Book Review: Heaven is Here

I recently read Heaven is Here by Stephanie Nielson the creator of nieniedialogues.com.  This book is a memoir of Stephanie's life, who is a famous Mormon blogger.  She and her husband were in a plane wreck in 2008.  80% of her body was burned and she was in a coma for about 4 months.  This book is about her miraculous survival and recovery after this horrible accident.  Just so you know,this book is a tearjerker!  The book is split up in three parts, part 1 is about her life before the crash: growing up in Provo, how she met her husband, having her 4 children and starting her blog.  Part 2 is about waking up from her coma, remembering the crash and being in the burn unit in Arizona and Utah. Part 3 is about leaving the hospital, moving home and trying to rebuild her life.

This might sound weird, but part 1 was the hardest part of the book for me to read.  Her life was almost too picture-perfect, that I felt envious of her.  I'm sure she had trials, but she left most of that out, I'm guessing to show all that she loss with the plane wreck.  But for me, it made it hard to relate to her life before the wreck. I felt humbled as I read part 2 and 3 though.  She was very candid about the pain and agony she has gone through.  I also appreciated how candid she was about her testimony of the gospel, her life after death experiences and how her spirituality has carried her through such a difficult trial.  It's amazing to realize how far she has come.  When she woke up she was covered in bandages from head to toe, couldn't speak and even moving her fingers an inch was excruciating.  Now, even though she still faces pain in her life, she can walk, talk and has had another baby.  I found this book really inspirational and I would highly recommend it. My favorite quote from the book is from Elder Holland, an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who told this to Stephanie when he visited her.  He said:

"We look for Christ's scars because they are evidence of what He did for us.  They'll be the first things He shows us when we see Him again.  Your scars tell a story, too. Although they may not make you feel attractive, they are a witness of a miracle, that God blessed you to live, and that you have accomplished very difficult things."

Once again, I have a hard time rating memoirs, because I feel like I'm rating someone's life experience.  I mean really, who am I to judge?  It feels different than rating a story someone came up with.  Anyway, I'm giving it 5 stars, because I really did like it.

Jan's Rating: