6/18/2007

Reading Eat, Pray, Love, a memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert, for her book group. It's about an amazing round the world adventure to Italy, India and Indonesia, written by a woman coping with her recent divorce. If you click on the website, you can read all the rave reviews.

Something she's learned from it that she hadn't known before--the meaning of the chants in yoga class which, like the author, she had disliked before she learned what they really meant.

Also up for nomination to read in book group was A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah.

Her favorite book of all time--A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving. She loved Owen's journey from childhood to adulthood, how his speech was always in caps--he was a a forceful character, but a little guy.

Another author that really resonates with her is Lorrie Moore, who has written a few collections of short stories. They're nothing grand, she says. They are melancholy, about women going through changes in life, nothing to change the world, but, that said she loves them.

Later that evening, I was sitting in a back booth at the 111 Minna Gallery sipping my gin and tonic--which I've discovered is better with olives than lime-- listening to a reading for The Big Ugly Review's, The Body Issue, which included a reading comparing the lengths of Japanese and American intestines, she suddenly appeared on stage. At first I couldn't quite place where I'd met her before, but then it all came together when I heard her voice. She read a touching piece written from the point of view of a doll passed from one generation to a younger, less pampering one. It began with the requisite line, "I'm not built for this kind of thing anymore."

Thanks for your great reading and for taking the time to talk to me!