Girls check out www.readitswapit.co.uk - this is a website which allows you to swap books your have read for other people's pre-read books... a simple idea which saves you from having piles of dusty books lying around the house AND saves you money 

It was a sunny Friday afternoon, the beginning of a long weekend, a great book which everyone had read, and plenty of vino and cider ... all the ingredients for a classic book club (only a Brazillian masseuse could have made it any better, as Dana kept reminding us!!) and it lived up to expectations to be a fantastic evening.
 
I love this book - I first read it about a year ago and after getting over the Americaness of it, the gimicks and the fluff, was totally enthralled and couldn't put it down. I read it again the week before book club and was amazed all over again at how much I loved it. This time I found I was more sceptical of Liz's cuteness but I was also more profoundly touched by her insights.
 
I really enjoy reading books by journalists ("Almost French" springs to mind) - I find they have a great clarity in their writing, are very methodical in their storytelling, and have a gift for bringing lots of elements together to weave a very full picture for the reader. For me, this book did all this very well - I particularly liked the information she was able to bring together - whether about how the Italian language originated to what "run amok" means.
 
The main qualm people had with EPL was Liz's self-centredness - that this was HER problem, HER trip, she was in an amazing ashram in India but actually what was bothering her was HER ex-boyfriend etc. etc. ... I was surprised when people raised this concern as it had not occured to me while reading the book - but in hindsight I could see what they meant, and then it did start to annoy me a too!! For me this gets lumped in with the cuteness, the convenience (a journey of discovery through places with the letter "I"), the corny-ness ie. the bits that you can push to the side, and for me, once you do that, there is so much to love about this book ...
 
* the idea of looking at the world through your heart but with your feet firmly planted on the ground
* Liz's descriptions of food ... I was hungry throughout the whole book!!
* I loved the tradition on Thanksgiving to go around and share what you are grateful for ... can we start this as a book club tradition in November??
* the challenging idea of ego; that it tries to convince you that you're flawed and broken and alone instead of whole
*  the idea that you shouldn't quit because something is challenging - in fact the opposite - when something IS challenging, there's probably a reason why
* idea of destiny as 1 part divine grace 1 part willful self-effort
* controlling your throughts - no harbouring of negative thoughts
 
Some bits I found interesting but hard to believe ... Liz describes the Gurugita is a text of unimaginable power ... do you believe this is possible? ... the ceremony to let go of her marriage and divorce ... the petition at the beginning of the book for her divorce to come through ...
 
I thought the ending was brilliant (the idea that the future-Liz had spoken to Liz the night on the bathroom floor when she heard a voice tell her to go back to bed) - I hadn't picked it, and I don't think anyone at book club had - it was interesting, insightful and unexpected ... which I think sums up this book well.
 
For me, this book joins "Tuesdays With Morrie" and "Veronika Decides To Die" (yes, my first 2 book club choices) as a reminder of how to live life and I know it will be a book I read at least a couple of times a year.