Book Review....Times Two!!

This book review has been a long time coming...but I seriously just finished!  Back here I promised to do book reviews, and post "reviews" when I finish, and said Book 2 would be

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. 

My Synopsis:

The author is the heroine of the story, which chronicles a year in her life.  After surviving (if you can call it that) a very ugly divorce, clinging to another man through the process, and breaking up with him multiple times, Ms. Gilbert makes the decision to leave her "life" for one year, and travel to the three "I's" - Italy, India, Indonesia.

The story is broken up into three parts (4 months each I presume) where she travels to Italy to experience "pleasure" - to eat.  And eat and eat and eat.  She describes in great detail the best pizza in the entire world, in Sicily (I believe it) - where she consumed two pizzas one day at lunch.  By herself.

She travels to India next, to live in an Ashram.  Her mornings begin with prayers at 3:30, and her days consist of meditation (which she struggles with very much at first), chanting, scrubbing floors, and exploring her relationship with God.

Lastly, she travels to Bali, Indonesia to visit a medicine man she had met two years previously.  In Indonesia, she makes several friends, learns new ways to meditate from the medicine man. helps a female doctor buy a home for herself and her three children, and falls in love.

My review:

This book is a beautiful story of the life of this person for one year.  But I have to say, I really struggled to get through it.  Really struggled - as you can see it took almost two months.  While I enjoyed the story, I really didn't connect to the character.  The third journey, to Indonesia, was by far my favorite section of the book. 

That being said, I am very excited to see the movie coming out August 13th starring Julia Roberts.  I think, for me, Julia will help me identify with this character and endear her to me.  I mean who doesn't love her right??  This is probably the only time I will ever say this, but I truly think this is one instance where I will personally enjoy the movie more than the book.

Check out the trailer here:

       

Despite my Debbie-Downer opinion of the book, if you have read this book and enjoyed it, or haven't gotten the opportunity yet, my favorite book of all time is a similar story called "Tales of a Female Nomad", but instead of a year, the author makes this her life.  I found myself touched by the main character and really connecting to the relationships she forms.

Book 3: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, by Stephenie Meyer

My Synopsis:

This short novella tells the story of Bree Tanner.  If you've read the Twilight series, in the book Eclipse, Victoria has raised an army of "newborn" vampires...the newest vampires being the strongest and hungriest, yet the most expendable.  When Victoria's army attacks, newborn vampire Bree surrenders to Carlisle and says she wants peace.  I won't say anymore so I don't spoil Eclipse for anyone who hasn't read it, but this is just a reminder who Bree was.  This novella, tells the story of Bree, from her creation, to her death (that is not a spoiler because the title of the books gives away that she dies).

My review:

First off, yes, I got sucked into the whole Twilight phenomena and read all the books in probably a month.  And I read Stephenie Meyer's draft of Twilight from Edward's perspective that was leaked on the internet.  I can't help it!  So I realized I was completely feeding on the craze when I bought this book.  But I'm glad I did.  When reading the books, automatically the "normal" vampires are seen as evil because, well, they slaughter humans.  Bree Tanner is no different - yet somehow she is.  I found myself truly sympathizing for this character and really enjoyed reading her story.  And it seems, even "evil" vampires are capable of love.  That's all I'm saying - but if you've read the Twilight series, I recommend this book as an alternate look.  If you haven't read the Twilight series - don't bother because it won't make much sense.  :o)  Or it may make you want to read more about the "yellow eyed" vampires that are the Cullens.

I know this has been long and rambly - so sorry - I was camping this weekend and finished a lot of books!  On our recent trip to Dallas, the Blonde was raving about Three Cups of Tea, so I've started that and will hopefully have a review sooner than later!