A friend bought this new at a bookstore--I read the back cover and thought "gee, I've got to read this!" and then she offered to lend it to me since she woudn't have time to read it herself right away. It's a FANTASTIC book, IMHO! -- and just what I needed to read right now in my personal spiritual journey. The writer tells of her year spent exploring the three I's: Italy, India and Indonesia, and the healing and learning she does along the way. In Italy she focuses on learning the language for the sheer pleasure of it, finding all the best food and basically healing & gaining strength from a debilitating depression, divorce and another failed relationship. Then she goes to India to an ashram and immerses herself in yoga & meditation. Finally, she goes to Bali in Indonesia and meets traditional healers and finds a new love. It's wonderfully written, has lots of stuff that's just fun to read and interesting like a travel book -- but it's got real depth too and is really about her spiritual journey pursued in different ways. I know it's a bestseller, so I suppose many of heard of it. But it just blew me away. I don't want to give it back!! I keep copying bits out of it into my journal to read and reread...

Barbara, I loved it too, but many people didn't.  They found the author "whiney and self-absorbed" which I guess didn't bother me because I read a lot of memoirs.  I really loved the time in India and Bali.  Honestly, I was jealous of her ability to make the trip! ;)

I was one of the people who found the author whiney and self-absorbed. But I know a fair number of people who loved the book, and I know that feeling - when you connect with a book that feels as if it had been written especially for you, a gem on every page. It's a great feeling.

I've been seeing threads here in which people are saying that while there's a long WL line for it, it's turning over fairly fast, so it might be worth a shot at putting on your WL, if you haven't already. :-)

I too thought the narrator was annoying & self absorbed, but I did envy her taking that trip.

Barbara, if you haven't already seen it, there's an interview with the author on BeliefNet, available both as text and as video: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/224/story_22418_1.html

I too absolutely adored this book.  It spoke volumes to me!  I blogged a bit about it in my notebook here at PBS.  I didn't find the author whiney and self-absorbed.  I found her to be similar to me in many ways (I hope I'm not whiney and self-absorbed!).  I've never had the same struggles with depression and self-doubt that the author had, I'm certainly not as emotionally needy as she appears to be, but I can certainly identify with her struggle to (to use a cliche') "find herself."  I have been on a quest for my own spiritual identity, primarily through meditation.  I was insanely jealous of the two great meditation experiences she has!  Yes, this book has become my favorite book of all time.  As soon as DH is done reading it, I'm going to read it again!