The First Phone Call From Heaven Book Review

I have officially read one book so far in 2015 and am in the middle of my second one. I will be doing book reviews for each book that I do read this year. As with the Reading Challenge, some of the topics can pertain to the same book, but for me personally, I am going to try to read just one book for each topic/theme. The list can be found here at:

http://www.popsugar.com/love/Reading-Challenge-2015-36071458

I also posted the list to my blog. See it here: http://writerscrossing.blogspot.com/2015/01/2015-reading-challenge-list.html?spref=fb

2015 Reading Challenge

1. The First Phone Call From Heaven by Mitch Albom
    Reading Challenge List Theme/Topic: A book from an author you love but haven't read yet
    I got this book for Christmas and I put it off mainly because I knew I had wanted to use the above topic/theme.

Just like any other book from Mitch Albom, I thoroughly enjoyed this one. For one thing, I've always liked how Mitch writes about issues that not a lot of authors do, like the afterlife or death. And he writes it so splendidly also. Saying that, everyone has lost someone(s) they loved and grief is like no other. I have been through a lot of deaths in my family/friends, but only a handful of tough losses. The hardest one of all was losing my grandmother almost five years ago. Most people want to know one thing when someone dies: to know that they're okay. I wasn't any different. I like to believe that heaven is a better place to be. The First Phone Call from Heaven touches on that with the main characters getting a phone call from someone in heaven and letting them know that heaven is a wonderful place and that there's nothing to worry about. Even though the story is entirely fictional, who wouldn't want to hear from a deceased loved one and know that they're great. I believe in angels and that they guide us through life. Some people believe certain things are signs from a loved one that they're alright. It could be as simple as seeing a butterfly and by seeing one means that a grandparent, parent, etc,  is always right by your side. I'd like to think that our loved ones who have passed on can communicate to us on Earth by showing us signs, either by appearing in a dream or something simple as a butterfly and the like. Death is the one thing that most people are afraid of and I think this story really shows us that death shouldn't be feared at all - that heaven is truly a great place to go to after life. I also did like, however, that one of the characters was having a hard time believing. We all go through a period like that and it's okay. We're not perfect and God doesn't expect us to be - I believe that we have to go through periods of disbelief and hard times to become a better believer and person in the end. This is the first time that Mitch has used several view points than he usually does, but I think that by doing that, he made the story that much more stronger and powerful. The only thing I need to complain about is when he started making the viewpoints on some of the lesser characters, like Amy. - I would have been a little bit happier if the viewpoints were all just the main characters of the book, you know, the ones who were getting the phone calls. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, though.

Information about this book: http://www.amazon.com/First-Phone-Call-Heaven-Novel/dp/0062294407/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420769262&sr=1-1&keywords=the+first+phone+call+from+heaven

Author's website: http://mitchalbom.com/d/

Hope you enjoyed this.

Happy Reading and Keep On Writing!

Meg