BookTalk

Eat, Pray, Love

One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia

By Elizabeth Gilbert

Do you like uplifting stories with inspiration at every turn? This true life story of Elizabeth Gilbert has everything a person could want for inspiration--good food, God, and love. By the end of this book, you will want to travel the world to experience all of the great things life has to offer.

After Gilbert's divorce, she needs to get away from her life to find herself again. For the next year, she travels around the world. The novel is split into 3 sections, one for eat, pray, and love.  Each section covers a different country.  First, she experiences the exquisite cuisine from Italy. Next, she prays and gets in touch with her spirituality in India. Finally, the trip ends in Indonesia where she seeks to find balance in her life, and ends up meeting a great love. Her descriptions of the countries she visits and the people she meets are vivid and make you feel as if you were there. And you certainly want to be! Despite the fact that her reason for taking the trip is sad, the story itself is uplifting. Even though this story is autobiographical and tells a true story, it reads like a fiction. You find yourself absorbed in the story, wondering what is going to happen, and rooting for the main character to have a happy ending.

Many people can relate to Gilbert in her search for a meaningful life. This book offers many things that are uplifting to these people. There are foreign countries and new adventures. There are friendly people and delicious food.  There is prayer and love and forgiveness.

This book tells a story of hope, of new beginnings, and of happy endings. If you like this kind of inpiration, then this book is for you.


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I do agree with Baker that booktalks should only be about books that you have enjoyed. There are plenty of reviews out there with negative views that can be found. If I were to hear a booktalk, I would want to hear someone who is passionate about a book, because I feel like the point of a booktalk is to get people excited about reading a particular book.  I would not want to hear negative reviews nor would I want the person to lie about their enjoyment of the book. I do not think there is anything wrong with a negative review of a book, but I think there are different formats better suited for that kind of review.

Romance Annotation

Breathing Room

By Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Genre: Romance

Publication Date: 2002

Number of Pages: 369

Geographical Setting: Tuscany

Plot Summary: Successful self-help author Dr. Isabel Favor appears to have it all: money, fame, a wonderful fiance.  However, everything she has falls apart and Isabel escapes to a house in Tuscany for a few months to focus herself again and rebuild her career and life from the ground up.  Famous Hollywood villain Lorenzo (Ren) Gage, while waiting for his next role to start, retreats to his home in Tuscany for relaxation.  This known bad boy and known organized, good girl do not plan on meeting or becoming involved, but fate puts them together on this property in Tuscany. They spend time together and open up to one another in a way they never have before.  Their relationship changes everything they thought they knew about themselves and takes them down a path in life that they never imagined possible.

Romance Appeal and Characteristics:

Emotional Appeal: The story pulls on the reader's heart, drawing her in and making her feel strong emotions.

Sexual Appeal: This story has some steamy scenes, but not too many that it distracts from the story. It has just the right amount of passion in the story line.

Relatable Characters: The main characters are people the reader can identify with and like. Isabel lives a structured, safe, and moral life, but is looking for something to bring more meaning to her life. Ren is dangerous and beautiful, but there is also more to him like intelligence and charm.

Fast Paced: The novel reads quickly and there are few slow moments.

Strong Detail: The Tuscan countryside is described in detail, which paints a beautiful picture and romantic setting.

Witty, Lighthearted Banter: The dialogue between the characters creates a lighthearted tone that is pleasant to read.

Conflict Between Characters: Just as things seem to be at their best between the two lovers, something happens to temporarily tear them apart.

Happy Ending: Unlike some love stories, romance novels end with a happy ending. The characters end up together, which leaves the reader feeling satisfied.

Title Read-a-likes:

Lovers & Players / Jackie Collins

Strange Bedpersons / Jennifer Crusie

Causing Havoc / Lori Foster

Author Read-a-likes:

Julie James

Jennifer Crusie

Susan Mallery

I don't normally read romance, because I tend to find them too cheesy, but I couldn't put this book down. Great characters, great storyline, and great passion!

Kirkus-Style Review

The Time Keeper

By Mitch Albom

As punishment for creating the first clock and thus starting the world's obsession with time, Dor is banished to a cave for thousands of years. To redeem himself, he must help two people see the true value of time.

In modern day, there are two people who are struggling with time. A young girl, Sarah, wants to end her life. An old man, Victor, wants to live forever.  Through rather basic and cheesy dialogue, the reader discovers the heartache of the young girl and the terminal illness of the old man.  They both take drastic measures to relieve themselves of their current pain. Sarah plans to end her life while Victor plans to make himself immortal. Dor is brought to the modern world to try to help these two people see the true value of time before it is too late and they have made their great mistakes. Saving them from their bad decisions and showing them how to truly appreciate their time on earth will free Dor from his imprisonment.

This short and quick read has a promising story line, but does not quite meet its potential. The dialogue is simple and at times cheesy. There is a lack of depth to the characters and no real connection between characters and reader is made. The message conveyed is good but the book leaves the reader wanting.

Secret Shopper Success

For the secret shopper assignment, I went to a large public library in my area, complete with cafe and self check out. I had only been there a couple of time, and neither time did I look around very much. When I first got there, I walked around for a few minutes, trying to locate everything. I had already decided that I would ask about fantasy books. I finally located the science fiction section, but I didn't know if fantasy and science fiction were categorized differently at this library.  I approached the information desk. There were two older ladies there. As I approached, one of the ladies greeted me in a friendly manner. She asked if she could help me and I told her that I was just in the science fiction section and I was wondering if she could suggest a book for me. At first, she looked a little concerned by this request. I told her that I have read the Lord of the Rings series and would like something similar.

She started the interview by getting up and walking me over to the science fiction section. She pointed out that the fantasy books were on the next row over.  First she walked me down to Tolkien's books and said that if I wanted to stay with Tolkien, that he wrote other books.  Then she asked me what it is I like about Lord of the Rings. I replied that I like that they take place in another world with magic and all sorts of creatures. I also told her that I have read a few young adult fantasy series, but that this time around I was looking for adult books. She then walked me down the row and pointed out the Redwall series. I have had friends say they liked this series before, so I already felt like things were going pretty well.

I won't lie, I expected this to be the end of our interview. However, she said that if I wanted to browse the shelves, she would go and look up more information for me.  While I was browsing I could hear her talking to another librarian.  When she came back about 5 minutes later, she had printed a list of read-a-likes from NoveList and had written down some personal recommendations from a librarian that reads fantasy.  The recommendations from the librarian were Watersmeet (a teen series) and author adult Jim Butcher, who had many books in a series.  She walked me to Jim Butcher's books, found the first in the series, and then told me she was going to go see if the Watersmeet books were checked in.  Before she did this, she explained NoveList to me and showed me how the author's on the list were like Tolkien.  She talked about a few of the author's on the list, including Robert Jordan who wrote the Wheel of Time series, which is another series that I have heard friends talk highly of.

I browsed some more as she found the Watersmeet books.  When she came back, she gave me the first two books in the series and a flier for a fantasy book club that meets on Thursdays at the library.  She said that it was a small group and that they would love to see more people come. She asked me to let her know if I needed anything else and I thanked her for her help and time.

I left feeling really great about the experience.  I was nervous about asking an older woman about fantasy, because I thought that she might not be very familiar with the genre.  However, she turned out to be more than helpful. Not only did she find personal recommendations, but she also used NoveList to find Tolkien read-a-likes.  She left several times to do more research to make sure that I had many options and was completely satisfied.