Best Book of the Year?

I know it's only January, but I may have found my favorite book of the year already! I actually listened to it on audiobook, which was fabulous because Elizabeth Gilbert's voice is just so mellow and perfect for reading, Eat, Pray, Love (which, incidentally, I keep calling, "Eat, Love, Pray"). At any rate, the book's premise is this: a 30-something year-old New Yorker goes through a bitter divorce, depression, and general life questioning. She ends up on a three-country tour to find her spiritual identity. Italy is where she learns to eat again (she lost a lot of weight) and indulge in the pleasure of food and life. India is where she learns to pray, meditate, and find God while living in an ashram. And last, she ends up in Indonesia, specifically Bali, where she finds a balance between pleasure and prayer (I won't give away the complete ending).

I loved this book for many reasons. One, I am on a spiritual journey myself, to find what I believe, to learn to pray and meditate and discover my version of God. What I loved about Ms. Gilbert was her awareness that all religions and practices are just different paths to one endpoint. I can't quote directly at this moment, but I recall that she refers to a beautiful explanation (Hopi, I think) that religions are all different threads of the truth, which will eventually be part of one rope that pulls us all together. Or, as Pope Pius the XI, the Dalai Lama, and others state: our world's religions are just different rivers that all end up in the same ocean. So anyway, I am constantly becoming aware of different threads, or rivers, and finding beauty and truth in each one.

Second, I loved this book because her tone was so perfect for the audio version - it was low and mellow, sad and joyful, and not apologetic for her indulgences (which, as I've gathered from others, is something they did not like about this title). Finally, I enjoyed it because it made me appreciate and love all aspects of life - reminded me to stop and smell the roses - and to appreciate and love all people. Following A Year of Living Biblically, this was another winner! Four stars **** (out of four).

I was at work when I spied this title (Love the One You're With, by Emily Giffin (not Griffin - I'm always messing that up, too!). I liked her other works pretty well (Baby Proof, among others) so I grabbed this one. It was an easy read - passionate, realistic (relatively), and addresses that oft-burning question of, "the one that got away." Not bad - I could recommend this but won't go out of my way to tell others. Two and a half stars **1/2 (out of four), maybe three.

I'm reading Savvy, by Ingrid Law, at the moment. I actually picked it up several weeks ago but just found out that it made the 2009 Newbery honor list, so I figured I'd better hurry up and read it now before others requested it!