Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom

I wasn't planning on reading Tuesdays with Morrie this month, but a very kind gesture by one of my students dropped this book into my lap. I noticed that one of my girls was reading this novel in class last week, and I asked her if she was enjoying it. Immediately, she told me about how wonderful it was and offered to loan it to me when she was finished. I accepted her offer (since I needed a book with a day of the week in the title for my Popsugar challenge), and she handed me her copy a few days later. With summer break quickly approaching this year, I picked it up right after I finished Rebecca, so that I could get it back to her before the end of school.

Tuesdays with Morrie is a short memoir that describes the relationship between author Mitch Albom, and his professor and mentor, Morrie Schwartz. At the beginning of the novel, Albom describes the special bond he shared with this professor while he attended Brandeis University. He took all of Schwartz's classes and often met him during his office hours to discuss everything from his coursework to big questions about life in general. After Albom graduated and began pursuing a career as a journalist, the pair lost touch.

After several years passed, Albom happened to see a story on television about his old mentor. He learned that Schwartz was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gerhig's Disease). Rather than crumble beneath the weight of his fatal diagnosis, Schwartz decided to embrace his situation and turn his death into a project. He would share what was happening to him with others and explore the journey from life into death in an open and calm way. His resolution to use his illness to help others caught the attention of Ted Koppel, who interviewed him for the episode of Nightline that Albom stumbled upon. Feeling a bit ashamed that he lost touch with such an influential and special person from his past, he makes plans to visit his old professor right away.

One meeting with Schwartz turns into two, then three, and soon the pair end up meeting every Tuesday to discuss a wide range of topics. Conversations about love, family, marriage, old age, and death fill the hours they spend together. Schwartz is a treasure trove of wisdom and Albom grows very close to him as he moves closer to the end of his life. Eventually, he begins recording their conversations, and those recordings are what he eventually turns into Tuesdays with Morrie.

To say that this book was touching and inspirational is an understatement. Albom does a wonderful job documenting his relationship with Schwartz, mixing in their current conversations with flashbacks to events from his own past and Schwartz's past. The chapters are short and highly readable, with lots of touching moments and great advice for how to life a meaningful and satisfying life. The advice Schwartz espouses focuses on the importance of human relationships and love over things like money or career goals. He stresses the importance of rejecting a culture that tells us we are never good enough. His common sense and positive outlook on life is highly motivating, especially considering how much he suffers with his ALS. He is a charming and interesting man - the kind of person that you wish were your father. It made me feel that if he is able to be friendly, loving, and optimistic in the face of a terrible and fatal illness, I should be able to maintain a better attitude in my own relatively trouble-free life.

After finishing Tuesdays with Morrie, I can completely understand why my student was so eager to lend it to me. Not only is it a great read, but it makes you want to be more kind to others. Any book that can move you to try and be a better person earns high marks from me. The ending of the novel is sad, as it was inevitably going to be, but the impression it leaves on you is definitely worth the sadness. This emotional and touching memoir deserves its bestseller status and is one of those books that everyone can benefit from reading.


Challenge Tally
Popsugar Challenge: (a book with a month or day of the week in the title) 29/40

Total Books Read in 2017: 33