"The Noticer" by Andy Andrews

I received this book as part of the Thomas Nelson book review blogger programme. The "Noticer" is a man named Jones (just Jones - not Mr Jones). He has the gift of noticing things which other people don't. He mysteriously appears and disappears in the small seaside town of Orange Beach, Alabama where he uses his gift to help people by enabling them to gain "perspective" on their apparently difficult situations.

I was a little confused by this book as I thought it was supposed to be fiction but the character who narrates the story seems to be the author. Regardless of whether it is pure fiction or not the main purpose of the book seems to be the message in it rather than the story. This is probably a good thing because the story is not really its strong point and at times when I was reading it I felt that the characters/plots were made up rather too conveniently to fit a particular point such that it was almost patronising

If one ignores the contrived nature of getting to the point, it is well worth reading for the wisdom and advice Jones imparts. I enjoyed some of Jones' talks so much that I read a number of them aloud to my husband.