The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a story about a man named Eddie, who died and goes to heaven. There he meets five people that he either knew or didn’t and these people were part of his life story in one way or another. With each person Eddie meets he learns a lesson and comes to understand what his purpose in life was. Reading this book anyone young or old can relate to every word and page of this book. It is an excellent read and really hits you personally and teaches you to take a step back and look at your own life. If you have lost anyone close to you, I think this book brings you back to that person and allows for happy memories and sad memories to play in your mind after you put down the book, if you can put it down. Mitch Albom’s story telling was amazing, he does a great job with tying everything together from beging to end. This book should be recomended to everyone, you won’t regret reading it.

 Seabiscuit is a story about the American race horse from the 1930s. It is about how Charles Howard a successful business man, Tom Smith a man who lost everything in the depression, Red Pollard a jockey from Canada who was abandoned by his family. This story is powerful in the way that it takes three broken men and a broken horse, and how they rose from nothing. How they went on to break track records and lift the spirits of millions across North America. In this book you learn more about what was going on inside all these men’s heads and more about who they were personally. There were many major events in this book, you have Seabiscuit being pulled from a race against his rival War Admiral, and America going on to dislike the horse. Then there’s the match race between Seabiscuit and Howard’s son’s horse. Finally the match race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral, not to mention at age seven and carrying twenty pounds more than the other horses, the Biscuit finally wins the Santa Anita Handicap. This is not just a story about a horse, it’s a story about realizing that you can lose everything, but in turn you can gain so much more than what you had before. As long as you have that dream and the will you can’t be stopped.

The Red Badge of Courage is about a young youth who enlisted in the civil war, as a union soldier. The story is about his adventures and battles in war. He meets new and sometimes interesting characters, and loses a few friends along the way. One of the first deaths we encounter is the one of his close friend and captain. The young soldier just goes into a state of anger and yelling, which makes that part even for me a little sad. Since this is a war novel, there are multiple battles. The first battle is probably the most important from my point of view, because the new soldiers debate whether or not they want to run or stand up for their country.  The young soldier realizes he has always wanted to be the hero, the one everyone remembers, and he soon jumps right into fighting mode. This novel is an excellent novel, but it’s very hard to understand. A lot of re-reading is necessary. Yet it’s a powerful book that will teach you a lot of lessons, whether you realize it or not, it’s very relatable to today’s issues, and it goes to show that times may change but the feelings and problems never will.