4. Eat, Pray, Love (Elizabeth Gilbert)

Finally, a book that I loved. Rarely will I read a book that makes me forget where I am and how much time has passed. Gilbert's writing is so beautiful that you just want to curl up in it.

The book is Gilbert's memoir of a year of travels in Italy, India, and Indonesia. Following an emotional divorce and the end of a subsequent relationship, Gilbert devotes herself to the pursuit of pleasure (mostly in the form of food, in Italy), spiritualism (in an ashram in India), and devotion (by working with a medicine man and finding love in Indonesia.) I found the India section a little more tedious than the other too, but that mostly had to do with the fact that it was heavy on the spiritualism side rather than it being any less carefully written. All of Gilbert's stories are entertaining and show tremendous insight.

I feel like a lot of writers get into trouble with memoirs because they tend to be overly dramatic, whiny, or just self-indulgent (one of the reasons why I hated A Million Little Pieces.) Gilbert is open with her emotions in a way that doesn't reveal everything, and looks back on them from a place of growth, rather than trying to make the reader feel sorry for her. Her sense of humor rounds it all out. I mourned this book when it ended, but I felt like I also learned a lot from it.

Rating: 5 out of 5

3. A Long Way Down (Nick Hornby)

I hate the cover of this book. There's no way I would have even checked it out if I hadn't heard the author interviewed on NPR last year. It seemed like an interesting story: 4 very different people meet by chance on New Year's Eve, on the top of a building that they are all intending to jump off of. They form a sort of awkward relationship, eventually helping each other to better understand themselves and/or improve the quality of their life.

The problem with this book was that the characters were so unoriginal. Take JJ - an American musician who is depressed because his band broke up. He wore a leather jacket and read a lot to convey that he was a thinker. Oooh. And Jess, a angsty teenager who swears a lot. And Maureen, who takes care of her disabled son and consequently doesn't have a social life. Apparently she wears orthopedic shoes and is very conservative. How original. All she needs is a vacation to improve her outlook on life (so it would seem.) The only vaguely entertaining character was Martin, a talk show host that had recently spent time in prison for sleeping with a 15-year old. Even in his case, I felt like he lacked any depth.

I read this book fast and it was mildly entertaining at times, but I wouldn't recommend it. Eventually I'll forget I ever read it, and that won't matter.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

2. One For the Money (Janet Evanovich)

Janet Evanovich is my guilty pleasure. Because I am sort of a reading snob, I tend to look down on rows of mass-market paperbacks in airports and supermarkets. I shouldn't (well, in some cases . . .) Although Evanovich isn't the most brilliant writer in her plot construction, she's hilarious. Her books are entertaining and her characters never fail to disappoint.

One For the Money is the first book in Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. Out of work lingerie buyer Stephanie Plum falls into the world of bounty hunting when she starts working for Vincent Plum, her bondsman cousin. Her first "skip" is Vincent Morelli, a cop accused of murder. Many hilarious adventures ensue. I wouldn't recommend reading this series if you are a die-hard mystery junkie. The plot really isn't that strong, and the villain at the end was totally unconvincing. Yet, it was an entertaining book, and I will certainly continue to read Evanovich.

Rating: 3 out of 5

1. Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas (Tom Robbins)

I've read two other Tom Robbins novels (Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Villa Incognito) and greatly enjoyed them both. He is an absolutely brilliant writer: the difference between "You are freezing cold" and "Ice cubes clink against the swizzle stick of your spinal column" separates the mundane from the gifted.

His writing was certainly up to par in this book, but the plot was ridiculous. Amphibians? Aliens? African tribes? Rectal cancer? Large portions of the book were dominated by the incomprehensible character Larry Diamond explaining strange theories about amphibians and the aformentioned unlrelated subjects, with some amateur astronomy thrown in, to a disagreable stock broker. I found myself skimming a lot towards the end, and ultimately wondering, "What was the point?"

Rating: 2 out of 5