Suzanne Elizabeth Anderson

Dear Readers,

One of the challenges of the reading challenge for this year was to read a 500 page book.  I really thought it would be one of the more difficult ones to do.  There are a couple of other ones that will be hard to do, but a book over 500 pages is quite a time commitment and what if the book is not good?  Then you have to decide if you want to keep going or not.  Well, I found A Map of Heaven by Suzanne Elizabeth Anderson while researching another book and it sounded kind of interesting.  I thought I would like to see if I can carry it here at the store so I ordered it.

When it arrived I found out it was 692 pages long and I thought I would never be able to read it.  Well, I started it after I landed in Italy a couple of weeks ago and it captured my attention right away.  You meet Elizabeth whose quiet safe life is about to be interrupted by a diagnosis of a terminal brain tumor.  Suddenly her nice safe life seems like a waste.  She wants answers to her question of “where is Heaven?” and "what is it like?"  She has been asking those questions ever since losing her father at the age of 11. 

We go on the journey with Elizabeth to find answers to these age old questions.  People have asked those questions since the fall and each of us have to find the answers for ourselves, but God is willing to help us along the way. 

This was more than just an interesting fiction story, it is also the journey that Suzanne herself took after her diagnosis of breast cancer.  It is a book that would be a wonderful read for a study group as I think it would lead to incredible discussions of what is talked about in the book.  I think one of the most interesting aspects of this book is how much it lines up with what the Bible says about Heaven and also God.  Not everyone is going to agree with what is said and used to point Elizabeth towards the correct answers, but ultimately this book is the story of God’s pursuit of us and his love for all mankind.

I recommend that you take the time to read this 700 page book.  It is very thought provoking and didn’t always leave me comfortable with the answers that I found.  But I did enjoy it and I finished it long before my 2 week vacation ended. 

Happy Reading