A busy sportswriter spends fourteen Tuesdays with his dying old professor, and learns what he forgot to ask.
Short, warm and genuinely moving, with a funny, unembarrassed Morrie at its center. The wisdom is familiar, the sentiment is thick and Morrie is almost too saintly. Four out of five.
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Is Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom worth reading? An honest, spoiler-free review of the 1997 memoir: what it is about, what works, what feels too sentimental, the real story behind Morrie Schwartz, my score and who should read it.
Tuesdays with Morrie (1997) is Mitch Albom’s memoir of reconnecting with Morrie Schwartz, his favorite professor at Brandeis, who is living with ALS. Each Tuesday, Mitch flies in to talk with him about love, work, money, family, aging and forgiveness.
Below you’ll find a spoiler-free review that keeps the ending out of it, with the real story behind the book, my score and six books to read next.
Here's the setup, and the book tells you on its very first page. Morrie Schwartz was Mitch Albom's favorite professor at Brandeis. Years later, Morrie is dying of A L S, also called Lou Gehrig's disease, and Mitch visits him every Tuesday to talk about life.
Mitch calls it Morrie's last class. No grades, no textbooks, one student. The subject is the meaning of life, taught from experience. Love, work, family, aging, forgiveness, and, in the end, death.
Here's the setup, and the book tells you on its very first page. Morrie Schwartz was Mitch Albom's favorite professor at Brandeis. Years later, Morrie is dying of A L S, also called Lou Gehrig's disease, and Mitch visits him every Tuesday to talk about life.
Short, warm and genuinely moving, with a funny, unembarrassed Morrie at its center. The wisdom is familiar, the sentiment is thick and Morrie is almost too saintly. Four out of five. Read it if: you want a short, moving book about what matters; you've been meaning to call an old teacher or friend; you need a gentle book club pick or a gift. Skip it if: you want rigorous philosophy or a hard-edged memoir; sentimental stories make you roll your eyes; grief is too close to you right now. Review: Tuesdays with Morrie →
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl.
Mitch Albom's 1997 memoir follows his weekly Tuesday visits to his former Brandeis professor, Morrie Schwartz, who is living with A L S. Over fourteen Tuesdays they talk about love, work, money, family, aging, forgiveness and death, and the book alternates those visits with flashbacks to Mitch's college years and chapters on Morrie's life.
Yes. It is a memoir about the real Morrie Schwartz, a Brandeis sociology professor diagnosed with A L S in 1994 who appeared in a series of Nightline interviews with Ted Koppel in 1995 (Wikipedia and ABC News coverage, as of October 2026). The conversations are Albom's account, written from his notes and tape recordings.
Yes, for most readers. It is short, warm and easy to finish in a weekend. The main criticisms are that it is sentimental and that much of the advice is familiar. My score is four out of five.
Doubleday said in August 2022 that it had sold nearly 18 million copies worldwide and been translated into 48 languages (NPR). Mitch Albom's official site lists nearly 18.5 million copies (reported, as of October 2026). Wikipedia reports 206 weeks on the New York Times Non-Fiction Bestsellers list.
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