Soul Mates

I'm currently reading Elizabeth Gilbert's book, Eat Pray Love. I tend to find something within the books I read that I really identify with, but with some books, that connection is a lot stronger and easier to see. This particular book has had me doing a lot of soul-searching.

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This was a very personal book for her to write...full of raw honesty and actual events and feelings in the year or so after her divorce. When I picked it up, it was simply because I wanted to read it before seeing the movie, but as it turns out, it's a very personal book to me, too. I totally identify with so much of what she's written (and I'm only about half-way through it right now.) The circumstances that led to my divorce were horrible, and I remember that for a while, ALL I wanted was to get AWAY. I wanted to go on a cruise or just take off to Italy or Ireland or really anywhere but here. The difference between Gilbert & me is that somebody actually paid her to do it.

After she left her husband, she fell in love with someone else very quickly. I did, too. And today, I read a chapter from her time in India that resonated with me very deeply with regard to that, and I just wanted to share it. It's part of a conversation between Liz and a man she met at the ashram she stayed at in India...Richard from Texas, who calls her Groceries (you'll have to read it to understand.)

"But I really loved him."

"Big deal. So you fell in love with someone. Don't you see what happened? This guy touched a place in your heart deeper than you thought you were capable of reaching. I mean you got zapped, kiddo. But that love you felt, that's jut the beginning. You just got a taste of love. That's just limited little rinky-dink mortal love. Wait till you see how much more deeply you can love than that. Heck, Groceries - you have the capacity to someday love the whole world. It's your destiny. Don't laugh."

"I'm not laughing." I was actually crying. "And please don't laugh at me now, but I think the reason it's so hard for me to get over this guy is because I seriously believed David was my soul mate."

"He probably was. Your problem is you don't understand what that word means. People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that's holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave. And thank God for it. Your problem is, you just can't let this one go. It's over, Groceries. David's purpose was to shake you up, drive you out of that marriage that you needed to leave, tear apart your ego a little bit, show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light could get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you had to transform your life, then introduce you to your spiritual master and beat it. That was his job, and he did great, but now it's over. Problem is, you can't accept that this relationship had a real short shelf life. You're like a dog at the dump, baby - you're just lickin' at an empty tin can, trying to get more nutrition out of it. And if you're not careful, that can's gonna get stuck on your snout forever and make your life miserable. So drop it."

"But I love him."

"So love him."

"But I miss him."

"So miss him. Send him some love and light every time you think about him, and then drop it. You're just afraid to let go of the last bits of David because then you'll really be alone, and Liz Gilbert is scared to death of what will happen if she's really alone. But here's what you gotta understand, Groceries. If you clear out all that space in your mind that you're using right now to obsess about this guy, you'll have a vacuum there, an open spot - a doorway. And guess what the universe will do with that doorway? It will rush in - God will rush in - and fill you with more love than you ever dreamed. So stop using David to block that door. Let it go."

"But I wish me and David could - "

He cuts me off. "See, now that's your problem. You're wishin' too much, baby. You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughtta be."

There have been a lot of passages in this book that caught my eye, but that one just really hit home.

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

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I've had a bit of ADD when it came to reading lately. I started this book a while back...right after finishing the last one I posted about...and got about half way through and totally lost interest in reading. It wasn't a loss of interest in the story at all; just a general apathy toward sitting and reading. However, yesterday, the desire to read resurfaced, so I picked this up and finished it. It was a great story! Things I thought I had pegged wound up surprising me, which was nice, and there was even a somewhat Hitchcockian element to it that just intrigued me all the more.
My mom wants to read this, now that I'm done with it...I'll need to warn her about some language first, but I think she'll like the story. My brother's girlfriend, Caitlin, wants to read it too...I've already pointed her to Cecelia Ahern's writing & that just makes me happy!
I literally bought this book because I liked the cover. I do that every once in a while...I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but sometimes, the art just draws me in, and that's what happened here. I was not disappointed :-)
The story is set in the mid-1990s in Salem. It is a mystery...one that I truly think Hitchcock would have made into a masterpiece of a film...and it really is captivating. Even while I was so disinterested in reading, I kept thinking about what I'd read so far because I just kept trying to figure it out. I don't want to say too much, because I don't want to ruin the twists for anybody who might actually read this blog...but I will say that I enjoyed it and uttered quite a few gasps at the surprises. It was a fun read!

Smith of Wootton Major and Farmer Giles of Ham

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I got off of work a little earlier than usual yesterday, and instead of going back to my apartment, I went over to one of the local coffee houses and got a blended iced latte and a chocolate cupcake with delectable strawberry icing and read through a rain storm. It was actually completely idyllic and I read the entirety of these two wonderful little stories while waiting out the rain.

The first of J.R.R. Tolkien's works I ever read was The Hobbit, which remains one of my favorite stories of all time. I remember reading these two short stories as a kid, and remember liking them, but had no recollection of the stories themselves. It was a nice treat to revisit them! And, while I read them first as a child, they're really not childrens' stories...check 'em out!

Smith of Wootton Major is something of a fairy tale...the magic that happens when the world of Faery intersects with humanity. Farmer Giles of Ham is a story of courage and cowardice, and...my favorite part...a dragon named Chrysophylax. And a dog named Garm. If I ever have a male dog, I just might name him Garm :-)

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

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This was the second in the Flavia de Luce Mystery Series by Alan Bradley. I read the first book, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, last October (you can read that post here) and absolutely loved it. This second novel did not disappoint!
In this adventure, Flavia befriends a woman named Nialla, the assistant to a famous puppeteer who has taken his show on the road. There is a lot of mystery about them, especially after Flavia starts to suspect a connection between Rupert, the puppeteer, and a little boy who died under strange circumstances years before. When Rupert winds up dead, Flavia finds herself once again trying to solve the mystery herself.
Just as he did in the first book, Bradley does a spectacular job of building the setting and characters in a way that the reader is transported back to that time & place. There are lots of cultural references and language usage that make the entire setting on the page come to life. One particular reference actually made me rather jealous...Flavia reminisces at one point about her father taking her & her sisters to see John Gielgud as King Lear on stage in Stratford-upon-Avon...oh, how I would have loved that!
Just as I did The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, I heartily recommend The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag. The story is delightful (and deliciously dark) and one thing I love about these books is that they are clean...there is no gore or sex or bad language...just a good, slightly macabre mystery. I love this series :-) I'm not sure when the next is due out, but I can't wait!

What's Coming Next?

I've decided that my next read will be The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley. This is the second in the Flavia de Luce mystery series (the first of which I talked about here) and I am very much looking forward to this read! I usually don't post until the end of a book, but I just wanted to share a bit of the praise that's on the back of this one, talking about The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. From Mystery News: "A smashing series starter - a book readers will come to the end of wishing they hadn't read, because it would be so wonderful to read it again for the first time." How great is that?! Anyway...just thought I'd share & encourage anybody who reads this blog to pick up these books & check 'em out for yourself. Or, in the words of LeVar Burton, host of Reading Rainbow: "But you don't have to take my word for it!"

By the way, Flavia has a blog: http://www.flaviadeluce.com/

:-D

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding

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My reaction to this sequel was much the same as to Bridget Jones's Diary. It was so entirely different from the movie, that at least I didn't feel like I was reading a story I already knew well. However, I think these made better movies than books. They were diverting, and I related pretty well to Bridget, but the story really was better on screen than on the page. Oh well!

Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

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I've just finished reading Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding, and am a few chapters into the sequel already. This book was hilarious in parts and in others, terrifyingly reflective of myself. Bridget is an extremely relatable character, though the others generally seem to be flat & archetypal. That's alright, though, because it really isn't about them. It's all about Bridget. Many of her epiphanies were good for me to see in print...things I've sort of thought but dismissed as rubbish, but that really are truth. Things I thought, but assumed no one else did. I liked that.
It isn't a great book. But it is a fun book. It reads like the film (the book came first, but I saw the movie long before I read the book) and would have been perfect to read on a plane or at the beach or something...fairly light, easy, and diverting.