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Guest Blogger: Laurie Borden

The Noticer by Andy Andrews

If you enjoyed the television series, “Touched By An Angel”, you’ll enjoy this book.  Just as the angels in the series are sent by God into people’s lives to bring perspective and insight before it’s too late, “The Noticer” appears throughout the book for the same purpose.  He is described vaguely, indicating that he reveals himself in various ways so as to be best received by his listeners.  Throughout the book, The Noticer encounters people in common situations such as marriage strife, despair, hopelessness, and pursuit of the American dream at the expense of ethics.  To each situation, he politely and compassionately gives insight and perspective by asking questions and pointing out things he “notices”.    The insights given are the sort of things that make perfect sense once we hear them, but somehow we don’t tend to think of them on our own, particularly when we are in the midst of a situation which clouds our perspective.  The book cover refers to the insights as “common wisdom”.  I would agree with this summary.  The author has successfully compiled these words of wisdom in the form of this little novel.

My favorite question was at the very beginning of the book.  The Noticer asked a man who felt like no one appreciated him to consider this question… “What is it about me that other people would change if they could?”   While I found this question and others in the book thought-provoking, I couldn’t come up with an immediate answer and thought it would be helpful to discuss the questions with a group.  Apparently, the author agreed because at the back of book, discussion questions are provided for each chapter.  I think this book would be most beneficial if read in the context of a book-reading group.  Because each chapter focused on a separate issue, the insight and perspective given would be more easily applied if the reader were actually discussing the topics with others.

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