This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. By turns rapturous and rueful, this wise and funny author (whom Booklist calls “Anne Lamott’s hip, yoga- practicing, footloose younger sister”) is poised to garner yet more adoring fans.

#Reading this book was just a waste of time and money! (2008-11-23) I really expected a lot more from this author as her book was advertised all over and became popular. I thought it can teach me something I don t know. But the whole thing was about this woman s shallow thoughts and feelings here and there and her boring journey with her exaggerating some unimportant happenings in her life and making an annoying cliche out of them. I forced myself to finish this book and could easily throw it in the garbage afterwards. I don t recommend it to anyone.

#Full circle (2008-11-20) This is brilliantly written in that it captures the emotion of the author giving the book substance. The narrative from beginning to end is clear. This is a book about transition , and none the less transformation , and solitude in the arm s of non medication, meditation. We see Elizabeth Gilbert transform from none the less a convoluted neurotic woman disturbed by a life awakening, a relationship break-up, to a very calm and peaceful soul by the end of the book. This book goes from low to high. Highly recommended.

#An Insult to Thinking Women Everywhere (2008-11-20) Sadly, the fact that this book is by a woman mostly aimed at women is embarrassing. This book was planned by the publisher and by the author, it was no true journey of the soul but more like a carefully crafted publicity angled journey. Gilbert has a problem with the Bible, but easily accepts the doctrines (teachings) of her Guru, the Balinese medicine man, and others, including written Hindu scripture like the Upanishads. The only doctrine Gilbert has any problems with is that which denies that there are many ways to God or tea...

#Love Hate Relationship (2008-11-17) I was loaned this book from a neighbor who also told me that the author was a selfish, self absorbed sorry excuse for a woman. . . but she also added it is very interesting because of her travels. . . Thus began the love hate relationship for this book. . . The authors style is witty but sometimes on the verge of droning. You want to read more about the mozzarella but then you endure through the self pity. The descriptions of Rome are enchanting as are the thoughts of leaving your life to simply learn a new language and indulge in a romantic cul...

#Not for everyone but highly recommended for some of you! (2008-11-17) I really enjoyed Eat Pray Love. I was shocked by how open the author was about her personal story. It s obviously not for everyone (see the range of reviews here) -- I think people who identify with some of the author s experiences will enjoy it more. I recommend giving it a try, if you do connect with her you ll probably find the story, and its lessons, very appealing and maybe even life-changing.

In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter....

#Wonderful inspite of it s tragic ending (2008-11-22) This is not normally the type of book I read,but I am so glad I did. It s moving, and amazing. The story being recounted is quite interesting. (Later I saw the movie which seems very true to the novel, but is far more boring and slow moving than the novel- although the casting seems perfect. ) Kraukauer is a beautiful story teller and lets you see the full character (smart but stupid, selfish but loving) boy who only wants to walk into the wild You can tell he loves him, but also wants to tell the truth. He is sensitive to those l...

#Poorly Equipped Dreamer (2008-11-13) It s ok to be a dreamer. It s ok to want to find yourself. It s really ok to hike and backpack. I ve done it myself, but I would never, never enter a wilderness area without, at least, a topographical map. Chris McCandless story is nothing short of tragic. Jon Krakauer does a fine job of getting you into the mind of this doomed traveler while also taking you into the adventure and beauty of the wilderness.

#Beauty, goodness and hope. . . (2008-11-11) I m saddened to see so many people writing with little or no compassion for Chris McCandless, and such a limited effort to understand his quest. Most of us know what he was running from -- problems at home, a society struggling with issues of materialism and morality. But an understanding of what he was searching for -- inner peace, closeness with nature, a quiet and beautiful place in which to think -- eludes many of us, just as it eluded him. It could be lovely, could it not? Wild strawberries spilling down the riverbank, red poppies flam...

#Crappy book about a wonderful human (2008-11-06) Jon Krakauer, typewriter jockey, decided that in order to justify his wasted life to himself, that he would smear the image of such a beautiful human as the subject of this book, by writing a mocking, superficial account of something that he could never understand. Instead of praising the kid s sense of adventure and compassion, he takes jabs at the kid for how immature and thoughtless he is . . . well even though Krakauer s fat-a** is still sitting in cafes drinking lattes bought with the money earned from his books and films, the ...

#Dull (2008-10-31) Why would I read a book that basically tells me the plot and resolution of the book on the cover? Way to keep readers engaged with the summary of the novel on the cover. I knew what happened without even opening the book, and when I was forced to read it, I found it quite dull and pointless.

William Least Heat-Moon s journey into America began with little more than the need to put home behind him. At a turning point in his life, he packed up a van he called Ghost Dancing and escaped out of himself and into the country. The people and places he discovered on his roundabout 13,000-mile trip down back roads (blue highways) and through small, forgotten towns are unexpected, sometimes mysterious, and full of the spark and wonder of ordinary life. Robert Penn Warren said, He has a genius for finding people who have not even found themselves. The power of Heat-Moon s writing and his delight in the overlooked and the unexamined capture a sense of our national destiny, the true American experience. (A Mariner Reissue)

#Small-town America twenty-five years ago....a classic (2008-09-07) A little over twenty-five years ago William Trogden, who took the name of his Native American ancestors and called himself William Least Heat Moon, set out on a journey across America in what was basically the ancestor of the modern SUV, a small truck which he named Ghost Dancing. Initially he did this because he had lost his job and his wife in the space of a month, but his journey turned into much more than just an attempt to forget. It became a classic search for and journey into the heart of the country. This is ...

#Tour book (2008-08-02) Took a tour of America with a chip on his shoulder. Guess it gives you a different perspective.

#A Lot of Good Remains in America (2008-07-07) I have written many reviews for Amazon. com. Blue Highways is the only book to which I ve given five stars. I would recommend it to anyone. Blue Highways is William Least Heat-Moon s account of his 1978 low-budget car ride across America. Heat-Moon s reporting reminds me a lot of Charles Kuralt s On the Road reports for CBS News. Heat-Moon has a talent for engaging strangers on the road and bringing out the best in them. What separates Blue Highways from so many other travel books? There are a variety of factors. Heat-Moon is a good wr...

#A Must Read , Over and Over Again (2008-06-24) I bought this book over 25 years ago. I picked it up by random because the the book s cover synopsis was intriguing. This book has been one of those books that I come back to over and over again. I enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone who seeks a soul-searching adventure. You will feel like you are travelling right along with the author, experiencing his adventures and depth of self-discovery,,, first-hand. Buy this book and it will be a treasured book that you too, will come back to again, over and over throughout the ye...

#a road trip classic (2008-04-07) If you stop to think about it, this book and those like it really aren t about anything - just a person driving around the country because his relationship wasn t going well and he didn t have anything else to do. But for those of us who love to travel, doing it in person or vicariously through the words of a good travel writer is equally enjoyable, and Moon s anecdotes and experiences - the take he has on humanity - is ample reward for accompanying him on his wanderings.

Often I feel I go to some distant region of the world to be reminded of who I really am. When Michael Crichton -- a Harvard-trained physician, bestselling novelist, and successful movie director -- began to feel isolated in his own life, he decided to widen his horizons. He tracked wild animals in the jungles of Rwanda. He climbed Kilimanjaro and Mayan pyramids. He trekked across a landslide in Pakistan. He swam amid sharks in Tahiti. Fueled by a powerful curiosity and the need to see, feel, and hear firsthand and close-up, Michael Crichton has experienced adventures as compelling as those he created in his books and films. These adventures -- both physical and spiritual -- are recorded here in Travels, Crichton s most astonishing and personal work.

#Learning about our own minds by exploring the world (2008-10-27) No arm chair traveler here. Chrichton shares adventures climbing Kilimanjaro, exploring New Guinea, hiking through the Himalayas, and participating in metaphysical retreats. He also shares his inner-most thoughts, insights about meaning of life, and impact of geography and culture on his world view and inner child. He willingness reveals his frailties but not to demonstrate humility but as object lessons on how to observe oneself and hence to better understand and benefit from how our mind works. Chrichton is will...

#One of the top 10 books I ve ever read (2008-10-02) This is not just a travel book. It is a collection of experiences as well that will appeal to travelers of the spiritual realms as well the physical world. Michael has led a truly remarkable life and it is well worth the read!

#Dive into the real life of Dr. MC and find out what type of person he really is (2008-06-17) At the time that I picked up my copy of Travels I had read just about all of Crichton s novels with the exception of The Terminal Man and Eaters of the Dead (I ll read them someday). So, I had formed quite a liking for Dr. MC and his writings and thought Travels would be a perfect way to get to see more about the real life of my favorite author. Travels takes you as the reader back in time during his med school years at Harvard and the troubles he experienced throughout the way. Many of his...

#Looking for more in Life? (2008-04-08) First non-fiction book I ve read by Crichton. Of course this guy can write, almost everything he has put out has been entertaining so it s interesting to see how he does writing about his own life. This book consists of Crichton s anecdotes over his life, what he likes to do in his free time basically. Lately I ve felt depressed and was looking for something to cheer me up. If you are searching for something in life this is will be interesting because so is he. Some of the stories are straight up travel adventures intertwined with his person...

#Great book, very enjoyable read. (2008-02-08) This is very different than the other Michael Crichton books but this was an excellent read. Very interesting / enlightening / thought provoking. I recommend it.

After living in Britain for two decades, Bill Bryson recently moved back to the United States with his English wife and four children (he had read somewhere that nearly 3 million Americans believed they had been abducted by aliens--as he later put it, it was clear my people needed me).  They were greeted by a new and improved America that boasts microwave pancakes, twenty-four-hour dental-floss hotlines, and the staunch conviction that ice is not a luxury item. Delivering the brilliant comic musings that are a Bryson hallmark, I m a Stranger Here Myself recounts his sometimes disconcerting reunion with the land of his birth.  The result is a book filled with hysterical scenes of one man s attempt to reacquaint himself with his own country, but it is also an extended if at times bemused love letter to the homeland he has returned to after twenty years away.

#The travel essay master (2008-11-03) If you ve lived outside the US, come from another country or ever wondered what people from other places think of Americans and the US on our home turf then this is a book you have to read. If this was written by a foreigner I might have taken some offense to parts of it. Bryson is an American and these are his humorous takes on what he saw when he re-entered his own country to live here again after time spent in Europe. A fun read (and if you see yourself occasionally, laugh it off. )

#One of his best (2008-10-16) I thought this was one of Bryson s best. . . . . . short weekly column type stories on one subject. They were humorous, to the point, and folksy. He does (as he says himself) complain a bit too much, but if there s only one side to the story, it sounds like marketing material instead of a commentary. Enjoyed this one.

#It s great to laugh at yourself if you are living in America (2008-10-11) This is the 2nd book I have read by Bill Bryson. I enjoyed it! I admire someone who can take normal life in America and write with such humor. I found myself giggling every few paragraphs. Such talent this writer has. Basically this book is filled with essays that are organized by chapters. He writes about all kinds of things about America, after moving to New Hampshire after living in Britain for 20 years. He writes about baseball, shopping, lawyers, over-the-counter medicine, drive-inn movies, compu...

#Too much America bashing... (2008-09-23) Not his best work. He is getting a bit too left leaning but still funny at times.

#Laugh out loud funny (2008-09-15) In 1995, Bill Bryson returned to live in the United States after living in England for 20 years. A British newspaper asked him to write a weekly column about America and I m a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away is a compilation of those columns. His observations of America and family life are laugh out loud funny. I read many of them to my husband. He wrote these lines about his oldest child going off to college and they hit close to home for us: Once they leave for college they never really come bac...