Jen has reviewed one of our favorite books this week. We agree with her conclusion that “Eat Pray Love” by Liz Gilbert should be “required reading” for every woman. It is indeed a delightfully refreshing approach to self-discovery and as Jen points out, how wonderful it would be if only we could all follow it – as Liz did – in Italy, India and Bali.
Whenever a lot of people tell me to read a book, I, ironically, shy away. Who knows why this is? Maybe I like the surprise of finding it myself. Maybe I have had the unpleasant feeling of dis-liking the heartily recommended book ( Loving Frank, The Shack, The Emperor’s Children).
This time I listened and I may have to again.
Eat, Pray, Love was fabulous. Thank you Ms. Talbot, thank you. It was a truly moving, mind-altering, heart-opening, cultural shock of a book. Liz Gilbert is a good, good writer and being privy to her thoughts is a real pleasure.
I have found myself thinking on it so often I can not imagine nothaving found it. Gilbert’s approach to self-discovery is so profoundly relevant to so many women’s lives that it should be required reading. Everyone deserves to find out more about themselves.
If we could all do it in Italy, at an Indian shram and in Bali, it would be transforming to society at large. As she says, one happy-centered person brings immeasurable joy to everyone around him/her. You can not hope to change other people but you can make yourself a positive influence in the universe with far-reaching effect.
As Liz finds herself desperately needing to free herself from a crippling marriage, we meet her. I liked her immediately and hoped she would accomplish nothing less than what she does. She travels to find herself. She travels to free herself. She takes four months in three countries to discover what it is that will make her innately content.
In Italy she discovers food can open her heart. In India she discovers that severe introspection is tough but life-alteringly beneficial. In Bali she learns to find a balance between the two. What a joy it is to be with her. She learns and teaches us so much.
She takes a negative and molds it into a positive. She searches for herself and finds the world is ready to help and to embrace anyone who wants to be better. As Jack Nicholson says in As Good as it Gets,” (she) makes me want to be a better person.
What better compliment is there?