sacrifices his mother made for him and yet he was easily led by his father
*confused by the ending and the revelation of the identity of the narrator...didn't seem necessary or make sense
*Albom has said that his relationship with his own mother was largely behind the story of he book, and that several incidents are actual events from his childhood.


Have a Little Faith - the Rabbi is dying and asks Mitch to write his eulogy
*a true story story
*brings together Jewish faith, black and white, rich and poor etc
*has to go back and learn about his faith again which he had left in his childhood
*also meets a local pastor preaching to the poor and homeless in his rundown church
*what is faith?