2. Eat, Pray, Love

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

Elizabeth Gilbert details her year long search for peace, self-love, and balance after a very nasty divorce which left her less than centered and searching for something (God, by whichever name you choose) to bring her back to a joy filled life. She spends 1/3 of her year traveling all over Italy, enjoying the food and friends with great exuberance. Her next four months are spent in an ashram - Indian retreat, where she sheds the lifestyle she enjoyed in Italy for a more temperate existence where meditation allows her to truly find her way back to God. Finally, she seeks balance in Bali and finds that balance includes a new understanding of love, both intimate and sexual love, and love between friends.

I loved this book and found her writing style to be both informative and with an easy flow. I have seen some criticisms of this work and one that stuck with me was that she frequently uses cliches for intense situations or feelings. But the book felt very authentic to me and perhaps that was how she really felt. My only criticism is that the author leaves you hanging regarding events that took place in Bali. I mean, she tied up loose ends and you know how things were at the point of her departure. I guess, like most good books, it left me wanting to know more.

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