All Lady July Book Review: "Eat, Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything across Italy, India and Indonesia" by Elizabeth Gilbert

Hello, my name is Wesley and I'm a book snob. Sometimes I refuse to read certain books because the hype is so great. This was one of those books. To be honest, if I hadn't read this book I don't think I really would have missed much. But let's make a quick a dirty summary just in case you've managed to avoid hearing about this book in the last 7ish years.

Elizabeth Gilbert rolls into her 30s in crisis. She has a husband that she loves, a beautiful house, great friends and family but she is a wreck. She basically feels like her life is suffocating her. She realizes she isn't ready to settle in a big rambly house, have kids and be that woman. She wants out. Her husband is angry, shocked and hurt. (She confides that there are multiple other issues at play but she doesn't go into it). A terrible, bitter divorce ensues. She gets an advance on an upcoming book (this one actually) and flees to Italy, India and Indonesia to try to make sense of her life, her anxiety and depression that she's struggled with her whole life, and who/what God is and what that means to her life.

I loved the first section, on Italy.The descriptions of the food we're making my mouth water, and the talk of her long, ambling walks among Italy's fountains, neighborhoods and monuments we making me eye up my already depleted travel fund. She improves on her Italian, by talking with Italians. She also learns a string of swear words which was fun."Cafone" means asshole in case you ever need to know that.If you're a good eater you are "buono forchetta": a good fork. Isn't Italian fun? She goes to a futbol match which is rowdy and loud and awesome, but the team loses. Elizabeth assumes that they will go to a bar and drown their sorrows. But they don't, they go to a little hole in wall bakery, eat cream puffs and moan about the loss. I might care more about sporting events if there were cream puffs at the end. I really might. While in Italy she does a lot of eating, and self reflection about who she is and what she actually wants.

Then she goes to an ashram in India and learns about meditation and talking to God, then she goes to Indonesia and hangs out with a medicine man. And meets a Brazillian that she can't resist even though not even a year earlier she got herself gutted financially and emotionally by her now ex-husband and rebound relationship with a guy named David.

Can you tell which part of the book I enjoyed the most? (Though I do like the Texan who sets her straight in India and calls her Groceries,because that's a great nickname). I kind of wished I'd stopped after Italy. I think I only really liked that section because I want to go to Italy, whereas India and Indonesia don't hold the same allure for me. I liked that she was honest about how much of a mess she was, and I appreciated her way of writing but this book was just not for me. I give it 2 out of 5 stars. I was going to watch the movie just for a well rounded review, but I knew it would just make me want to go to Italy, and after that I'd just be kind of annoyed. Even though it didn't jive with me personally I think it was a great book for ALJ2015! I give it 2 out of 5 stars.

I do like this cover though!

All Lady July 2015 Link Roundup!

Here's your All Lady July link roundup of fun things! Time to add a bunch more books to your reading list! Have any of your own? Add them in the comments!


18 Pulitzer Prize Winning Books by Women you Should Read Right Now

8 Uproarious Books by Funny Women You Must Read!

14 Great Female Authors Recommend Their 41 Favorite Female Authors  

A Brief History of Female Authors with Male Pen Names

18 Books that Changed the How We Felt about Ourselves as Women 

10 Absolutely Incredible Women in Historical Fiction

17 Essays by Female Writers that Everyone Should Read 

21 Quotes on Womanhood by Female Authors That Totally Nailed It

29 Awesome Books with Strong Female Protagonists 

22 Strong Female Characters in Literature We All Wanted to Be

14 Compelling Female Characters Who Need Their Own Spin-off Novels

Cathy from The Crazy Bookworm talks about female book characters she'd invite to tea! Link here!

Brooke from Bye, Comparison talks about encouraging books for young girls! Link here!

Find me elsewhere today!

Over at Books and Beverages it's Inklings Week! A week long celebration of all things Tolkien and Lewis. I'm the guest poster today, talking about what book brought me to CS Lewis as an almost adult. So come by and learn from my bad assumptions and stick around all week to see what other fun is in store!

All Lady July - "Uprooted" by Naomi Novik

Agniezka lives in a quiet village in a lovely valley. She loves her village, even though the dark, sinister, dangerous Woods linger not far off. The Dragon is the name of the wizard who lives in a high tower that keeps the village safe from the things that lurk in the Woods. His price? Every 10 years he takes a girl from the village. No one knows exactly what happens to the girls when they return to the village after their tenure (though every girl that comes back says he never laid a hand on them) but the girls never stay in the village for long. Agniezka is not worried about herself getting picked by Dragon, because she knows her best friend, Kasia will get picked. She is beautiful, courageous, smart and caring; everything that a wizard would want in a ....kidnap victim. Of course, this book wouldn't be about Agniezka if Kasia actually did get picked,right?

What follow is a book about:
-finding strength and potential in yourself that you didn't know you had
-loyalty
-making hard choices
- why you should always put your cows down IMMEDIATELY after they get bit by a mysterious creature

What I liked about the book:

-The things that happen in the Woods, and what it does to the people who survive the encounters with the Woods, is genuinely scary. I know all the stuff that's going to be going through my end when I'm camping this summer under the trees.

- I like that we hear how Kasia side of the story. By not getting picked the course of her life changed drastically from the one that she had planned. This leads to her having some feelings.

-No instalove! Hooray! Though there is some romance, which is fine.

- There wasn't a "hey let's do a really vague ending so that there's plenty of room for me to start with the sequel" type of ending. I hope she does continue writing with these characters, but if she doesn't "Uprooted" is one full, complete book on it's own.

I think this is my favorite fiction read of the year so far. I liked it very much.I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: "Spinster" by Kate Bolick

Kate Bolick is older than 30, has never been married and doesn't have any kids. This doesn't maker her a part of the "vast majority" of married women with children. She's been in a lot of long term relationships, but none that were so important/special/whatever the right word is, that she would give up her independence.

Interwoven with her stories she talks about Neith Boyce, Maeve Brennan, Charlotte Perkins Gilman,
Edna St Vincent Millay and Edith Wharton. Honestly, I don't know much about any of these women (though I have read "The Yellow Wallpaper" which is awesome and creepy and based on Charlotte's real experiences with postpartum depression).

I kind of struggled with this book, and didn't really like it but I can't really put my finger on why. I think it's fine that Kate chooses to be single, so it's not like I'm upset with her for that life choice. I think maybe I feel like the book is trying to be too many things. It's a memoir and it also talks about these other ladies. I think maybe the format is part of my problem, like I want cleaner separation between talking about herself and the other ladies? Maybe I just don't like her writing style?

This is probably the least helpful review in the history of reviews. I guess all I can say is that, for me, parts were kind of interesting (mostly the parts on Charlotte Perkins Gilman) but the rest of it was kind of a struggle to get through. I give it 2 out of 5 stars.

Did anyone else read this book and love it? Or hate it? Or and weirdly indifferent about it and that it makes them feel guilty for some stupid reason? Oh well, not every book you read will be your next new most favorite!

I received this book for free in exchange for a fair review from Blogging for Books

All Lady July Book Review: "Gulp" by Mary Roach

Oh Mary Roach, making science and disgusting things be interesting and fun. Her book "Gulp" takes us on an adventure "through the Alimentary Canal", which means we are talking a bout everything from the saliva in your mouth to the waste that comes out of your body. In typical Mary Roach fashion, she takes kind of a broad topic and then does several chapters about different aspects of that main topic.

This might be a good time to say that if you are eating a meal right now, or want to be eating a meal in the next 30 minutes or so, maybe you should save this review for another time. Really, it's in your gag reflexes' best interest.

I'm just going to give a couple of factoids that I thought were great from different chapters and hope that that intrigues you enough to pick up this book for yourself.!

There's a chapter about saliva. Did you know that excessive salivation might be a symptom of mercury poisoning?

There's a chapter about chewing. Each person's chewing style is completely unique to them, it's almost like a fingerprint. I was thinking, "uh really? I don't know about you but generally my jaw only goes one way". But the more I read the more I learned. Some people are up and down, some are more side to side, some people chew their food into mush before they swallow, some people barely chew it enough so they don't choke!

Of course there's talk about rectum and poop, so here's that info:

A prison slang term for rectums is "prison wallet". So. Yep. Bust out that fact around your grandma and the potato salad at the next summer get together.

Here is my favorite quote of the book. Mary asks an expert (I forget in what) what would happen if a terrorist tried to take down a plane by smuggling a bomb on board using his "prison wallet".

"Crump says a rectal bomb wouldn't bring down a plane. At the most you'd just blow the seat apart".

As a person who worries about literally everything when she's flying, that gave me some relief.

As far as Mary Roach books go, it's not my favorite. (I think Stiff will always be my favorite), but I liked it more than Spook. If you're a science/health/nutrionist or something of the like I bet you would get an especially good kick out of it, but I think it's still a fun read for anyone in general. (Provided they don't mind some talk about poop!) I give it 3 out of 5 stars!

All Lady July kickoff!!!

It's ALL LADY JULY!!!!!

Let's pause for a dance party, yes? Yes!

(Ironically, neither Arnold nor Tom are my favorite people but I couldn't resist. I love Raving Arnold and a lot of my dance moves mirror Mr Cruises', which is not good.)

Alright, let's put the dance party on hold and talk about what you're going to get in this year's celebration of All Lady July!

We've got book reviews! We've got a great link roundup! We've got an author interview! We've got great literary gift ideas! We've got guest posters! (If I get my act together) We've got a giveaway! We've got women talking about women who are awesome! And more! I'll try not to bombard you with too many posts, but you will be getting more content than usual this month. If you're new to this month long celebration of wonderful women, welcome! So happy to have you here. If even know you're like, "holy cow I must guest post this month at LE I have so much to say about women and books!" you just get in contact with me, there's room for you!

At the end of the month all of the posts will be compiled under the All Lady July tab on the top of the page. Tip of the hat to my sister Quinn who used one of her favorite apps to make the picture for this month (way better than what I had cooked up in picmonkey, haha)