Non-Murder Monday

It’s a little monotonous, if you ask me about my Death-themed month, which makes sense because death is such a dim, flat topic. But, the murder mysteries are getting to me. I need to take a break for the day and talk about some other books that are NOT murders or suicides etc. My solution? I dub today Non-Murder Monday, a day where I blog about a few books that are just about people who die peacefully, or learn they are going to die.

Book #1. Before I Die by Jenny Dow

Tessa has just months to live. Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests, and drugs with excruciating side effects, Tessa compiles a list. It’s her To Do Before I Die list. Released from the constraints of 'normal' life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up. Tessa’s feelings, her relationships with her father and brother, her estranged mother, her best friend, and her new boyfriend, are all painfully crystallized in the precious weeks before Tessa’s time finally runs out.

RED'S ALL STAR REVIEW: 3 out of 5. Click here! to buy this book on Amazon!

Book #2. The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom

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. It's a place where your life is explained to you by five people, some of whom you knew, others who 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?' Eddie comes to a startling conclusion of what he has done that he wishes now he could take back.

RED'S ALL STAR REVIEW: 3 3/4 out of 5. This is a classic that my old English teacher recommended to me. Click here! to buy this book on Amazon!

Book #3. Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

Elsewhere is a beautiful paradise. You can’t get sick or any older. It's where you go when you've died, to reflect on your life and wait for a new one. Elsewhere is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. It is a place so like Earth, yet completely different. Here Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby again and returns to Earth. But Liz wants to turn sixteen, not fourteen again. She wants to get her driver’s license. She wants to graduate from high school and go to college. And now that she’s dead, Liz is being forced to live a life she doesn’t want with a grandmother she has only just met. And it is not going well. How can Liz let go of the only life she has ever known and embrace a new one? Is it possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward?

RED's ALL STAR REVIEW: 3 1/2 out of 5. Click here! to buy this book on Amazon!