February 2007 Suggestions

This month I have read three great books. All different...

 Eat, Pray, and Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert, 2006, Viking Books

Gilbert’s best selling adventure through Italy, India, and Indonesia is based on the notion of a woman trying to heal herself from a severe emotional and spiritual crisis. A wonderful book for listening in to her crisis and exploration of self.

Julia Roberts is actually making the movie so I recommend reading it first or you will only picture Julia traveling the globe.

Two Lipsticks and a Lover by Helena Frith Powell

This book is out of the UK, so you might only find it on the amazon.uk website. Helena, a journalist, takes on the notion of unlocking your inner French woman with witty tales of her interviews with famous French stylists, journalists, politicians, and the like. Living here she has answered many questions I have had about why French women are the way they are (difficult to make friends with them), how they always look so stylish, how they treat the indiscretions we hear so much about, and how to wear that infamous scarf. A great read and truly informative!

Slow is Beautiful by Cecile Andrews

A very different book about the new Slow Movement, taking off of Slow Food and other such movements I haven't heard of.. She expands from the Simplicity movement to talking about how our fast paced society is destroying life as we know it... hello!!! What's interesting is her approach and research which makes you think and wonder. Surprisingly, she explains how the biggest predictor of lifespan is that the larger the gap between the rich and the poor, the shorter the average lifespan in that country. The USA evidently has been falling and is far behind countries like Switzerland, France, Norway, and Japan..

Secondly, I had to chuckle at her entire section on Leisure and all the research that has been done, but no one knows about. Voila! Having a BS and MS in Recreation and Leisure studies I knew this all along!

If you are interested in new visions of community, leisure and joie de vivre take a read and I think you will enjoy it.