Eat, Pray, Barf

I ended up really enjoying "The Book Thief". It took plowing through the 1st half of the book, but at the end, I was really sad that the story had ended. I wanted to know more! Follow the main character's life farther. I love that about my book club - I had read books that I would have never opened, or never finished, in some cases.

Next in my stack of books was "Eat Pray Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. I should have known what this would be like. A number of years ago I stopped reading Oprah books because I felt like they were such downers about repressed women. Repressed by Men, repressed by Society, repressed by Economics. After I finished Eat Pray Love, I Googled it a bit to see what others think. I'm shocked (but not really) at the glowing reviews. "It changed my life". Really?!?
I guess I shouldn't be suprised that citizens of the Oprah Nation think it's great that a woman abandoned her husband because she been crying on the floor of her bathroom for 40 nights in a row. Sounds to me like she needed a healthy dose of anti-depressants.
I think overall, I was just so put off by this mid-30s woman's total self absorption. Everywhere she went, it sounded like she only had use for people who could help HER on HER journey to find God or whatever. I'm still not sure what the point of this year long trip was, exactly. Toward the end, she does actually pull herself together to help a poor woman. But it took her ALMOST A YEAR to do something selfless for someone.
If you want to read good books about introspection and finding God by modern women, Anne Lamott is a good place to start. Skip Eat Pray Lovem unless you just want to be really annoyed.