Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Another travel book. This one is interesting because it's really not so much a travel book as a memoir of self discovery. Gilbert has a nervous breakdown in her thirties and realizes that she doesn't love her wonderful husband any more and can't bear the thought of having children. So she wallows in major depression for a while, goes through a long, nasty divorce, and finally decides that she needs to get her life in order. So she plans a year long journey; four months in Italy where she will do nothing but things that bring her pleasure. Except sex. Despite being surrounded by gorgeous Italian men, she swears off sex so she can discover who she is on her own, and not as part of a pair. So she learns to speak Italian, which brings her transcendental joy, eats a lot of pasta, and gains thirty pounds. Then it's off to an ashram in India to do yoga and meditate all day long, to get in touch with her spiritual self. Here we get a lot of hilarious dialogue with her inner self as she tries to concentrate on chanting for hours at a time but instead finds herself trying to decide whether her happy place should be a temple or an island or both and how to stop imagining jet skis zooming around her temple-island. Her final destination is Indonesia, where she hopes to learn how to balance the worldly enjoyment of Italy and the divine connection of India. She spends her days helping a hundred year old psychic painter with his English and her evenings partying with expatriates. She finally gives up her vow of chastity and finds true love, which you sort of expected all along. It's a funny, touching, soul-searching kind of book that leaves you wishing you could do exactly the same thing. (Except for the divorce and all that. I kind of like Dave. And Gavin, too.)

I checked out her website looking for an image to post, and it's worth a look if you enjoyed the book. She talks about how she became a writer and her advice for budding writers. Also, she answers some good questions about the book. In the FAQ she responds to " How can I possibly go on a journey like yours, given that I have a busy life of marriage, kids and work responsibilities?" I liked what she had to say, especially since I'd love to do something like this but obviously can't. She says, among other things, "The first question you can begin to ask yourself, though, is: “Where can I find a small corner of stillness?” I liked that. I feel like since I became a mom I'm not really sure who I am anymore apart from little Napoleon's serf. We touched on this in a church lesson I taught recently, too. Even if you can't take the year off to wander around the world, it's so important to find quiet moments to think and ponder and evaluate your life and whether it's going where you want it to. Gilbert says, "God resides in these pockets of silence. So where in your day, where in your home, where in your mind, is there some opportunity for a moment of silence? Or maybe even a few moments, during which you can start asking the questions you need to ask in order to find what you need to learn. Can you find the time to get out of your own way and try to step into your own light?" Kind of like Thoreau's essays on Walden, this book explores what it means to live deliberately.