Eat Pray Love Book Club - The End

Finish Indonesia and discuss general feelings on the book. How did it affect you?
Like I have said before, this book had a profound effect on me. I love how much she learned in this book and how much I learned from her. Her time in Bali is so beautiful, its taking everything she learned in the earlier months and learning how to live differently. And changing how you live is never easy. It also gives me a little hope because she proves true the adage that love finds you when you least expect it.

Will you go see the movie?
Although I am convinced that the movie can never, ever live up to my expectations I am going to see it. I will most likely hate it though.

Will you read Committed which is Gilbert’s follow up to Eat Pray Love?
I have read it and really enjoyed it. It didn’t have the same earth-shattering power as EPL but it is a good, entertaining read and I was glad I read it.

What are some of your favorite quotes from the book?
A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then leave.

See, now that's your problem. You're wishin' too much, baby. You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughtta be.

Operation Self-Esteem--Day Fucking One.

Ok, everyone link to your final thoughts below and I hope you all enjoyed the book. Sorry for the delay on this last post but I was on vacation and just couldn’t make myself do work!

Felicia's Thoughts:
Well, the book as a whole didn't affected me at all. To me, it was a combination of boring, interesting, funny, touching and sweet. As for it having an effect on me, nothing that she wrote about made me want to apply it to my life. I just couldn't really connect on her level. I think if I was in a different place in my life, it may have affected me more. I'm pretty happy where I am in life right now. Not a lot of people can say that. I acknowledge my many blessings. I have a wonderful husband, enough money to buy what I want when I want, a few good friends in my circle, a job (though may not be really satisfying right now, I'm thankful that I have it). The only place I'm probably lacking is a deeper spiritual connection. But that is my own journey to take. I'm not unhappy or troubled, so there was nothing for me to take away. I am glad I read it though. I enjoyed this last section the most of the three. I smiled, chuckled and teared up a bit at a couple of places. I loved Felipe! Also loved Wayan and Tutti. I'm just a little bit disappointed though, because even though I (tried) to keep an open mind, I was still expecting something different. I was hoping to get a little more something from it. I'm not sure what, but I didn't get it. But it was still an enjoyable read. After reading the first two sections, I wasn't sure if I would go see the movie, but now after reading it all I think I will. I have no plans to read her follow up. Because even though I enjoyed this book, it did not entice me to read the next one.

Favorite quotes:

Not so much as favorite quotes, but one of my favorite parts of the book. I teared up at this section;

"She fumbled through my my hand like she was trying to untumble the combination on a lock and she found my index finger. Then she wrapped her whole, big hard fist around that finger and gave me this deep, long squeeze. I could feel her love pulsing through her power grip, right up into my arm and all the way down into my guts." pg. 246


Not sure why it touched me but it did. The other part that got to me was where Wayan hugged Big Ketut and Little Ketut after Liz told her she had money for her to buy a house, and they clung to Wayan not letting go. It was a teary moment for me.

I really loved Felipe! I have a weakness/fetish for men who can speak another language. (shh don't tell my hubs. lol)

"And then he leads be back to the bed, saying, in Portuguese, "Vem, gostosta." Come here, my delicious one." pg. 295


I want to thank everyone who hosted me on their blogs. I enjoyed reading everyone's answers to the discussion questions and the comments left on all the blog posts. Thanks again!

Eat Pray Love 4 - India

Finish India, where she prays a lot. Richard is a major character in this part of the book. He really is a true friend and is brutally honest. I think everyone has a Richard, maybe write a post about that person in your life as well as any general discussion about this section.

This section has always been two things to me: the part I can relate to the least and the part I admire the most. I couldn't even begin to imagine going to the ashram and sitting in silence. I don't think I have ever had or will ever have the self control for that. However, there is no arguing that it worked for her. It is also the hardest part of the book for me to read because it forces me to think about really uncomfortable things, feelings and emotions that we all try to bury. But it is the dealing of these emotions that make me a better version of myself than I was when I first read the book.

I love Richard, he is my favorite part of this book. Some of his lines are my favorite in the entire thing including "See, now that's your problem. You're wishin' too much, baby. You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughtta be." which have become words I try and live by every single day. I have had a few Richards in my life, people who are unfailingly honest and bring out the best in me. For the purposes of this I will tell that my very best friend in the entire world is Jessica and she is definitely that person more than anyone else and I am very lucky to have her, even if we live thousands of miles apart. She also happens to write guest reviews occasionally that you should check out.

Felicia's Thoughts

I don’t think that I have a friend that brutally honest as ‘Richard from Texas’ was to Liz. I have a couple of people that might come close though. One of those people, my husband, whose real name Richard too, is one person I rely on to tell me the truth. I consider my husband my friend and someone who would be honest with me if I ask him. I don’t know if he would be brutally honest, with me, but honest enough I think. My other friend is a woman I consider my best friend, someone I’ve known since my high school days. I have no doubt that she is someone that would be honest with me about anything I ask her. In my opinion, the reason that ‘Richard from Texas’ could be so brutally honest with Liz is because he really didn’t know her that well. I mean, yes, he knew her, and he understood her (or so it seemed), but they were not friends for a very long time. They met and became friend in just a short matter of months, so I think that is the reason he could be so honest with her, because he only knew of her what he saw and what she told him. There still was a bit of distance in their relationship and because of that he was able to be brutally honest with Liz. I think the closer you are to a person, the less likely you want to hurt them if what you have to tell them might rub them the wrong way. I think we are honest to a certain point with people we have a history with versus those that we don’t.

This is section was the one I was most apprehensive about. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect so I (tried) to continue to keep an open mind. This section was kinda interesting, kinda boring (reminded me of reading a text book at school at some points), and kinda funny (Richard from Texas was funny). But ultimately, I could not connect with Liz in this section. Sure, I understood this was her journey to find God/her spiritual self and I get that. It just felt abstract to me. There was nothing that called to me, nothing that spoke to my inner self that said ‘Ahh… so that’s what she’s talking about’. So, I was left with a feel of, ‘yeah, ok, but what do you want me to do with that information?’. I found her chanting and mediation techniques vaguely interesting. I used to meditate (and do yoga, but it was mainly for exercise, not to connect to the spiritual), but I couldn’t quiet my mind enough to continue with it, so I stopped. I assumed this part is to get you to examine your own spiritual connection. So I did, briefly. I do pray nightly, but it’s mostly for others. I’m still working on my own spiritual connection and I figure it will come in time. Now that we are through this section, I’m almost (almost) eager to see what her ‘Love’ is all about.

Everyone should link up and share what they thought of India.

Eat Pray Love 3 or What's Your Word?

Having finished Italy discuss what the first phase of the journey has been like. Something fun could be that in Chapter 33 while sitting in an outdoor café in Rome, Gilbert’s friend declares that every city—and every person—has a word. Rome’s is “sex,” the Vatican’s “power”; Gilbert declares New York’s to be “achieve,” but only later stumbles upon her own word, antevasin, Sanskrit for “one who lives at the border.” What is your word? Is it possible to choose a word that retains its truth for a lifetime?

The first part of the book is so much about her healing in Italy. She has to learn how to smile, laugh and enjoy life again before she can really begin the hard stuff. I love this part of the book because she fights her depression and just does what I wish I could do. Travels around Italy, learning the language (of which I have a basic knowledge), eating the food and just enjoying the country. I firmly believe we would have a lot less depression if we could all treat it this way.

As for my word, I have spent a lot of time thinking about this since the first time I read the book. I have even asked my friends what my word is but of course I haven’t yet found the perfect one. I often end up back at fuerza, which is strength in Italian but it hasn’t seemed perfect yet. Trust me, when I do find my word I am getting it inked on my body somewhere. When I asked my friends a lot of them said independent. And while that feels close as well, it doesn’t feel quite right. Maybe part of it is that those are different words for different phases of my life and I am still looking for something all encompassing.

One particularly close friend said my word is sassy. I think that’s funny but there is no way I am owning it as my word.

The next part of the journey is totally different. And I hope you all enjoy!

Eat Pray Love 2 or the one where I over share

After reading the book for a week what are your first impressions? So much of this part of the book is about Liz’s battle of modern vs. traditional, where do you fall on the spectrum. Are you married with children or do you never want to get married, or like most I would guess are you somewhere in between?

Here is the part where I lay it all out there so maybe people can begin to understand why I love this book. I can’t tell you what my first impressions are because I have read this book so many times but I can tell you what happened the first time I read it.

I was 21 years old and a totally different person than I am now. I had made a habit out of letting people in to my life that would drain on my resources, emotionally and physically, because it was always about them, never a give-and-take. At 21 I had friends who weren’t very good to me and was in a horrible relationship. Basically, I was miserable, about to graduate college, terrified of the real world and felt more alone than I can possibly explain. And then I was out buying up books for quarters at tag sales and came across a bag of books for a dollar. I didn’t care what was in it, who could pass that up. I bought the bag and somewhere down in the bottom was a copy of Eat Pray Love. I threw it in my suitcase and headed back to school (I had bought it while home visiting the family).

I don’t know what made me pick it up and start reading one day while sitting at my favorite bench on campus. As I worked my way through the first few sections all I could think was HOLY SHIT! Now excuse my language but that is the only way I have to convey how I really felt. My life was so difference from Gilberts but our issues were very similar and to fix both would take drastic work. I think I might have actually started crying sitting on that bench. Seriously, I was that moved.

Now, I understand that some people find her to be whiny at the beginning of the novel and as I read it now, with my life totally different (in a good way), I can see that. But then, when I was 21 and so miserable I didn’t want to get out of bed in the morning she wasn’t whining. She was telling the completely unfiltered truth and I knew I needed to try that.

Now just as a disclaimer, I started slowly but efficiently getting rid of all the unhealthy people in my life. It wasn’t easy and it took time but now, over two years later, my life is so much better I hardly recognize the person who left all kinds of markings in my copy of EPL. This book helped me make serious changes and I am not really sure if I would have done it had I not stumbled upon this book. Gilbert has yoga. I have books.
Now maybe that is way more than I should share with the whole internet but enough people in my life already know about it so I don’t really care.

As for the modern vs. traditional part, well I am so far on the modern side sometimes I feel like living in the south is the dumbest thing I ever did. I am one of the very few little girls I knew who didn’t play with baby dolls and pretend she was a mommy, I never pictured my wedding day and I never thought “I like that name, I will keep it in mind for my future children.”

I have never once in my life wished I could get married. I am told (over and over and over and over) that this will change as I get older and that would be fine, but I really don’t want to get married. I love being single and my life is great this way. I have a career that requires a lot of travel and I work nights and weekends from September to June. Working in college athletics is amazing, fun and rewarding. This spring I worked with a baseball team and sometimes it felt like I had 30 kids, trust me I worry about them like a parent sometimes and I am certainly proud like a parent when they do well.

Moving to North Carolina a year ago was a major shock for me, I grew up in NY and went to college in Boston. I couldn’t understand why everyone down here was 25 and already married, or at least engaged, it was crazy to me. And my I don’t want to get married and I really don’t want kids attitude took them all by storm for sure. It has been a fun year of explaining my life philosophies and trying to be open minded to theirs.

Okay, enough ranting. If anyone actually made it to the bottom of this post, thank you, now head over to The Book Vixen to see what everyone else thinks.

Eat Pray Love Book Club Activity #1

The Book Vixen is hosting a book club for Eat Pray Love, which is one of my all-time favorite books. I can not begin to explain to you how much I love this book, but I will try over the course of the next month. You can still join in if you would like, just head over to the Book Vixen and sign up.

Today's assignment: What preconceived notions do you have of the book as a first time reader? What have you heard about it? What do you anticipate going into it? Why do you want to read it?

This is where my answer will be different then everyone else because I am on the only one in the book club who has read the book before. I honestly can't remember what my feelings were going in to the book but I read the book at a time in my life where I sort of felt like I was falling apart. They were not good times, and there was something about reading this book, about another woman going through the same thing that was incredibly powerful. I don't know if I would love this book nearly as much if I read it at a different time in my life, a time like now when everything is more pulled together.

Now, I anticipate that there will be people in the book club who don't love it as fiercely as I do, and there may be people who don't even like it and that is fine. I also can't wait to re-read it now, I have read it multiple times, and I often go back to it when I am having a tough day and just read some of my favorite passages but it will be interesting to read it cover to cover and discuss it now and see how differently I feel about it.

There will be EPL Book Club posts on July 8, July 11, July 20 and July 31. Also be on the lookout for a special vlog that I will do to show you my worn and ragged, but loved, copy of the book in the next few days.

Head over to The Book Vixen and see what everyone else is anticipating from the book.

Eat Pray Love with me and The Book Vixen

A funny little happened on twitter yesterday. The Book Vixen asked about Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and I immediately started gushing about how much I love this book. Like serious, life-changing moments while reading it love. Turns out she was thinking about reading it as part of a book club and I would like to think I helped convince her so she has set up the book club on her blog. I think every female (and it probably wouldn't hurt the men either) should read this book. I will blog more about the serious impact this book had on me during the month of July but for now hurry over to the Book Vixen and sign up to read and chat along with us!

Reading will start on July 1st and go until the end of the month.
SIGN UP HERE