After a painful divorce and a love affair that ended, author Elizabeth Gilbert needed help mending her broken heart. She didn’t know where to start, but then one evening, she collapsed on the bathroom floor in prayer. A small inner voice said, “Go back to bed.”
That’s exactly what she needed - rest. She needed to be strong. She planned a one-year vacation in which she hoped to mend her broken heart and to find peace. She would spent four months in Italy; four months in India and four months in Indonesia. She points out that each country begins with “I’ and this journey was about self discovery.
It’s a must read for people like me who’ve had our hearts broken, and then those hearts never seems to mind. I’m still aching over the loss of my dad and my birth family. I’ve studied meditation with differing results. This book proved a how-to book on how to heal.
Chapters were not intended to be how-to chapters, but that’s what many of them were for me.
Most of us can’t drop everything and rush to an apartment in Rome and then to a retreat in India and then to Bali. But we can learn yoga and meditation anywhere. We can order pizza and make new friends.
If you aren’t hurting and you don’t need the guide to meditation and self discovery, it’s still a great book. The collection of 108 personal essays are fascinating with lots of fresh insights into the human psych and the types of characters that one usually finds only in a novel. There’s Richard the Texan who nicknames Gilbert, “Groceries; there’s the plumber who takes her to the highest spot at the Indian retreat, there’s Ketut the medicine man who is somewhere between 65 and 112 years old and Wayan the medicine woman searching for a home. It’s hard not to fall in love with these characters. Gilbert gains weight in Italy, self awareness in India and self confidence in Bali, Indonesia. And she finds love.
Some chapters are too pat. She discovers the four brothers who are sort of guardian angels we all have. On her way home that day, a monkey threatens her, but she is feisty, and she stand up to the creature. After all she’s got four tough brothers protecting her. Too pat. The chapter was contrived.
The reader is so busy rooting for her that he forgets his own troubles - except to put the book down for awhile to eat, pray, meditate and fall in love.
That’s a lot to get from one book.

reading the reviews on this book I thought I’d give it a shot. So happy I did! It is so beautifully written and the narration was very enjoyable! Please give this book a chance!

What I love most about this book is that most of the words I'm already familiar with when I see them in writing, but I never use them in my own speech and writing. This books helps me understand those words better, especially since every five or so words are grouped under their Latin or Greek origins.

A great collection of short stories which I am looking forward to reading
But characters are very small and hard to read
so happy to get a copy in great condition at a reasonable price

Jeannette Walls's memoir focuses on her dysfunctional family life with a severely alcoholic father and an irresponsible dreamer of a mother. The poverty they experience is absolutely wrenching. Yet through it all, Jeannette and her siblings emerge as responsible successful adults in overwhelmingly difficult circumstances. It's a quick, wonderful read.