I Love Books!

The Joy Diet by Martha Beck

I've read Beck's earlier work, Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live, and really enjoyed it, so I was thrilled when the library had the audio version of  The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life available when I set out on a road trip earlier this month. 

Beck's style is simple, fun and encouraging.  While the diet metaphor seems a little stretched at times, the ideas are sound and even somewhat unique. In fact, I found the ideas in the book so useful for me and my clients I purchased a hardcopy as soon as I arrived home.

Beck maintains that unlike a food diet, with the joy diet you have to take the steps in order and master each one before moving onto the next.  The first step, getting quiet and doing nothing, is probably the hardest, and she gives ideas on what to do if you have a tough time mastering it.

The ten practices (in order) are:

- Do nothing for 15 minutes

- Tell yourself the truth (through a prescribed set of questions)

- Identify and explore a deep desire

- Explore creativity in bringing about your desire

- Take small risky steps toward your desires

- Give yourself at least three treats per day, one for taking the risk and two just because

- Turn your work into play

- Laugh at least 30 times per day.  (Does that seem like a lot or a little to you?  The average adult laughs 15 times per day -- the average child 300+ times!)

- Connect with someone important to you

- Feast with or without food, in other words celebrate moments by savoring them completely

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

I've been seeing and hearing about this book for some time now, always meaning to pick up a copy, but never quite getting around to it.  On a recent road trip through California, I was given a copy by a dear friend with the request that I pass it on to someone who'll appreciate it.  That road trip resulted in lots of new books, some that I never would have chosen on my own.  I'll be writing about them as quickly as I can.

Back to Eat, Pray, Love.  The book is divided into three sections, each chronicling about four months in the author's life as she tries to regain her sanity after a painful divorce.  Eat is the part about Italy, where she gained 20-some pounds gorging on pasta and wine while learning Italian and re-learning how to pay attention to her desires. Part two is at an ashram in India, and of course the pray part. Surprisingly this section has some of the funniest lines (thanks to Richard from Texas).  The final part is about her time in Indonesia, where she spends time with two different healers, and a crew of interesting ex-pats.  And yes, she finds love, unexpectedly.

The journey she takes is personal and universal.  For everyone who's looked for something more in their life, you'll probably devour this book.  It's an amazing and wonderful way she chose to heal herself after a great pain, a breaking open, which eventually allowed her to become more of herself.  And, I don't know about you, but I sure could use a little bit of that.

The Whole World Over by Julia Glass

I finished this book awhile ago and there have been many shiny things distracting me this month, so now I'm finally getting around to writing about what I've been reading. 

InThe Whole World Over Julia Glass once again sucks you in completely.  The unlikely plot (NYC pastry chef becomes chef for governor of New Mexico) seems completely believable as she writes it.  And that's just the primary character.  The book had amazing breadth with several other interconnected stories running simultaneously.  It was wonderfully easy to keep the characters and all their stories straight.  You know how sometimes multiple complicated storylines can be difficult to follow?  Not at all a problem here. 

Fenno from Three Junes appears in the book near the beginning, around page 45 or 50.  He seems to have matured out of his angst of the first the book. I read an interview with Glass, where she says that she was surprised to have him show up. 

Love and relationships are the centerpiece of this book.  But more specifically, I'd say it is about connections and connecting.  What brings people together, keeps them together and splits them apart.  And like connections and relationships, the end of the book just sort of happens, there isn't any miraculous coming together or resolutions to the issues of the characters. 

I continue to think about the characters of this novel, as if they exist out there in a world not unlike my own.