eat, pray, love - Elizabeth Gilbert

Someone gave me this book to read, I don't know who anymore. It sat on my shelf for months and I finally picked it up. I knew nothing about it other than that it seem popular these days. I think I saw it for sale at Sam's Club - a good indication a book is a bestseller.

Reading this book was so easy - the style of prose, the short "beads" for each of the 108 articles. Easy to pick up and put down. Reading about her divorce reminded me so much of mine - the despair, fighting, and sense of guilt for being the one to leave. Reading about her experiences, I thought I had forgiven my ex, but can you forgive someone if you still hate them? I know I have not fully forgiven myself - I don't feel guilt/shame for leaving, I feel the shame of having been there in the first place and been there so long. It's not something I think about much, but when I do, it's in the middle of the night. This book was so easy to read, but it's leaving me wondering where do I go next.

This book may be about one year of living abroad and finding yourself. It's also about finding out what is important to you. What is it that makes you want to get up and face the day? What are the things you do to yourself that keep you from doing those things?

Those are things I need to think about.

Safe Haven - Hannah Alexander

This one was lying around my parents house when I was taking a break. As expected, I picked it up and made it through 80% of the book before I headed back home. It's part of a Christian medical thriller series and I won't be going out of my way to finish it. I would pick it up if I happened to see it, but I have a pretty good idea where it will end up. The beginning of the book was pretty light on the save your soul message but the references to finding / relying on God are getting more and more frequent. The mystery isn't all that mysterious or thrilling to me, although I suppose if I finish the book I could be surprised.

Update March 7, 2008: Mom hand delivered the book to my house, so I finished it. I had barely 30 pages to go. Yup, just as a suspected. Not terrible, but not brilliant either. Since I am reading so much less these days, I am trying to be more selective in what goes onto my To Read shelf. Books by this author are unlikely to make it.

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books - Azar Nafisi

This month's book club selection was one I had heard about but never really had on my own personal reading list. It was nothing like I expected. It's part literary criticism, part Iran history book and part memoir. I never thought much about life in Iran or what daily life must be like in a country ruled by Islamic militants. I don't think about what it would be like to live through the transition from a more liberal rule to a more militant one. In some ways, I like to pretend that it doesn't happen - that people aren't so cruel.

I know I live in freedom, but I don't think about all the ways I am free. Free to think, free to act, free to talk to strangers on the street, free to work at home or in the office, free to wear the clothes I want, free to travel, free to learn, free to read, free from fear. This book makes me appreciate what I do have.

On the other hand, it also made me miss one of the things that I don't have - discussions about books that go beyond the superficial, "I liked it." Discussions that are all about one particular passage or ones that compare the heroine in one book to the heroine in another book. Discussions that talk about the parallels between the book and current events, the role of women in society vs. books, the role of men. It made me want to read Nabokov, James, Austen. But it also made me feel like I would be missing something to just read them alone and not discuss them. Maybe I need to find my own literature class - not just a book group.

Since it is borrowed, this book will go back. Otherwise, it would go on the shelf. I could see rereading sections - at least as I tackle those classics.

Autobiography of a Yogi - Paramahansa Yogananda

A year ago, my new chiropractor told me I needed to read Autobiography of a Yogi. I picked it up soon after my visit (my shoulders definitely all fixed!) and proceeded to put myself to sleep with it. Since I never finished it, it sat with unbroken spine where it could mock me - within view of my desk. Whenever I think of going back to the chiropractor, I think - but I never finished that book he told me to read. As if he's going to remember recommending it???

Now that I have finally found a yoga studio I like (I've been to 5 classes in the last 8 days - and I am hoping to make it to class again tonight), I thought I would pick it up again. I have made it further than I did last time. Past the Tiger Swami, and the Swami with 2 bodies. Now he has finally become a yogi - has his own school and everything. But it is still putting me to sleep.

At this rate, it might be easier to find another chiropractor than to finish this book.