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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
I would categorize The Noticer as a mix of allegory and inspiration. The tag line of the book is “A new story of common wisdom” — and I couldn’t agree more. This is COMMON wisdom. Nothing in this little story will blow you away, but it does its job in terms of reminding you of the little things — and it provided a nice basis for some great book club discussion.
Basically, we have the narrator, whose life was once changed by a mysterious man named Jones. This Jones character wanders around town and seems to appear at the exact moment he’s needed. A character is in some sort of crisis, and Jones appears. They talk, wisdom is imparted, and then boom — that person is changed forever. All it takes is a little change in perspective. The book is one story after another of Jones changing lives, as reported by the framing narrator.
I probably would’ve enjoyed this book more if the characters were fleshed out, realistic, and didn’t immediately have their “ah ha!” moments, followed by a “happily ever after” deal. It was hard to connect to any story, and the anchor narrator flits in and out amid the shallow tellings of others’ encounters and subsequent life-changing epiphanies.
Buuuuut, I am also aware that I am asking a lot of a book that doesn’t necessarily lend itself well to character depth and complexity. The very fact that the stories were super simple made it easy for our club to discuss the issue (and imparted wisdom) and not just the character.
A few of the “wisdom nuggets” that really resonated for me included the discussion of love dialects and how couples may better understand one another once they figure out their partner’s “dialect”. One person, for example, may like to be shown love by physical touch (you hug me and kiss me a lot, so I know you love me) and the another person may like to be shown love by completed tasks (you took care of the cleaning today, so I know you listen to me and care about my needs).
Another great reminder: “Most people think it takes a long time to change. It doesn’t. Change is immediate! Instantaneous! It may take a long time to decide to change…but change happens in a heartbeat!” There’s a big difference, as Amy Poehler says, between talking about the thing, and actually doing the thing.
Also: the reminder to be grateful. Instead of waking up and thinking about all of the tasks on your to-do list, think about all of the things that you are grateful for. This is a big one for me and something that I am constantly working on — I want to be more present, more aware, and more grateful in all aspects of my life.
Total stars: 2 [Four stars for the enjoyable lessons (and the fact that my book club had a nice discussion about it). Zero stars for the writing style.]
Basically, we have the narrator, whose life was once changed by a mysterious man named Jones. This Jones character wanders around town and seems to appear at the exact moment he’s needed. A character is in some sort of crisis, and Jones appears. They talk, wisdom is imparted, and then boom — that person is changed forever. All it takes is a little change in perspective. The book is one story after another of Jones changing lives, as reported by the framing narrator.
I probably would’ve enjoyed this book more if the characters were fleshed out, realistic, and didn’t immediately have their “ah ha!” moments, followed by a “happily ever after” deal. It was hard to connect to any story, and the anchor narrator flits in and out amid the shallow tellings of others’ encounters and subsequent life-changing epiphanies.
Buuuuut, I am also aware that I am asking a lot of a book that doesn’t necessarily lend itself well to character depth and complexity. The very fact that the stories were super simple made it easy for our club to discuss the issue (and imparted wisdom) and not just the character.
A few of the “wisdom nuggets” that really resonated for me included the discussion of love dialects and how couples may better understand one another once they figure out their partner’s “dialect”. One person, for example, may like to be shown love by physical touch (you hug me and kiss me a lot, so I know you love me) and the another person may like to be shown love by completed tasks (you took care of the cleaning today, so I know you listen to me and care about my needs).
Another great reminder: “Most people think it takes a long time to change. It doesn’t. Change is immediate! Instantaneous! It may take a long time to decide to change…but change happens in a heartbeat!” There’s a big difference, as Amy Poehler says, between talking about the thing, and actually doing the thing.
Also: the reminder to be grateful. Instead of waking up and thinking about all of the tasks on your to-do list, think about all of the things that you are grateful for. This is a big one for me and something that I am constantly working on — I want to be more present, more aware, and more grateful in all aspects of my life.
Total stars: 2 [Four stars for the enjoyable lessons (and the fact that my book club had a nice discussion about it). Zero stars for the writing style.]
inspiring
medium-paced
Dit boek is eigenlijk een zelfhulpboek in vermomming, vind ik. Het leest makkelijk weg. Ik denk dat dit boek en de schrijvers kwaliteiten meer tot hun recht waren gekomen als het boek wat uitgebreider was. Ik denk dat er hele wijze dingen zijn verteld en ik vind het enigszins ontroerend dat een van de lessen 'het beste komt nog' was.
This was not only a fun, engaging, and entertaining read - but taught some very powerful lessons about perspective and the effect that it can have on every aspect of our lives. I would highly recommend this to mostly anyone reading this review; I believe this book will benefit most readers. The only reason I gave it four stars was because, in my opinion, the chapters seemed to have some amount of difficulty flowing from one to the next. However, it was not a major issue. I will close this review with one of the last lines in the book: "Yes, when we notice things about ourselves and other people that allow us all to regroup, take a breath, and begin our lives again, the best is surely yet to come."
I thought this was a good book to reflect on your life. It shows you how your life needs to be about spending time with the most important people in your life and not always the work and the money. We read this book before our church youth group went on a missions trip to a Navajo reservation in New Mexico. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
I really enjoyed reading The Noticer. It was a very interesting book and it put things in perspective.
I liked all the characters and all the interesting way their lives were changed by the man named Jones. In a way The Noticer shows you just how things are not really what they seem.
This book also teaches that often little things can make big differences.
The story itself was a very entertaining and interesting story. The characters were all memorable especially Jones.
I really liked The Noticer and I would recommend this one to anyone looking for a short, heart-warming story
I liked all the characters and all the interesting way their lives were changed by the man named Jones. In a way The Noticer shows you just how things are not really what they seem.
This book also teaches that often little things can make big differences.
The story itself was a very entertaining and interesting story. The characters were all memorable especially Jones.
I really liked The Noticer and I would recommend this one to anyone looking for a short, heart-warming story
You can read my review here: http://quivermom.blogspot.com/2009/04/i-must-say-i-was-bit-put-off-at-first.html
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Overall score: 3.5/5
I’ve never really read self-help books before. So when I started out reading The Noticer, one my grandfather had recommended, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I have to say by the time I was done I was pleasantly surprised by what I had read.
I’ll start by saying that this is obviously a Christian-based book. So if religion isn’t your thing or Christianity doesn’t jive with you you might not enjoy this book as much. However, I do think the lessons about perspective in it are fairly important and definitely needed during times like today.
So here’s a quick summary! Andy is down on his luck when a mysterious old man, lovingly referred to as Jones, teaches him about how to look at life in a different perspective and use that as a way to change his life. The rest of the book follows Jones as he meets with other people around Andy’s small Gulf Shore community and revolves around the lessons that he teaches each individual.
The writing style is some what juvenile I would say. A lot of the dialogue doesn’t seem very realistic but that might be because it seems to be a truth based fiction story. I don’t know if there actually was a Jones in the author’s life but that’s how the narrative is framed. Just simply based off of Jones’s description, an old man whose race seems to change depending on the person that he’s talking to (who also is extremely wise and doesn’t seem to age), he almost seems too good to be true. This being a Christian-based narrative I could make the argument that Jones might be a stand-in for God or Jesus. To me personally, this seemed to make the story a bit stiff and very predictable. I enjoyed the lessons that I learned from Jones’ character, but it’s hard to fully believe that he was a real person ands seems way too good to be true.
My second biggest issue had to do with mental health in the story as well. In particular there is one scene where a man is contemplating suicide and Jones shows up out of nowhere and basically tells him to look at life in a different perspective and he won’t feel so miserable. While that’s decent enough advice, it also carries with it the cliché of “just stop feeling sad.” With mental illness especially it’s not a good idea usually to tell someone to just get over it. And to some extent that’s what Jones tells the man. Although the advice he gives is ultimately good advice, I wish there had been some indication that he was telling this man to get further help and that what he is feeling is valid, rather than just tell him to get over it and change his perspective. I honestly probably would have given the book a better score if this scene had been handled more appropriately, at least in my opinion.
So what about the things that I did like? Like I said before I think the lessons in the book are very important. With what’s going on in the world right now and all the craziness that surrounds us sometimes we do need a shift in our perspective in order to get a more positive outlook. And, while I did find his character infuriating for the most part, the story does a great job of just teasing you with who or what Jones might be and certainly adds an air of mystery to the narrative that is quite enjoyable. Not to mention, it’s a fairly quick read. So if you need to cleanse your palette between books in a series or you just want to try out a short book I think this one would be perfect for you. I literally finished it in a day.
So if you’re looking for a self-help book with a creative narrative and useful enough advice, I would recommend at least giving The Noticer a shot! It’s definitely not for everyone but I think it’d be easy to get an enjoyable experience out of it, at least for an afternoon.
Tl;dr: The Noticer has some problematic elements but an overall wonderful message.
I read this back in 2015. I really liked the story. It has such a powerful message!