Book Review: The Noticer by Andy Andrews

It's a small book, not even 200 pages, but its message is so big you wonder how it fit inside.

The Noticer is part self-help book, part fiction, and the result is a sometimes awkward blend of story and truth. The story provides a narrative and a context for the advice that the mysterious Jones spreads around the nameless Gulf Coast town, but as a result, that advice, which is the "meat" of this story, sometimes comes off as preachy.

The point of this book is to show us, through Jones' wise words, exactly how we can turn our situations around by cultivating a different perspective. Some of the material is unoriginal (a chapter is dedicated to a version of the now-famous "love languages"), some I have already learned in my life, but the rest was purely eye opening. Even now, three of the lessons stick out in my mind, and I know that I will be using them day by day to find my perspective.

So despite its tiny size and its sometimes preachy style (for a fiction book), The Noticer provides plenty of food for thought and some great advice that is definitely changing my perspective, and I have no doubt that this book has the potential to change someone's life.