Saturday, July 23, 2011

Reading Challenge Update E,

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Recently, I read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I'd already seen the movie, and to be honest, I thought it was just okay. Definitely a good story, but the movie proceeded much too slowly to hold my interest. I saw that Eat, Pray, Love was back on the shelves, finally. (Books made into movies tend to have tons of reserves on them, before and after the movie comes out) I thought I'd check it out, and see if I liked it...

I absolutely loved it, and I found that it was ten times better than the movie! The book delivered the emotions felt by Gilbert more effectively. I really felt like I could understand what exactly she was going through. I was definitely inspired by the guts Gilbert displayed traveling alone to Italy, India and Indonesia. It was inspiring to see how she was able to build a new life for herself and find enlightenment.

I've recommended this book to many of my friends! This is book is now on my "read again" list.

Bossypants by Tina Fey
I've already covered the B for my challenge... But I just finished this book, so I feel the need to blog about it as well!

Tina Fey is a comedian from Saturday Night Live, who also is a producer of 30 Rock. Bossypants is her autobiography. As you can probaby guess from her credentials, this book was hilarious. However, as I was not all that familiar with Fey's career, it didn't do much for me, besides a few laughs.

If you are familiar with Tina Fey, I'd recommend reading this as it gives insight to her career decisions and life stories. If not, I'd probably pass... There was a lot of things I couldn't grasp just because I haven't followed Fey's career.

Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi
This is another autobiography, by another actress, this time the author is Portia de Rossi. In this book, de Rossi wrote about her career and it's implications on her personal life. Though I had no idea who Portia de Rossi was, other than knowing she is Ellen DeGeneres' wife, I was still able to enjoy this book.

The main reason why this different from Bossypants, in the sense that I didn't have to know de Rossi's entire career was because this book explored how her eating disorder and sexuality influenced her career. It was super interesting to see how she dealt with everyday life as a result of this eating disorder. Someone without an eating disorder can't really understand it's implications, yet this book opened that door for me.

Though this book isn't at the top of my "read again" list, I did somewhat enjoy it. I'd give this one a 6/10.

That's it for my Reading Challenge Updates for now. I've read a lot of books in the last little while (a result of the sunny weather!) so expect some updates soon! Hope everyone is having a safe and happy summer!