The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom

What a book! I received this for my first birthday when I joined Bookcrossing.com; along with four other copies! It was hilarious that other people across the miles had the same idea for a pressie as each other. I had to e-mail them all and let them know of the bungle immediately. However, I kept the one I was supposed to receive and handed out the others to people I thought needed them. It wasn't until I read the book that I found out why it was so popular; and why I never want to let it go from my bookshelf... ever.

Eddie, a lonely war veteran, dies in a tragic accident on his 83rd birthday trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. With his final breath, he feels two small hands in his and then; nothing. He wakes up in the afterlife to find that Heaven isn't the Garden of Eden but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people who were in it. They may have been loved ones or distant strangers you barely remember. Whichever way, they have changed your life and what path you took to lead you where you are now forever.

Mitch Albom was born on May 23, 1958 in Passaic, New Jersey, the middle of three children to Rhoda and Ira Albom. The family moved to the Buffalo, N.Y. area briefly before settling in Oaklyn, New Jersey, not far from Philadelphia. Mitch grew up wanting to be a cartoonist before switching to music. He taught himself to play piano, and played in bands. He is an internationally renowned and best-selling author, journalist, screenwriter, playwright, radio and television broadcaster and musician. His books have collectively sold over 28 million copies worldwide; have been published in forty-one territories and in forty-two languages around the world. After attending high schools in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, he left for college after his junior year. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1979 at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, majoring in sociology, but stayed true to his dream of a life in music, and upon graduation, he worked for several years as a performer, both in Europe and America. One of his engagements during this time included a taverna on the Greek island of Crete, in which he was a featured American performer who sang Elvis Presley and Ray Charles songs. All three of Albom’s best sellers have been turned into successful TV movies. Oprah Winfrey produced the film version of Tuesdays With Morrie in December 1999, starring Jack Lemmon and Hank Azaria. The film garnered four Emmy awards, including best TV film, director, actor and supporting actor. The critically acclaimed Five People You Meet in Heaven aired on ABC in winter, 2004. Directed by Lloyd Kramer, the film was the most watched TV movie of the year, with 19 million viewers. Most recently, Oprah Winfrey Presents Mitch Albom’s For One More Day aired on ABC in December 2007 and earned Ellen Burstyn a Screen Actors Guild nomination.