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

Eat, pray, and self indulge (2010-07-30) : 1/5
Honestly with so many books, and so little time, I couldnt truly receommend anyone waste time on this drivel, albeit well written. It is trite, self indulgent and neither provocative nor engaging. GReat work if you can get it though!
Eat, Pray, Love. - Fun, OK, Boring (2010-07-30) : 2/5
This book was a nice idea, a woman coming out of a divorce travels to find herself and learn to be alone. A pretty typical plot and idea, nothing original. In the first third of the book she goes to italy, makes friends, learns the language, eats good food and has some fun. This part of the book is light and fun to read and you are happy for her finding happiness. Next she goes to india where she prays and lives modestly, meets some people and talks about the way of chanting and her reactions to meditation. Some of this part is interesting but she prattles on many times about unimportant contrasts or side stories that make you flip a few pages ahead to shut her up. The third part 'Love' was a magician trying to pull a rabbit out of their hat but you already know its there waiting for him to grab it. You know she'll find some guy and end up happy, if only because she wants the book to sell. I find the fact that she does this also kind of annoying. I thought the book was supposed to be about a woman who wants to find happiness in being alone and independent? And yet she ends her book triumphantly with being tethered to another man, moving for him and uprooting her whole existance to be with him. Nice independence huh? It just feels hypocritical, I wish she could have learned to be happy alone, rather than having to find another guy to end the book on a positive note. Other than the man she falls for, the 'Love' part is mostly boring, she has a few fun experiences with a medicine man and meets some friends but it is nothing special. And it teaches us nothing about love, as she doesn't examine it to talk about the history or do any of the 'fact' type comparisons that she does in the other parts of her book.

Overall the book starts out strong and dwindles into nothing towards the end. I wish the writer had tried a little harder to make the idea of this book into a reality and each part of the book link into a cohesive whole. This book could have been much better.
Loved it! (2010-07-29) : 5/5
Couldn't put it down! It was very inspirational to me because I could relate to the story and the author in many ways. I HIGHLY recommend it!
I Think A Point Was Missed. (2010-07-29) : 4/5
This is less of a review of what the book is than what the book is not. I've read so many criticisms of the book, that she's self indulgent, she destroyed her marriage, she's narcissistic,blah, blah, blah, Frankly I don't think she'd disagree on many of these points. However the book isn't subtitled," a guide to giving personal peace and inner wisdom". It's one womans journey of self actualization complete with warts and all. Who cares why her marriage failed? To me that's their business and a different book. What she's telling is what comes after. How this woman got back to her own true self. Or at least found the path. I thought it funny, touching, and real along the way. If you're looking for a guide to inner peace , look in the self help section. If you're looking for a readable,relatable,voice with some cool observations along the way, check it out.
Get the audiobook instead! (2010-07-29) : 3/5
I had heard all the hype about this book. I bought it. It wasn't a long read, but I just could NOT finish it to save my life! I happened on a discounted set of audio cds of Eat, Pray, Love---read by the author. I listened to all 10(!) CDs and it was THE BEST way to experience this book. You could hear her passion, her confusion, her frustrations....and you empathized with her. You rooted for her. This is one time where I think reading a book was a waste. Hearing her pronounce words she is learning in each language was great. You just can't get that from reading the book.