Monday, May 24, 2010

May Days

It's been a busy month! Mother's Day weekend the girls got a swing set... They LOVE it!!!


Notice the hats and warm jackets that weekend? Well, it warmed up quickly after that and we have been enjoying the weather...

Biking...

Running...

And finding our way to the ice cream wagon for a treat...

We planted a garden...

And did some relaxing...
What a great month it's been!

Monday, May 3, 2010

Book Review--Eat, Pray, Love

Ok, first a disclaimer: these reviews are my personal opinion only, based on my feelings. I don't have an English degree. I don't know what formula an author should follow. I only know what I like and what I don't.

I loved this book. Beyond love. It is the most meaningful book to come into my life in a very long time. I've talked to many people who have read this book and not everyone loves it. Some people just think it is boring. Some really dislike it (from what I'm told, it seems readers get very frustrated with Liz). I have a theory about why people like it or don't. I think it depends a lot on the reader's experiences and personal beliefs about, well, a lot of stuff (love, relationships, depression, religion, sadness, and the idea of "finding oneself"). And I think that is always true of art, we view it through the lenses of our life.

This book had me hooked from the first two sentences. Literally, the first two sentences. I read them and thought "oh my God, this woman is me!" There are some HUGE differences between me and the author. But it is eerie how many times in this book I thought "this woman is me!" It was excessively eerie to read things I had thought myself, like she had somehow read my mind and stolen my thoughts to put them into her book. A lot of these things I believed were unique to me. It was particularly meaningful to me to read things articulated so well which I had only felt but had been unable to put into words.

The author's humor also hooked me. I laughed out loud throughout the book. And, given what I've said above, because I connected with so much of what she wrote, I was often laughing at myself. Five big, fat stars out of five stars.

I'm very interested to know what others have thought of this book, so share share share!!

As always, I will pass along any comments about how stupid it is for me to review the books I read to my friend who asked me to do this (you still know who you are...and I love you! :)