Book Review: Eat, Pray, Love

“I’m choosing happiness over suffering, I know I am. I’m making space for the unknown future to fill up my life with yet-to-come surprises.” ~ Elizabeth Gilbert

So unlike me to be totally behind the times, right?! I was younger when this book came out, and I don’t think it was yet on my radar for things that interested me. I had just graduated, I was not yet at the “self discovery” books, stage of my life. I remember watching the movie and being pretty “ho-hum” about the entire thing. Recently though, after reading Big Magic, and then City of Girls, I discovered I really enjoy Elizabeth Gilbert. Naturally, Eat Pray Love was the next logical choice to pick up. There had been a copy in my basement box of books for the last ten years after all.

Once again I was captured by Gilbert’s raw honesty and engaging writing within a few pages. She brings to life the countries she visited in her travels, and the people she meets, summoning them without extra wordiness or prose. She lays it all bare, no matter what she is discovering within the depths of herself. I feel this level of frankness is part of the reason so many people connect to Gilbert. She is all of us, going through the same pain, walking the same paths, and she doesn’t try to hide it.

Pick it up, enjoy it, we did!