Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Eat, Pray, Love


Ok, so I almost named this post "Eat, Pray, Love it!" But I restrained myself. But that's how I feel....FINALLY! I feel like it's been a while since I've really loved a book, probably since reading The Kite Runner (so glad you liked it, too, Amanda! I have broken the "Running with Scissors" curse!). But now I'm back on track and am very happy to post that this book is everything it's cracked up to be. When I first started reading it I didn't realize it was a memoir - even mom said "It's fiction?" and I was adament that it was...but I'm an idiot. It's a memoir.
The way Elizabeth Gilbert writes is infectous, I was immediately engrossed with the story from the first chapter. And while I was a bit distracted by all of the excitement of a little redheaded 1.5 year old when I first picked up the book, once Amanda and Katie left, I read the rest of the book in a day.
It's the story of Elizabeth Gilbert (duh) and her struggle to find herself after going through a divorce at 30 years old. She decides to take the next year of her life and devote it to travel - and she chooses Italy, India, and Indonesia (for lots of reasons that you can get from the book, should you choose to read it). She lives in each place for 4 months and finds love - love for good food, her spirituality, and...well, love (hence, the name). It actually reminded me a lot of some discussions that Amanda and I had about religion and spirituality when she was visiting and she asks a lot of the same questions that I've asked myself over the years. But the way she goes about her journey is envious and very cool. She actually has inspired me to start learning Spanish again (she learned Italian, but I'll go back to my high school roots). And I think that really is what sums up the book the best - besides the fact that it's just a wonderfully colorful, well-told story, it's inspirational and I found myself rejuvinated after reading it.
I highly recommend this book to Amanda. I think Dad will probably pass, and Mom is 50/50. But it's a keeper in my personal library - that's for sure!

2 comments:

Jackie said...

I read this book a couple months ago and enjoyed. For some strange reason it made me want to learn Italian. It seems like a language that would be fun to speak...and, of course I'd have to go to Italy sometime to practice!

Debbie said...

My hairdresser, who never reads any books, actually read this, loved it, and recommended it to me (maybe this will be my airplane book for the June reunion trip).