The Noticer by Andy Andrews

The Noticer, by Andy Andrews is subtitled, "Sometimes all a person needs is a little perspective." Its books like these that make me wonder if I need a little perspective. Or a whack upside the head. Especially when I went to Amazon and noticed that this book has 4 reviews and that all 4 of the reviewers gave the book 5 stars. I'm not saying that this book doesn't have any merit, but for me it would be a 3, maybe 3.5 star book. At just over 150 pages of large and widely-spaced type, this definitely falls into the "gift book" genre even though Thomas Nelson categorizes it as "Spiritual Growth and Christian Thought". Maybe that's what did me in. Apparently I need to stay away from the gift books.
On the whole, the story is an interesting one, and no less so because it is supposedly true. The tale is of a man named Jones, a person with the gift of being, "a noticer". Jones is one of those people that everyone likes to have around; he's a good listener, and knows how to give just the right advice for a situation. This book is a compilation of the lessons that Jones teaches during the snippets of time that he spends with the author, a couple on the brink of divorce, an elderly widow, a businessman headed nowhere, and a group of teenagers. His advice covers love, marriage, success, honor, and hope.
The crux of this book is the advice that Jones shares. Some of it is noteworthy; the spiel on the difference between "mistakes" and "choices" should be required reading for anyone older than 12. The advice to the group of teens stands out in this "love is easy and love fixes everything" era. Some of it feels like a rehash of other books, anecdotes, or greeting cards. The advice he gives to the couple verging on divorce could have been summed up as, "read The 5 Love Languages. Do that."
The final nugget from this book is that often we neglect to "notice" (appreciate) those people who have made a difference in our lives. Andy Andrews urges readers to tell 5 significant people that they are appreciated. While this is a great idea (and I encourage everyone to do it in their own lives), I'm not quite up for putting my list out there for all to see.