Amanda Pelser… Ramblings of a Communications Director …

Jones.  Not Mr. Jones.  Just Jones.  He comes seemingly from nowhere and disappears just as quickly from this small sleepy Gulf Coast town.  Somehow Jones seems to come at just the right time.  He carries with him a tattered old suitcase…  and a little “perspective.”  He has an ability to show people a different side of things.  Everyone in town seems to know him.  At the same time, no one know who he really is, what race he is, how old he is, etc.  But, he’s everyone’s best friend, whether they know it or not when they first meet him.

This is the first that I’d heard of Andy Andrews.  I’ve not read his previous book, The Traveler’s Gift.  To be up front, I’m not a big fan of fiction.  I’m much more of a non-fiction reader, but I thought I’d give this book a chance based on all the good reviews I’d read about it.  Andy has a very simple, story-telling writing style.  He carefully wraps timeless truths about life into the stories of the people in this little town.

If you enjoy fiction, I’d definitely recommend this book.  If you’re looking for a great example of brilliant storytelling, read this book.  If you’re not a big fan of fiction, well, there are plenty of other books to spend your time on.

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***  This book was reviewed for the Thomas Nelson Book Review Bloggers Program ***

For some of my favorite quotes from the book…  Keep reading!

• “Think with me here . . . everybody wants to be on the mountaintop, but if you’ll remember, mountaintops are rocky and cold. There is no growth on the top of a mountain. Sure, the view is great, but what’s a view for? A view just gives us a glimpse of our next destination—our next target. But to hit that target, we must come off the mountain, go through the valley, and begin to climb the next slope. It is in the valley that we slog through the lush grass and rich soil, learning and becoming what enables us to summit life’s next peak.

• “I say to you that, as you lay your head down tonight, you are sleeping on fertile ground. Think. Learn. Pray. Plan. Dream. For soon . . . you will become.”

• Experience is not the best teacher. Other people’s experience is the best teacher.

• “Your vision, my boy. It is incredibly cloudy at the moment, but I am certain we can clear a pathway from your head to your heart and into your future.”

• “Whatever you focus upon, increases.”

• “But a grateful perspective brings happiness and abundance into a person’s life.”

• ‘What is it about me that other people would change if they could?’”

• “But a true friend holds you to a higher standard. A true friend brings out the best in you.”

• “Worry . . . fear . . . is just a misuse of the creative imagination that has been placed in each of us.”

• “So those are the two things you need to know: one, that you think the way you do because you’re smart; and two, you have to defeat those thoughts with logic.”

• “A person consumed by worry can focus. Isn’t it obvious? Worry is focus! But it is focus on the wrong things.

• “Wisdom is the ability to see, into the future, the consequences of your choices in the present. That ability can give you a completely different perspective on what the future might look like.”

• “If you are breathing, you are still alive. If you are alive, then you are still here, physically, on this planet . If you are still here, then you have not completed what you were put on earth to do. If you have not completed what you were put on earth to do . . . that means your very purpose has not yet been fulfilled.”

• “If your purpose has not yet been fulfilled, then the most important part of your life has not yet been lived. And if the most important part of your life has not yet been lived . . .” Jones paused, waiting for Willow to follow his thought to conclusion. “That is my proof of hope,” Willow said softly.”

• “You’d be wise to sweat the small stuff. Little things do matter.”

• “Yet intention without action is an insult to those who expect the best from you.”