Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert ...   I think its OK to break my thoughts into three parts on this book…

1. When we selected this book, I thought I would hate it, but really enjoyed reading it.  I enjoyed reading about Italy, the cities and the food (especially since I’m planning to be there in September), the India section was educational (and I really want to learn yoga, bought the clothes even though I have never been to a class), and the Bali section was a happy ending.   It also has a wonderful connection to the last book I read, Bel Conto..  where people are taken out of their normal lives, loves and deadlines, and only had time, food, and a few pleasures to occupy them… and found happiness.
2. This was one of the best explanations of modern “spiritualism” I have read.  It might be more accurate to say that I have never read much more than little blurbs in women’s magazines or heard an interview with Madonna.  But it was very thought provoking, in trying to understand the separation between the ritual’s of religion that most of us have grown up with (tying up the cat), love of one self and self confidence, and the presence (omni-presence) and love of a higher being.   I especially liked the section where she is explaining how important it is to understand what you want to pray for… that praying is not like going to your hairdresser and asking “can ya’ do something”.
3. Is she a kook or what?  This book also reminds me a lot of Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany, by Bill Buford.  He did (surprisingly) not need to get divorced to follow his quest in happiness, but clearly is a kook only they way writers can be.  So, fellow Pageturners, is it Crazy Aunt Liz or not?