Eat Pray Love and The Willoughbys

Look, I read an actual adult book! Alright, it's a bestseller and the author's been on Oprah, and it could've been a letdown, but I have to say that I loved reading Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I expected to be interested in the travel and spiritual aspects of the book, but I wasn't expecting Ms. Gilbert to be so funny and likeable. I frequently laughed out loud when reading. It also made me think about my life and things that I could do to get more out of it. I made a little list in my journal after I finished the book. I've been to Italy, and don't dream of Indonesia, but India has appeal. If I can't get to India immediately for spiritual retreat, then that's okay, because I'm planning to go to a weekend meditation retreat right here in Minnesota. So, I finished my reading inspired.

Here's what Gilbert has to say about her reader's adulation (my word, not hers) of her travels:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9B9zFo4RFw

On a completely different note, another book I recently enjoyed is The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry. I listened to the complete but brief audio version read by Artie Johnson of Laugh-In fame (can you remember this show? I can). It was fun! It is what I hoped the Lemony Snicket books would be like, but weren't, at least for me.

If you have read or will read a great number of gentle "old-fashioned" children's books, then you will be tickled by this affectionate parody of the type. Like my co-librarian Carol (see

http://carolhashernoseinabook.blogspot.com/2008/08/happy-memories-of-books-past.html ),

I grew up reading favorites like Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield, Edward Eager's books, E. Nesbit's books and the ones Lowry herself mentions in The Willoughbys: James and the Giant Peach, Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden, etc.

With this vicarious background filled with tragic accidents, plucky orphans, villainous relatives and more (See how Snicket/Handler took a page from this book to write his series?), I couldn't help but love Lowry's would-be orphans: bossy but golden-hearted Tim, the Barnabys, aka twins A & B, and the youngest, winsome confidence-free Jane. Lowry whips up a plot that ends happily, as an old-fashioned story should, and is peppered with melancholy tycoons, foreign postmasters, nanny super cooks and giggling abandoned babies on the way.

I hope it gives you a kick too, and as yet another Barnaby in the story says in his flawless :) German: "Schlee you later, alligatorplatz!"