Title of the Book: Eat, Pray, Love (Example Entry)
Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
# of Pages: 352
Star Rating: ☆☆☆ (I made it through it and enjoyed it but it wasn't my favorite.)Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
# of Pages: 352
Review:
Elizabeth Gilbert begins Eat, Pray, Love by describing herself sobbing in the bathroom in the middle of the night. She feels trapped by her life: an unhappy marriage, a giant house she doesn't want, and a whole soul full of regrets. Her solution becomes a year traveling the world. She plans to spend four months in Italy, learning how to enjoy life again (especially eating!). Then, she wants to move to an Ashram in India and learn how to worship with her guru. Finally, she plans to wrap up the year with four months in Indonesia where she will learn to find balance. This book is the chronicle of her journey.
On its surface, the premise of Eat, Pray, Love is fascinating. The author wants to learn to live again through travel. It's an idea I can definitely get behind! Travel has an amazing ability to refresh the soul while also expanding our worldview. And this author's perspective is wonderful. Especially in the first section of the book (Eat), her voice is endearing and hilarious. As she shares her adventures in Rome including a new friend named Luca Spaghetti (really!) and several death-defying rides on motorbikes, you could feel her coming alive again and being open to the world. There were moments when I laughed out loud at her exploits.
Where I found the book lacking was in the sections written from India and from Indonesia. In India, the author tries to seek God through a mishmash of several different belief systems. She seems particularly taken with meditation and denial of the self. While her pursuit of God was noble, this whole section seemed a bit meandering. The author does finally experience what she describes as worship but the process involved hours of painful meditation and one memorable night allowing herself to be stung by mosquitoes for hours. It was hard for me to relate. While the section from Indonesia regained some of the momentum of the book, it never embraced the charm found in the first 100 pages as the author explores Rome. (But perhaps I'm just fixated on the gelato and pasta!)
Even so, most readers will enjoy this book. It's a combination of memoir and travel log and that's always a delightful way to open yourself up to the world. If nothing else, read about Gilbert's adventures in Rome and then enjoy a gelato! (And perhaps some deep breathing.)
example provided by Ms. Kipp
Elizabeth Gilbert begins Eat, Pray, Love by describing herself sobbing in the bathroom in the middle of the night. She feels trapped by her life: an unhappy marriage, a giant house she doesn't want, and a whole soul full of regrets. Her solution becomes a year traveling the world. She plans to spend four months in Italy, learning how to enjoy life again (especially eating!). Then, she wants to move to an Ashram in India and learn how to worship with her guru. Finally, she plans to wrap up the year with four months in Indonesia where she will learn to find balance. This book is the chronicle of her journey.
On its surface, the premise of Eat, Pray, Love is fascinating. The author wants to learn to live again through travel. It's an idea I can definitely get behind! Travel has an amazing ability to refresh the soul while also expanding our worldview. And this author's perspective is wonderful. Especially in the first section of the book (Eat), her voice is endearing and hilarious. As she shares her adventures in Rome including a new friend named Luca Spaghetti (really!) and several death-defying rides on motorbikes, you could feel her coming alive again and being open to the world. There were moments when I laughed out loud at her exploits.
Where I found the book lacking was in the sections written from India and from Indonesia. In India, the author tries to seek God through a mishmash of several different belief systems. She seems particularly taken with meditation and denial of the self. While her pursuit of God was noble, this whole section seemed a bit meandering. The author does finally experience what she describes as worship but the process involved hours of painful meditation and one memorable night allowing herself to be stung by mosquitoes for hours. It was hard for me to relate. While the section from Indonesia regained some of the momentum of the book, it never embraced the charm found in the first 100 pages as the author explores Rome. (But perhaps I'm just fixated on the gelato and pasta!)
Even so, most readers will enjoy this book. It's a combination of memoir and travel log and that's always a delightful way to open yourself up to the world. If nothing else, read about Gilbert's adventures in Rome and then enjoy a gelato! (And perhaps some deep breathing.)
example provided by Ms. Kipp
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