WRITING 101: Things I’ve Learned from Mitch Albom

You will not be able to write unless you read. – rosemawrites

I am now on my second day of my journey as a student of Blogging University’s WRITING 101. I am really excited to do my assignment for today.  😀

Day 2: Write a list

Today, write your own list on one of these topics:

• Things I Like
• Things I’ve Learned
• Things I Wish

Yesterday I posted ‘Why I write?’. For today’s task, I decided to feature one of those few authors who influenced me to read and write.

My followers know that Nicholas Sparks and Mitch Albom are my favorite authors. As I am so thrilled to read their upcoming new novels, I have written my Top Ten Novels of Nicholas Sparks last July.

It was a hit and my readers are also waiting for my list of Mitch Albom books. So I would like to grab this chance to feature him, but not through his book but through his moving words.

For those who haven’t heard of him, here’s a quick introduction:

Mitchell David Albom is an author, journalist, screenwriter, playwright, radio and television broadcaster and musician. His books have collectively sold over 35 million copies worldwide; have been published in forty-one territories and in forty-two languages around the world; and have been made into Emmy Award-winning and critically-acclaimed television movies.

So here are the 10 Things I’ve Learned from Mitch Albom:

1. On anger

Holding anger is a poison…It eats you from inside…We think that by hating someone we hurt them…But hatred is a curved blade…and the harm we do to others…we also do to ourselves. ― Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven

2. On sacrifice

Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you’re not really losing it. You’re just passing it on to someone else. ― Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven

3.  On death

Death ends a life, not a relationship. ― Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie

4. On life’s status

If you’re trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. They will look down on you anyhow. And if you’re trying to show off for people at the bottom, forget it. They will only envy you. Status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone. ― Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie

5. On fear

Fear is how you lose your life…a little bit at a time…What we give to fear, we take away from…faith. ― Mitch Albom, The First Phone Call from Heaven

6.  On motherhood

But behind all your stories is always your mother’s story, because hers is where yours begin.” ― Mitch Albom, For One More Day

7. On making choices

“There is everything you know and there is everything that happens. When the two do not line up, you make a choice. ” ― Mitch Albom, For One More Day

8. On time

Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out. ― Mitch Albom, The Time Keeper

9. On contentment

Having more does not keep you from wanting more. And if you always want more – to be richer, more beautiful, more well known – you are missing the bigger picture, and I can tell you from experience, happiness will never come. ― Mitch Albom, Have a Little Faith: a True Story

10. On faith

Faith is about doing. You are how you act, not just how you believe. ― Mitch Albom, Have a Little Faith: a True Story

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That’s it.

I hope you learned a thing or two from these words.

Please share your thoughts. 🙂

NOTE: Mitch Albom’s new book titled The Magic String of Frankie Presto will be out on November 15. 🙂

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BOOK READS: A Review of For One More Day by Mitch Albom

Genre: Philosophical Fiction
Published: 2006

Love your parents as long as they are there.

These are the haunting words that stayed in my mind after I have read For One More Day  by Mitch Albom.

For reasons I can’t figure out, the last two books that I have read are both about parents who died. Maybe this is God’s way of reminding me to show love as long as they are there. Because once a parent is gone, he is gone and you can do nothing about it.

As I expected, Albom has shown his writing prowess especially about life after death. This novel is a short read but it is indeed ‘meaty’.

The story is about Charles ‘Chick’ Benetto who has become so broken after his mom Pauline ‘Posey’ died. As a son, Chick long for his father’s approval and love. As he strives to be a daddy’s boy, he unconsciously ignores the love that her mom has been giving him. He just realized how much his mom meant in his life after she died.

THE BLURB:

The story’s premise is plain yet it moved me. Albom has written the whole novel with the right amount of humor and emotion. His dialogues are not trying hard, they are just realistic.

I like how he inserted Chick’s ‘Times My Mother Stood Up For Me’ and ‘Times I Did Not Stand Up For My Mom’. Those life events are realistic and either heartbreaking or touching at the same time.

He ingeniously end and begin a scene in a vivid manner that you can clearly understood what is happening. You can never be lost in his way of storytelling.

Lastly, I like the ‘heart’ of the story. Well, all Albom books possess ‘heart’. This is not a thrilling or even fantastic novel as compared to the new modern novels, but the heart of the novel speaks for itself. The words are alive and it tugs the heart in a very special way.

THE TEARJERKER MOMENT:

The scene that put me close to tears was when Posey indirectly admitted that she cleaned houses to have enough money to send Chick and her sister in college. Albom niftily wrote the scene in the best way that can make the reader realized his point; there is nothing that a mother cannot and will not do for her child.

It is such a touching scene as Chick realized how much her mom loved him and how much he would have wanted to change the way he had behaved towards her mom.

THE HEART-TUGGING LINES:

“That’s the thing when your parents die, you feel like instead of going into every fight with backup, you are going into every fight alone.” – Chick

“When you look at your mother, you are looking at the purest love you will ever know.” – Chick

PICKED UP WISE WORDS:

“Kids chase the love that eludes them.”

“There is everything you know and there is everything that happens. When the two do not line up, you make a choice.”

“Don’t you ever tell a child something’s too hard.”

“Reading is like talking.”

“When a lost loved one appears before you, it’s your brain that fights it, not your heart.”

“When someone is truly in your heart, they’re never truly gone. They can come back to you even in unlikely times.”

“Sticking with your family is what makes it a family.”

“Behind all your stories is always your mother’s story, because hers is where yours begins.”

THE WRAP:

The novel ended in a ‘peaceful’ way. It is really amazing how Albom talks about death in a lively and not melancholic way.

THE MODAL:

If you want to have a break with those fantasy and complicated yet imaginary novels, this is a MUST read.

BOOK READS: Weekend List II

Last week’s list consist three books that I would like to finish. Now, after I have grasp the reality that weekend is the perfect time to have 8-hour sleep, here is my book list for this week!

1. For One More Day by Mitch Albom – I will surely finish this book this weekend because the story is really great. Well, of course, it’s Mitch Albom!

2.And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie – After reading all Nicholas Sparks and Mitch Albom books, I can now move on and try some new awesome authors. Awesome according to author and book reviews that I have read. I missed reading mystery/crime thriller so Agatha Christie will be the first author that I would try first.

I hope this time I can wrap this list with flying colors!

Happy weekend everyone!

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