I recently received a copy of Andy Andrews newest book, The Noticer. I have not read any of his previous books, but have been interested in reading The Traveler’s Gift. The central theme of the book is “Do you need a little perspective?” Andrews uses a fictional character called Jones to help the people around him gain perspective. He uses some of the recent wisdom that has been popularized by others (think Five Love Languages), and uses well told stories to convey his message. The main part of what he is conveying is summed up in the quote, “(perspective) allows them to regroup, take a breath, and begin their lives again.”
He takes us through the lives of the folks that Jones interacts with in the little coastal town where Andrews is from. I really enjoyed the book, but I did find that it was a little shallow in content, seeming to just skim the surface of the topics that he addressed. The book isn’t that big, and it appears that Andrews wanted to cover a wide range of topics rather than get very deep in any one. I would have liked to see him take some of it deeper, or at least reference where we could do so. Overall, it’s a good read, and shouldn’t take you that long to finish.