Book Review

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

I just finished reading this book on Friday for my first ever, girls night out book club! It has been on the New York Times bestseller list for most of the year and Oprah has embraced it as a book for all women to read. This is a quirky memoir that brings you on a spiritual and personal journey with the author as she lives in Italy, India, and Indonesia. And trust me, once you are finished reading it, you will want to go to...yep, Italy, India, and Indonesia.

My thoughts? I applaud Elizabeth Gilbert for writing this book! She was brave enough to live through it and write about it, and I am grateful she wrote such an honest and telling account of her life for the world to read. It made me laugh out loud, cry, and think. I also know about Indonesian communal families now, how to meditate better, and I have an acute burning desire for Italian food! The real stuff, straight from an Italian kitchen, served to me at a place that doesn't have a name or even a menu, by a born and raised Sicilian woman. That, and I think I would like to start praying in caves in India. In addition to my normal times I talk to God, talking to Him in a cave sounds nice too.

I was a bit bothered by the selfishness of the book in the beginning. But it is selfish for a reason. This book is laid out as a progression of our lives: Eat, Pray, and Love. In order to get to the point where she desired to pray, she had to live through a bit of self-indulgence (after a terrible divorce and a personal breakdown), in order to truly love, she had to learn to pray. And while you may not share the same spiritual journey or beliefs as her, it is hard not to appreciate and love this quirky, honest, lovable, journey that brings her from the lowest place in her life to a place of genuine hope and restoration. The books brilliant prose and poetry and uncanny wit and humor make it an enchanting read! I loved it!

Your Turn!

If you have read this book I would love to hear your thoughts! So leave a comment and give us your own book review. Or, if you are just reading a great book right now, let us know!