Best Mitch Albom Books That Will Inspire You
Mitch Albom is an internationally renowned and best-selling author. He wrote numerous fiction and nonfiction books, which have collectively sold more than forty million copies worldwide.
His books are best known for their inspirational stories and themes. Being exposed to people dying at various stages of his life, a lot of his books deal with death and afterlife. However, what he tries to do with his writings is to use death to illuminate life. His books teach us to cherish each day and not to pretend that death isn’t a part of our lives.
Although most of his books are fiction, all of his books begin with feelings and experiences that he has had himself. His inspiration tends to come from people he knows and the moments in my life when he was overwhelmed by emotion.
His books prompt you to reflect on your life and touch your heart. Choose a book below that resonates with you the most.
Top 10 Best Mitch Albom Books
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1. Tuesdays with Morrie
“Death ends a life, not a relationship. All the love you created is still there. All the memories are still there.”
This bestselling memoir is an autobiography that shows the beautiful friendship between the author and his dying professor, Morrie Schwartz.
Mitch Albom used to be a successful sports journalist who has lost his way in achievements. He is Morrie’s student from nearly twenty years ago and they have a wonderful relationship. But they lost contact with each other ever since he graduated from college.
The two reconnected in the final months of Morrie’s life when Mitch saw his professor’s interview on television, talking about his terminal disease. This book recounts the last fourteen lessons they shared together. The subject being The Meaning of Life.
If you want to change your perspective on life and be more appreciative of what you have, this is the book for you.
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2. Finding Chika
“One of the best things a child can do for an adult is to draw them down, closer to the ground, for clearer reception to the voices of the earth.”
One of the few nonfiction books that the author has written. This heartwarming memoir is about Chika, a young Haitian orphan who was diagnosed with a brain tumor called diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPG).
The author and his wife, Janine, run an orphanage in Haiti but they don’t have children of their own. When they brought Chika to Detroit to seek medical care, they became a family of three. For two years, the author learns life lessons from this brave, optimistic, resilient child as she battles the incurable disease.
This memoir is about both love and loss. If you are processing grief, this book will resonate very much with you.
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3. The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto
“All humans are musical. Why else would the Lord give you a beating heart?”
This novel is narrated from the perspective of Music. It’s about the life of a talented, fictional musician, Frankie Presto, who is a Spanish war orphan raised by a blind music teacher. At nine years old, he was sent to America in the bottom of a boat with an old guitar.
The story begins with Frankie’s funeral and his mysterious death. Interviews of famous musicians at the funeral intertwines the main story. Mitch Albom connected real musicians and got some of them to share about the fictional character in their own words.
If you play music, you would love this book. A musician himself, the author uses a lot of music terms and analogies to describe the character’s journey. Even though the story is fictional, it is historically accurate to the time period.
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4. The Five People You Meet in Heaven
“All endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time.”
Eddie, a wounded war veteran, lived a seemingly uninspired and meaningless life. He’s an old man who fixes rides at a seaside amusement park.
However, on his 83rd birthday, he was killed in an accident while trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. When he woke up in heaven and met five people that were previously connected to him, he realized that his life is not meaningless after all.
If you are lost, confused or searching for your place in the world, this book will inspire you to find meaning in your life and prompt you to reflect on this question: “Why am I here?”
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5. The Next Person You Meet in Heaven
“Secrets. We think by keeping them, we’re controlling things, but all the while, they’re controlling us.”
This is the sequel to the book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven. It tells the story of Annie, the girl that Eddie saved from a falling cart.
After the accident, Annie’s life changed. Her left hand was injured and needed to be reattached. But Annie didn’t recall the trauma because she had repressed the memories from her mind.
It’s only when Annie went to heaven many years later that she discovered what happened and how her lives are interwoven with others such as Eddie.
This book encourages you to think about your lives and how people you meet along the way might be connected to you.
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6. Have a Little Faith
“What if our beliefs were not what divided us, but what pulled us together?”
Mitch Albom’s first nonfiction after Tuesdays with Morrie, this book tells a true story of an eight-year journey with two men of two different faiths — Judaism and Christianity.
The book begins when an eighty-two-year-old rabbi asks the author to deliver his eulogy. At the same time, Albom becomes involved with a Detroit pastor who preaches to the poor and homeless in a decaying church with a hole in its roof.
Through his interactions with these two men, Albom recognizes the similarity between the two worlds and religions everywhere. It’s the profound comfort you find when you believe in something bigger than yourself.
If you have lost faith in your beliefs, reading this book will rekindle the divine spark within you.
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7. For One More Day
“Have you ever lost someone you love and wanted one more conversation, one more chance to make up for the time when you thought they would be here forever?”
This is a touching story of a mother and a son that will make you reconsider how you treat your loved ones.
Filled with regret after his mother’s death, Chick grew up a broken man and had a drinking problem. He loses his job. His marriage collapsed. And he decides to take his own life after discovering his daughter has shut him out of her wedding.
But when he travels to his abandoned hometown to end his life, he encounters his deceased mother again and they get to spend one more day together.
Reading this book will make you be more appreciative of your parents’ love for you.
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8. The Time Keeper
“It is never too late or too soon. It is when it is supposed to be.”
Dor, the inventor of the world’s first clock, was banished for centuries as a punishment for trying to measure time. When he was finally granted freedom again, he had a mission which is to teach two people the true meaning of time.
He met Sarah, a teenage girl who is about to give up on life and Victor, a wealthy but fatally ill man, who wants to live forever. One wants to stop time, while the other wants to extend time. Both have the fear of time running out.
Reading this book will challenge your beliefs about time and prompts you to be more appreciative of your life.
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9. The First Phone Call From Heaven
“You have to start over. That’s what they say. But life is not a board game, and losing a loved one is never really “starting over.” More like “continuing without.”
The story begins in a small town on Lake Michigan when its citizens start receiving phone calls from their deceased loved ones. As the story leaked out, it received worldwide attention from reporters, believers, and protestors. Is this a miracle or a hoax?
Sully Harding, a grief-stricken single father, has his doubts and is on the quest to uncover the lie. As he investigates, more about his life and his reasons for solving this mystery are revealed.
Whether you believe in miracles or not, this thought provoking book will intrigue you.
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10. The Fab Five
“We’re focusing on one thing next year… recruiting.”
Before Mitch Albom wrote novels and memoirs and became internationally renowned, he was writing sports books.
This book is an insider account of the making of the legendary men’s basketball team, Fab Five. Representing the University of Michigan, the Fab Five consists of Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson.
They reached the NCAA championship game as freshmen in 1992 and again as sophomores in 1993. They were the first team in NCAA history to compete in the championship game with all-freshman starters.
If you are from the Fab Five era, this book will give you a walk down memory lane.
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Hey there, I’m Yong Kang, best known as Nerdy Creator. I’m an author of seven books. I write about spirituality, self-compassion, and mindfulness. I love reading books, especially non-fiction. The list above is a combination of what I have read and my research. Each year, I create a Top 10 list of my favorite books.
