Mitch Albom

MITCH ALBOM is the author of nine books, including the newest, "For One More Day", published 9/26/06. His first novel, "The Five People You Meet in Heaven", (9/03) is the most successful U.S. hardback first novel ever and has to date sold over 8 million copies worldwide "Tuesdays With Morrie," (1997) his chronicle of time spent with a beloved but dying college professor, spent four years on the NY Times bestsellers list and is now the most successful memoir ever published. Both books were eventually turned into celebrated TV films. The critically acclaimed "Five People You Meet in Heaven" aired on ABC in winter, 2004. 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.

An award-winning journalist and radio host, Albom wrote the screenplay for "The Five People You Meet in Heaven," and is an established playwright, having authored numerous pieces for the theater, including the off-Broadway version of "Tuesdays With Morrie" (co-written with Jeffrey Hatcher) which has seen more than 40 productions nationwide, and several recent comedies which have been produced and performed in venues across the country.

Albom has founded three charities in the metropolitan Detroit area: "The Dream Fund," established in 1989, allows disadvantaged children to become involved with the arts. "A Time To Help," founded in 1998, brings volunteers together once a month to tackle various projects in Detroit, including staffing shelters, building homes with Habitat for Humanity, and operating meals on wheels programs for the elderly. "S.A.Y Detroit," Albom's most recent effort, is an umbrella program to fund shelters and care for the homeless in his city. He also raises money for literacy projects through a variety of means including his performances with The Rock Bottom Remainders, a band made up of writers which includes Steven King, Dave Barry, Scott Turrow, Amy Tan and Ridley Pearson. Albom serves on the boards of various charities and, in 1999, was named National Hospice Organization's Man of the Year.

"The last class of my old professor's life took place once a week in his house, by a window in the study where he could watch a small hibiscus plant shed its pink leaves. The class met on Tuesdays. It began after breakfast. The subject was The Meaning of Life. It was taught from experience.

No grades were given, but there were oral exams each week. You were expected to respond to questions, and you were expected to pose questions of your own. You were also required to perform physical tasks now and then, such as lifting the professor's head to a comfortable spot on the pillow or placing his glasses on the bridge of his nose. Kissing him good-bye earned you extra credit.

No books were required, yet many topics were covered, including love, work, community, family, aging, forgiveness, and, finally, death. The last lecture was brief, only a few words.

A funeral was held in lieu of graduation.

Although no final exam was given, you were expected to produce one long paper on what was learned. That paper is presented here.

The last class of my old professor's life had only one student.

I was the student."

This is my all-time favorite book. I've read it 4 times and each time it gets better. It really changed me and how I view/deal with life. I would have read it a lot more times except for the fact that it has been "checked out" for a while now. It's now my mission to tell everyone I know about this book. To try and get everyone I know to read it.

Some of my favorite quotes:

"The most important thing in life is to give out love, and to let it come in." -pg 52

"Do the kinds of things that come from the heart. When you do, you won't be dissatisfied, you won't be envious, you won't be longing for somebody else's things. On the contrary, you'll be overwhelmed with what comes back." -pg 128

"Love is when you are concerned about someone else's situation as you are about your own." -pg 178

Here is a blog I wrote about the book "For One More Day". As you will tell, the book touched me deeply:

By Victor Castelo

"Now that I got your attention, let me explain. I had originally planned to write a blog titled with this current title that was about the night I was going to commit suicide. As you can all tell I didn't go through with it. But 'A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum'.

I now want to share with you a story. A true story. I don't expect you to believe everything, that's OK. But I can tell you that it happened to me.

About 2 1/2 weeks ago Nicole and I went to the movies. After the movies we had planned to meet some co-workers at Friday's. We ended up getting to Fridays a little early after the movies so Nicole had the brilliant idea of going to Borders. Now if you know me then you know I love to read so I of course said "Let's go". As we walked in Nicole immediately spotted a book and said to me "Look Mitch Albom has a new book." Now Mitch Albom is the author of two great books: Tuesday's With Morrie and The Five People You Meet In Heaven. Tuesday's being my all time favorite book. So I walked over to the book named "For One More Day", picked it up, and without reading anything about the book decided that I was going to purchase the it that night. Then I remembered that I had a gift certificate from my Birthday (in Jan) that I hadn't used. 'Sweet' I thought. I had walked into many a Borders between this day and my b-day but never had found something that I wanted to buy. Now I had. The only problem was that I knew I couldn't start reading it until I was done with another book I was reading. Funny how things work out differently then you had planned.

Fast forward 11 days to a Monday night and everytime I see the book at my house its screaming to me, as loud as a book can scream, "Read Me!". But like I said earlier I didn't want to cross two stories so I politely say 'No'. Then I am at home planning to write a blog about the night I wrote a letter saying bye and sorry to everyone for not being the perfect person I thought I had to be. That night I got in my car and was going to end my life because I thought that everything that was happening to me was too much to handle. That was the plan. Come home at night to write. But that didn't happen.

continued below:

I had made plans to meet a friend of mine (Hi Alexis!) at Starbucks that night to catch up and just talk. Then I see the book again and I give in. I decide to get to Starbuck's 45 minutes early to start reading. That's when I read this opening line "Let me guess. You want to know why I tried to kill myself". I was hooked.

I saw some of myself in the character from the book. He failed at his marriage, felt he never became who he was supposed to be, and wanted to commit suicide. He also got into his car (like me) to do it. I immediately felt connected with the character.

I didn't finish the book that night but I did read 90 pages (it's only a 200 page book) and thought for sure that I would finish it the next day. Tuesday came and went and I couldn't finish it. Then Wednesday happpened.

Wednesday was a wierd Wednesday for me. I had a lot of unanswered questions looming over my head. So I decided to go to have a talk with one of my friends, Russ. Needless to say I didn't finish the book that day or night but I did have a great conversation with Russ. The topic of the night was why I wasn't ready for a serious relationship. He asked me about my relationship with Kristina and I told him that we were better friends now then at the end of our marriage. Things were good. He then asked me what I learned from that relationship. I told him a few small things, then I told him the biggie. When I was at the lowest point with Kristina I turned into someone I didn't recognise. I became angry, fearful, and jealous. I yelled, got aggravated easily, and did and said things I shouldn't have. I wasn't me. I told Russ I never wanted to become that person again. He then asked me what I was doing to acheive that feat. I went over some things I've done when he asked me "Have you forgiven" and I cut him off. I said "let me tell you about forgiveness" and that's where I started spouting off at the mouth about my way of viewing forgivenss and how I believe Krisitina and I are good friends because I got over my hate/jealousy/anger by forgiving her. It allowed me to get rid of all that bad stuff that was in me. Then Russ said "That's cool and all, but did you forgive yourself?"

Continued below:

That hit me like a ton of brcks. It took me a few seconds to answer. Then I said "No, I haven't." He then asked me why not. I told hime that I wasn't sure. But I did know that I wasn't ready too. Not Yet. He then said to me "You do know that not forgiving yourself only hurts you and nobody else." I told him that I did know that but I just knew I wasn't ready. I would be some day, but not tonight. Although Russ didn't quite understand, he let it go and we went home. On the way home I said a little prayer: "Lord, give me the wisdom to know when the time is right. And the courage to do it." Little did I know God had already set everything into motion.

Thursday came and I read some more but just could not finish the book. After work at 1:15 am on Friday night I finally got to sit down and finish the book. I got to the very end when the main character (who got to spend one more day with his mother, who was dead for 8 years) saw a women trying to tell him something. But he couldn't understand what the lady was trying to tell him. So he asked his mom. His mom told him that she was telling him to "Forgive". He responded by saying "Forgive who? Dad? You? My Daughter? Who?" Towhihc his mom responded "Forgive yourself".

I lost it. I cried like a little baby. I blubbered. That's right I said blubbered. I couldn't help it. I closed the book and let it all loose. I wanted to call someone. I had to tell them this story that just happened to me. But who do you call at 2am? I mean it wasn't like someone died or they cancelled LOST. So I had to wait for the next day to tell everyone. And speaking of the next day, just in case I didn't get the hint the first time around, God decided to drop one more. When I woke up the next day I decided to watch an episode of "My Name Is Earl' on DVD. At the end of the episode Earl says "One day she's just going to have to learn to forgive. Cause if you don't it'll just eat you from the inside out." I got the hint.

One more continuation:

Now let's go over what happened. I kept a gift certificate for almost a year to buy book. I don't read the book for almost two weeks. Then I decide to write a blog about my suicide letter the same day that I decide to read a book that starts off with a suicide attempt. I don't finish the book until after I have a conversation with Russ in which he tells me to forgive myself. I say a little prayer asking for wisdom and courage. The book, who's character I saw myself in, tells me the same thing two days later. Then 'Earl' joins the fun. Truth sometimes is stranger than fiction.

Oh, if your wondering if I ever forgave myself. I found that in the process of crying and letting all my emotions out, I did..."