Eat, Pray, Love
One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and IndonesiaBy 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.
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.
I've heard mixed reviews of this book in the past, but I think you present it in a very appealing way. However, I would like to know your thoughts on the book a little more. Just the same, you set the book up nicely.
ReplyDeleteYou make a great point that a booktalk is a unique format. It certainly is easiest to talk up a book that you have loved, and any negativity should definitely be left out. However, I think I would agree with Baker's statement if it were expressed in the negative - don't booktalk books that you did not enjoy. I think that you're totally right that negativity belongs in other review formats, but I'm still not sure that I agree that you have to have loved a book in order to booktalk it. If you read it and feel a bit ambivalent, or you only read enough selections from the book to get a feel for style and plot, I still think that's enough to present a great booktalk.
ReplyDeleteAmen! I like that you mentioned passion - it shows through whether this is the intention of a speaker or not - lovin' a book isn't an easy thing to fake! :)
ReplyDeleteI like how you mentioned it's a nonfiction book that reads like fiction--sometimes nonfiction turns people off, so if you sell it as seeming like a fiction book, that might get readers more interested in it. I also completely agree with your thoughts on Baker's statement; I pretty much said the exact same thing.
ReplyDeleteI think you could not love a book but still do an informative booktalk without giving your opinion or trashing the book. I revisited the video of the librarian booktalk that Carri posted on her Week Six Prompt. The librarian talked about three books but she never gave her opinion on any of them. She mentioned that the author of the second book was one of her favorite authors but didn't say if she loved or hated the book.
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