Brief Critique...Because my Opinion Matters:

While touching and relaxing, I found it to be a bit trite. Suzie Salmon finds herself in heaven, watching her family evolve after her murder. She also keeps her eye on her childhood killer. Not exactly deep reading. Good weekend stuff, or rainy day stuff. Perfect example of a really neat idea not filled out as well as it could have been.

I know, I know. Like I've ever written a book.

Book Two: Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo

On the other hand, you COULD read this book about a man blown apart by a mortar shell in World War I. This novel was published in 1938 but (like most decent things) banned for awhile as inciting 'communist' persuasions. Definitely for the serious reader, this book lets you imagine the hell of war and the hell of physical handicaps. A message is there, you just have to get through a lot of stream of consciousness to get it. Good luck. Don't read it if you're glum. Imagining yourself as armless, legless, earless, eyeless, and mouthless is really depressing. Really depressing. I did it for about an hour and almost drove myself insane.

But then, I got hungry. Go figure.