The Noticer by Andy Andrews

One life can have many different appearances depending on the way it is viewed. The Noticer approaches life with the perception that life is a gift, and that the negative things that happen to us are opportunities rather than crises. But rather than offering up the usual trifling comments, Andrews presents them in a heartfelt and poignant way that causes the words to have a lasting effect.

When a book touches me, it reaches down into the areas of my heart that have been hurt, but ignored for so long that they’ve nearly been forgotten. This book found those areas, the dark places that are completely hopeless, the black holes where any positivity is completely overshadowed. This isn’t written as a self-help book or instruction manual. It is a conversation, where you are allowed to connect and interact with the people in it. I felt a kinship with the characters because I knew their pain. Their suffering was not manufactured or trite, and I could appreciate their circumstances and relate to each person in some way.

I’m left touched by this book in a way that I cannot truly explain, but I do know that my first reading of it will not be my last. I wish it was a longer work simply because I wanted to spend more time with it, but I’m sure that there is plenty there that I have not yet even begun to understand. The small size of the book and the too-simple (boring) cover are both quite misleading. It’s an excellent piece of work, and I’m grateful that Thomas Nelson’s Book Review Blogger program allowed me to review this book.