So, I wasn't crazy about Eat, Pray, Love but I didn't hate it. I felt a bit like it talked down to the reader and I am always skeptical about spiritual manners. I saw this on a few recommended lists, but it wasn't until I started reading it that I realized it was the same author as EPL. I think if I had realized that upfront, I probably wouldn't have stuck it on my kindle.Alas, my policy of always finishing a book compelled me forward and, to give her credit, Gilbert is not hard to read. I like her tone and I did learn a few things (more below), so a bit over 24 hours later I'm done.
I did not like it, but it was better than I would have expected (and, again, I learned some stuff), so she gets a 3 star rating.
I really don't like Gilbert's tendency toward "cute-sy" phrases: "through the valley of the shadow of divorce", for example.
I did not know that early Christianity disapproved of marriage (other than the Catholic ban on priests wedding, which exists mostly as a way for the church to pass property down through generations without risking a proud papa of a priest leaving some church owned goods to his offspring), nor did I know that at least 10% (and an outstanding 23% in 1920s America) of women in any given society/era (of course this is not ANY society, it is any society for which we have census-like data) are childless.
My husband and I (this is an aside, sorry) met in a Greek literature class and studied Plato's Symposium. We have always maintained that we are the correct halves of our original hermaphroditic self. I loved the reference here (as I have never seen it anywhere else since that class long ago). In fact, this reference may be the sole thing that kept me from giving the book a 2 star rating.
Overall, I'm rather ambivalent. It is short and easy to read and there were a few interesting tidbits. I could have done without all her self-indulgent whining, but it was not terrible.