Five Years in Heaven, by John Schlimm

I had a hard time with this book. The premise is wonderful, and the author does capture some sound, valuable wisdom. Unfortunately, it's couched in so much purple prose that it's a little hard to stomach. I don't really need to know that the snow crunched underfoot "like toasted bread crumbs". I also didn't need numerous pages dedicated to cat descriptions.

I truly wanted to love this book. I was hoping for something along the lines of "Tuesdays with Morrie" (though, of course, that book too has its detractors). I just found a lot more fluff than substance here, and that's unfortunate.

I think perhaps the author (as a food writer) is prone to focusing a lot on descriptions. While that might be ideal for a cookbook, it doesn't really suit a book like this.

Disclaimer: I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.