[00:00:00] Speaker A: Are you silly, generous and opinionated or creative? Adventurers and studious? Want to know which book interrupted member you're most like? Try visiting www.bookinterrupted.com members to find out.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: Parental guidance is recommended because this episode has mature topics and strong language. Here are some moments you can look forward to during this episode of book Interrupted.
[00:00:24] Speaker C: When I'm reading this book, I was like, this book has not aged well, and I wonder what everybody else thinks.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: But once again, I think we've come a long way discussing mental illness.
[00:00:33] Speaker D: If you want to get really dark, let's get dark.
[00:00:36] Speaker E: You want to double down on dark?
[00:00:37] Speaker F: I'm pregnant and having a baby. I'm like, that's a choice. And so I have a negative reaction.
[00:00:44] Speaker E: It's a classic bad parent padminton metaphor.
It's a tale as old as time, really.
[00:00:52] Speaker D: It's when you did your gagging thing. I was like, I know that face.
[00:00:56] Speaker C: That's a dying face.
[00:00:57] Speaker D: I saw that face of Red Lobster.
[00:00:59] Speaker E: 1997, two lawsuits coming your way. Coming in hot.
[00:01:03] Speaker C: Red Lobster and Elizabeth Gilbert this is the lawsuit episode.
[00:01:09] Speaker E: This is a lawsuit episode.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: This isn't the only one. There's lots of misinformation. I like to spew.
[00:01:19] Speaker C: Information is the world trying to learn something new without my body is information is trying to.
[00:01:34] Speaker D: Learn something without being disrupted.
[00:01:39] Speaker C: Mind, body and soul inspiration is without.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: And we're gonna talk it out on book interrupted.
Welcome to Book Interrupted, a book club for busy people to connect and one that celebrates life's interruptions. During this book cycle, we're reading eat, pray, love by Elizabeth Gilbert. This book was made into a movie in 2010 and stars Julia Roberts, a celebrated writer's irresistible, candid, and eloquent account of her pursuit for worldly pleasure, spiritual devotion, and what she really wanted out of life. An intensely articulate memoir of self discovery, eat, pray, love is about what can happen when you claim responsibility for your own contentment and stop trying to live in imitation of society's ideals. This is certain to touch anyone who has ever woken up to the unrelenting need for change. Let's listen in to this episode's group discussion.
[00:02:41] Speaker E: Okay, today we're talking about eat, pray, love by Elizabeth Gilbert, and it's Leah's book pick.
[00:02:48] Speaker B: So we're back to people having book picks again.
[00:02:50] Speaker E: Oh, yeah, it's my book pick.
[00:02:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:52] Speaker C: The first book of season four.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: Yep. First.
[00:02:56] Speaker C: Yeah, season four. Holy moly.
[00:02:58] Speaker E: So this season we're doing books that also had movies made based on them. Did everyone rewatch the movie did everyone read the book? What do we think? What do we like? And my guess is, what did we hate?
[00:03:15] Speaker C: I had never read the book before or watched the movie, so I did both.
[00:03:18] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:03:19] Speaker C: And I hated it.
[00:03:22] Speaker E: Hating McHater's, it was really hard.
[00:03:24] Speaker C: At some point, I switched to the audiobook and I listened to it on double time just to get through it. It was still too long.
[00:03:31] Speaker E: It was just totally.
[00:03:32] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:03:33] Speaker D: I'm so glad that you listened to the audiobook, too, because I wanted to talk about the audiobook.
[00:03:37] Speaker E: Okay, interesting. Okay, so what about the audiobook? First of all, was the author the narrator?
[00:03:43] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:03:43] Speaker D: And I already read it before and I didn't want to reread it, but I also didn't want to not reread it because I read it so long ago that I was like, I'm not going to remember. I don't remember books. I just read. So I'm not going to remember this book either. Even if it's a book that had a major impact on me, I'm the same.
[00:03:59] Speaker C: I could just read a book over and over, not remember anything.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: It's a feeling, right? More than a knowledge.
[00:04:05] Speaker D: Yeah, that makes. So I was like, maybe I'll try audible. You get ads every once in a while. And it was like, you can have two free books. And I was like, maybe I'll do this. Because I was against listening to books, I decided to listen to it. That was great.
[00:04:20] Speaker E: So you listen to it on audible, too, Amar?
[00:04:22] Speaker C: Yeah, like half of it. I have the book here. I got it from the library. Actually, I got the audiobook through my library as well.
[00:04:28] Speaker E: Oh, sweet.
[00:04:29] Speaker C: They have Libby and Hoopla and different apps that you can get.
[00:04:32] Speaker E: Oh, nice.
[00:04:33] Speaker D: She uses a little accent voice whenever she's being someone else.
[00:04:40] Speaker C: Oh, no, it's very cringey.
[00:04:42] Speaker F: It's so cringey.
[00:04:44] Speaker C: It's so terrible. Yeah.
[00:04:45] Speaker A: Katut lier, I think his name is, right? Like her medicine man in Bali. Whenever she's being him talking, she's like, you go, it's so bad. And I'm sure. Well, I'm not sure, but I'm assuming she wrote it so that the reader might read it in broken English.
[00:05:04] Speaker C: But it was so she didn't have to do the accent.
[00:05:08] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:05:08] Speaker C: And her indian friend at the ashram as well. And I was just like, oh, man, this makes me like it less same.
[00:05:17] Speaker E: Yeah. I would assume then this was recorded many years ago in the original, I believe so.
[00:05:24] Speaker C: I mean, that was kind of my question that I was going to ask, does everybody think that this book aged well.
[00:05:30] Speaker E: No, I don't think it aged well at all. No, at all. It was like reading a different book than I remember.
[00:05:36] Speaker C: It's like after reading white fragility, and then you read this book, and there's a lot of white saviorism and white woman tears. That's kind of what the book is doing. I watched the movie, too. And in the movie, people are telling her their problems, like her friend whose husband almost killed her by beating her with a motorcycle helmet. And then the movie just makes her think about herself. She's, like, meeting all these people with these bigger, one might say bigger problems. I mean, everybody's got their problems, and it's in context to your life. I get it. But then in the movie, she's watching her friend get married when she doesn't want to be married, but she kind of has to. And then in the movie, she just makes her think of her own marriage, and she's smiling at the wedding, and her friend does not seem happy. There's something about it that I really.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: Disliked, that there were some very cringey parts for me, too, that I didn't remember when I read it in 2008. This is stereotype she uses in the books to describe things. Made me feel icky, but I feel like the movie was worse. No one was being forced into a marriage they didn't want to be in. The girl was just talking about how her sister is getting married and her parents are like, you're getting to the age where you'll meet matchmakers, and maybe we should think about you eventually getting married and stuff. But she wasn't getting married. Her parents were forcing her to get married. And then in the movie, they decided, let's paint this girl's life as her parents are forcing her into an arranged marriage that she doesn't want. I feel like they just wanted to lean into these negative stereotypes about different places, which I do not like, honestly.
[00:07:16] Speaker E: The book and the movie are, like, not even the same, equally awkward and uncomfortable. But aside from the three places, they don't even belong together.
It's not the same book as the movie. It's so funny. I remember this all different. I remember the movie different. I love Julia Roberts, so that's the only redeeming quality in the movie. The book, I was like, I can't believe I picked this. It was such a strange experience. Like, this is nothing I remembered. And the movie, I remember loving this movie.
[00:07:49] Speaker C: It's funny because where you are in your life, the experiences you've had and all that stuff changes how you experience a book a little bit too, right? In, like, context. Because when I'm reading this book, I was like, this book has not aged well. And I wonder what everybody else thinks. But I think because we've changed.
[00:08:04] Speaker D: I didn't think it was that bad. I still liked the message of, I don't know, follow your truth and really know yourself before you can do things or whatever. I'm not on the same page with you guys when you're all like, it didn't age well. And holy crap, I see the white woman tears and the saviorism. I definitely see those things for sure. But I wasn't like, oh, my God, this book is entirely different than the first time. But that audio experience was not cool. I wonder if I have some blindness or something because of my original relationship with the book, but the blindfold is ripped off by full on really poor impersonations of what other people sound like.
And then the other thing I wanted to say is I didn't rewatch the movie, but I always didn't like the movie. The movie was always stupid. It was always terrible. It doesn't matter if it was missed.
[00:08:55] Speaker C: Some of the points where you're like, well, that was a good point. Just changed it. And you're like, well, now it's worse.
[00:09:01] Speaker B: Well, I like the book.
[00:09:02] Speaker C: I have two things to say, that one's negative and one's positive. But you go, oh, what's happening?
For those listening, if you go to YouTube, all of a sudden there's balloons in the background of mine, hooray.
[00:09:19] Speaker D: Is it because you said positive?
[00:09:21] Speaker C: Like, it's like, hooray.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:09:25] Speaker C: Thought I said happy birthday. I don't know. Sarah, go ahead.
[00:09:29] Speaker B: I was just going to say that the movie just was more about, I think, her love relationship. It didn't show how she struggled with depression as much as the book did. And I liked the part of the book that talked a lot about connecting with God and finding out who she is and all the meditation stuff. I re enjoy that part of the book. And when she met with the medicine man, the wisdom that he gave her and the wisdom she got from her teachers, those kind of things, I really like that. I wasn't so much into the Italy part. I was just like, oh, other than I think it laid the foundation of she's really struggling with mental illness. But once again, I think we've come a long way discussing mental illness than we were back in 2008. Do you know what I mean? So I think that's why this book was so groundbreaking back then, because she's openly talking about being depressed and how it feels and how it weighs her down and how it follows her around and how she found a spiritual path, and that's what finally released her from it. So I like those kind of messages in the book. So I think the movie cuts out all the things I really liked about the book. You know what I mean? There's still cringey parts in the book that I'm like, but overall, I like those kind of spiritual things that she had in the book, and her trying to really feel herself instead of what those expectations are of the outside world on her.
[00:10:54] Speaker E: I think that's very fair.
[00:10:55] Speaker D: Yeah, I like the way she describes things. I don't know how to characterize it. And because Bear is like, there's a lot of words in this book. That's why. Because it takes her about 80 words just to describe the color green or whatever. Right.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:10] Speaker D: I do enjoy that. I don't know what you want to call it, her voice or her tone or. I like the way that she writes or talks or. I don't even know.
[00:11:19] Speaker E: I don't. I really disliked her tone. I think I was just in so much shock. Where was I at that time that this felt so different? I think maybe it's what Sarah's describing is I hadn't heard someone speak about this, so I felt so connected to it and now feel like all I do is speak about mental health.
[00:11:37] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:11:37] Speaker E: It just felt like two worlds apart. I think it's fair to say that the underlying message of this book is good, that spiritual development and following your heart or your path or your own wisdom and using the wisdom of people who have practiced and walked that path before you. But her was bothering me. She's a good writer. She can really paint a picture with words. And I still felt I have a new copy. Did your guys have a new preface? She sets a tone this many years later. Does any of your guys have this?
[00:12:13] Speaker C: Yes, I have that.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: Mine's still from 2008. This is my original one.
[00:12:17] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:12:18] Speaker C: The preface is usually written by somebody else, but she writes her own. Yeah.
[00:12:22] Speaker E: She has a 10th anniversary preface. And I don't know, again, maybe that's where she is in her life when that came out, but it was very cold, very dismissive of people that have said bad things about the book. I don't know, it almost like that preface set the tone for me being like, then I'm rereading it after with this new dark cloud over it. So that was just a distasteful way to start a book.
[00:12:46] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:12:46] Speaker E: The movie, I mean, I like the movie for the whole bali half of it, the love story, because he's so adorable. You can't not like that classic 2000 love story set up. But really, the book has one message and the movie has a love story message. That's kind of all it is.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: That's usually what they do.
[00:13:09] Speaker E: They usually. That's all.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: Even if there isn't a love story in it. Like the giver.
[00:13:13] Speaker C: Like the giver. They added a love story that had nothing to do.
[00:13:17] Speaker E: They added a love story. Yeah.
[00:13:18] Speaker C: And it's hard because this is a memoir. Writing a book is tough. And I don't want to be insulting anybody here, but as she's writing, I thought that her style of writing was to show that she needed growth. And so I was like, maybe the vibe I'm getting off this writing that I don't like is because she's setting the stage that she's going to grow throughout the thing and then she'll be a changed person at the end. But at the end, I felt like she was kind of the same person. Oh, that wasn't like a writing decision. This is just the person she's become, is what I see at the beginning. I think this kind of, like, sums it up. She's writing an email to her friends in the States, and she's like, please give money. There's a woman who needs our help. That's great because she's using her resources that she has, which is access to money, to help this woman who spends her life helping other people. That's great. But then she goes, the daughter's name is two d, and in Italian, 2d means everybody. And to summarize is something like, sometimes when you set out in the world to help yourself, you end up helping everybody. And I think that kind of summarizes the vibe that I didn't like about this book, is that she's going through here, meeting all these people who are helping her and giving their energy to help others. And I feel like there's other books that I've read that gives that the message that when you set out to help everybody, then sometimes you end up helping yourself. And it's kind of like the opposite. I like that idea. If you go help everybody, then maybe you learn something about yourself. But she went out to help herself, and that's what the journey is about, is helping herself. And I know that it's all about finding herself and stuff but she's meeting all these people in the story who are trying to help her. Her view was, I'm trying to help myself, and I end up helping everybody.
[00:14:57] Speaker E: Yeah. Like, the savior again, in, like, a.
[00:15:00] Speaker C: Journey, a soul seeking story. I would prefer the ones where somebody goes out being like, I need to go help others to find out who I am.
[00:15:07] Speaker D: I think it's important to remember this is pre me too. This is pre black lives matter. This is pre. All of this white fragility. Right? So she doesn't even have the messaging or the self awareness that it might look badly on you. She doesn't recognize her own privilege yet.
[00:15:27] Speaker C: Right.
[00:15:27] Speaker D: Privilege hasn't been brought in to the forefront, especially of white consciousness, of, hey, like, things that you completely take for granted, that you don't even realize are actually privileges that you were given. You didn't do anything to get that. It's just because you're white and the history of whatever has created you to have this advantage, but you didn't earn it. So, like, leah, when you liked it the first time, there hadn't been a lot of conversations around women exploring, like, the untamed is. Right. Like, these are the books that are now, like, I decided, fuck it, right? And at some point, I'm sure as women, we didn't even consciously know that we felt that way. But then to see someone write about it and it appears so brave and brand new, it's exciting, right? It's like, yes, go to Italy just to do nothing and whatever, right? And the same thing with all of the cringy, questionable parts now. Like, no, cancel culture yet. None of it, right? So she's just like, blah, blah, blah. I'm so great. Here's my story. It's so great, right? And at that time, some people were like, that is a pretty great story.
[00:16:31] Speaker C: She was like, I'm doing something none of my friends would do. I'm so brave.
[00:16:35] Speaker E: Yeah. So much has changed to leave the.
[00:16:38] Speaker C: Security of the life I knew, to go live a life, go rough it. To go rough it in these other places.
[00:16:47] Speaker A: And she actually did it.
[00:16:48] Speaker C: Rough it in somebody's else's life.
[00:16:50] Speaker D: She's probably a good person, et cetera. But when you add the layer of knowledge that's included with understanding how white fragility plays out or just antiracism in general, then you can see a whole bunch of blind spots. But, I mean, I guess they're blind spots that we all shared and only have recently kind of opened our eyes to, but you can see them now way more clearly. And obviously in 2008, we weren't really seeing them because lots of people liked it.
[00:17:16] Speaker C: Right.
[00:17:16] Speaker D: And then now we're reading it, and it's like, I don't know, it sounds a little bit whatever, right?
[00:17:21] Speaker E: Yeah. Maybe I'm not being fair to how much has changed.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that that's valid. But isn't it also crazy that it was just 2008? Doesn't that feel like not that long ago? And really, it's like 15. Is it 15 years?
[00:17:34] Speaker B: Yeah. It wasn't the 90s, but when you.
[00:17:37] Speaker C: Read the book, it feels like really long ago. Right. You're just like, wow.
[00:17:42] Speaker E: Changed so much.
[00:17:42] Speaker C: I wonder what the author thinks about how the book aged.
[00:17:47] Speaker D: I know that she went on tours, was all like, you can do it, too. And was, I don't know what the white fragility label is for it, but she was all like, everybody can do this. Anyone can do whatever they want. Trying to be inspirational. She thought she was being motivational inspirational, and I think she got pushed back on, and then she kind of was like, I'm sorry. I hadn't even acknowledged yet that some people actually can't just pick up and leave their husband because they've got three kids.
[00:18:13] Speaker E: Yeah, she touches on that in the 10th anniversary, so I guess that would have been 20.
[00:18:17] Speaker B: Does she?
[00:18:18] Speaker C: Yeah, she did.
[00:18:19] Speaker E: Hi.
[00:18:20] Speaker C: Oh, Ashley. Hello, Ashley.
She's getting her sound working.
[00:18:26] Speaker D: I like her figuring things out. Face, this is mine.
[00:18:31] Speaker C: Mine's like this where I look like people are like, are you angry? I'm like, no, I'm just learning.
[00:18:35] Speaker E: Hi.
[00:18:36] Speaker C: Hello, everyone.
[00:18:37] Speaker F: It's great to see everyone.
[00:18:39] Speaker E: Hi, Ashley.
[00:18:40] Speaker C: Nice to see you. Hello.
[00:18:41] Speaker F: Hello.
[00:18:42] Speaker C: Somewhere tropical? Oh, I wish.
[00:18:44] Speaker F: I'm just in Seattle, though, so I'm not in Canada.
[00:18:48] Speaker D: That's exciting.
[00:18:49] Speaker B: That is exciting.
[00:18:52] Speaker E: What's the weather like there?
[00:18:53] Speaker F: Oh, Rainy.
[00:18:54] Speaker E: Rainy?
[00:18:54] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:18:55] Speaker D: Rainy?
[00:18:55] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:18:56] Speaker F: I have really curly hair. I woke up, my hair was, like.
[00:18:58] Speaker C: Out to here today, like, frizzy.
[00:19:04] Speaker E: Well, I guess. Did you read eprelo?
[00:19:06] Speaker F: Yes, I did.
[00:19:07] Speaker E: And did you love it? Did you hate it? And did you watch the movie?
[00:19:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:11] Speaker F: So I did read it. I will say, going into it, I was kind of like, I don't really want to read this. And I think it's because when the movie came out, I was in my early teens, and it just did not resonate with me whatsoever. I was like, that doesn't look like a book or a movie I want to do. And so I've had that kind of in the back of my mind. But now that I'm older. Oh, my gosh. I felt like it was such a good book. I really liked how she talked about depression and then also, just, how do we know what we're supposed to do? Are we happy with our lives?
[00:19:47] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:47] Speaker F: So I ended up really loving it. So I'm very happy that it was, like, one of our book picks because I would have never read it by myself. Older.
[00:19:56] Speaker C: You.
[00:19:56] Speaker D: If you want to tell the world.
[00:19:58] Speaker F: Oh, I'm 28 turning 29, I wonder.
[00:20:01] Speaker D: If it's the age it totally is. Because as women, I think, I mean, everybody has their own journey, obviously, but I think as women, you only become more bold or more comfortable as you get older or whatever. Like I was saying to someone the other day, at 40, I'm satisfied with what my body looks like. And you look backwards at pictures. Like, when you're 20 and you're like, oh, my God, I thought I was fat. And holy crap, I wish that that is what I was right now. Like, with what I know, I wish that's what I was. I always have that dissonance. And we're just saying, like, a lot of the people on the panel here before you got here, Ashley, are like, we hate the book now.
[00:20:41] Speaker C: Not me.
[00:20:41] Speaker D: I still kind of liked it.
People were like, oh, my God, it didn't age well, and holy crap. And whatever. Right? And then why did it mean so much to me? But I think it's because when you're a woman of a certain age, some messaging is more appealing. And then when you're a woman of a certain age, like now, you already know that you already had your own eat, pray, love, whatever version. So you already kind of got there, I guess. How old was she? 33 when she wrote it?
[00:21:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:21:10] Speaker F: Wasn't she in her early. Okay, I was going to say she was in her earlier, mid 30s, maybe 33.
[00:21:16] Speaker C: Right?
[00:21:16] Speaker B: She started at 33.
[00:21:18] Speaker F: Yes.
[00:21:21] Speaker D: Something in between 30 and 35. I thought she was 33. Crying on the bathroom floor.
[00:21:25] Speaker E: Yeah, something like that. Did you watch the movie, Ashley?
[00:21:28] Speaker C: No.
[00:21:29] Speaker F: So I haven't watched the movie yet again. So when the movie came out, I.
[00:21:33] Speaker C: Was like, don't watch it. It's bad. Is it?
[00:21:37] Speaker F: So I wanted to watch the movie because I like seeing what they take from books and then what they change. Yeah. Okay, cool. I'm interested to see it now.
[00:21:46] Speaker D: Yeah, you'll watch it more as an investigative journalist.
[00:21:50] Speaker F: Totally.
[00:21:51] Speaker E: What was a good thing? I felt like they touched on in the early part of the book that is probably very carries through, or maybe there wasn't a lot of back then is that pressure to have a child and not conforming to necessarily wanting the stereotypical heterosexual relationship with the child and the white picket fence. And I sure that there wasn't a lot out there back in 2008, kind of touching on that topic. And just like, a woman admitting that she's not sure, that she's not sure she got all the ducks in a row, and here she is crying on the bathroom floor. I don't want this.
And that's a really scary thing to say back then and today, to say that out loud with the pressure, that's familiar pressure, like, where's my grandbabies? Kind of stuff. And, like, just societal pressure all around, which is, I think, just a really brave thing to talk about, especially back then.
[00:22:54] Speaker C: Yeah, it's definitely more accepted for people now to choose not to have children, but still, you'll get people being like, oh, but if you had one, you would feel different. And you'd be like, maybe I would regret it and be like, oh, my.
[00:23:09] Speaker E: God, I literally just did this to someone this week. And I was like, what is my problem?
[00:23:14] Speaker F: Yeah. And I think that's such an interesting point because I think part of the reason I resonated so much is I also feel that way now. So growing up, I was like, oh, cool, I'm going to have a farm and I'm going to have, like, ten kids because that's just what my family did. Right. But anytime in movies or books or even friends were like, I'm pregnant and having a baby, I'm like, that's a choice. And so I have a negative reaction. Right. But it's because I don't want kids. And I didn't even realize that until a few years ago. And even when I'm talking to some of my best friends and I say that they'll go, oh, once you find the right person, you'll change your mind. And I hope not, because I.
[00:23:59] Speaker C: And you're like, no, the right person also won't watch children. That's how I'll know they're right, because.
[00:24:06] Speaker F: It'S a deal breaker for me. Right.
[00:24:08] Speaker C: And it's a deal breaker for other people if you don't want it. Yeah.
[00:24:11] Speaker F: It's so hard for people to wrap it around. But cool. My mom has accepted it and considers my dog her grandbaby.
[00:24:20] Speaker C: Oh, totally.
What a good mom. Good moms, right? Yeah.
It's nice to be like, this is your choice because a lot of people want to be grandparents. Some people don't. It's not for everybody. Just like kids. Not for everybody. They're exhausting, and they're a lot. They take a lot from you, but for some people, they give back. And for some people, they're like, oh, maybe I didn't want to do that.
[00:24:44] Speaker F: I read somewhere that it's better to regret not having kids at the end of your life than regret having them.
[00:24:51] Speaker C: I like that a lot.
[00:24:52] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:24:53] Speaker F: And so that's what I think of, too, because some people will be like, well, what about when you die?
[00:24:58] Speaker E: I'll be dead.
[00:24:59] Speaker F: Well, yeah, I'll be dead.
[00:25:00] Speaker C: Cool.
[00:25:01] Speaker F: And now I won't have kids to mourn me. Those poor souls won't have to deal.
[00:25:04] Speaker B: With the death of a parent.
[00:25:05] Speaker E: That reminds me of something like, I get this not often as much anymore. People ask with sometimes the quantity of tattoos I have, and they'll be like, what about when you're old? It's like, I'll be wrinkly with tattoos. It'll just be the same skin, as if that's a thing. Like, I'll want to wash them off then.
[00:25:24] Speaker C: Yeah. You could specialize in tattoos for people who are getting old. Be like, usually the skin segs this way so it'll start looking like a flower, and then when you're older, it'll look like a tree with no leaves.
[00:25:36] Speaker E: Age into it. I was like, I'll just look like wrinkly, colorful wrinkles or whatever.
[00:25:40] Speaker C: It turns into a goldfish as you get older. Wouldn't that be cool?
[00:25:45] Speaker E: Can you imagine? That'd be amazing.
[00:25:48] Speaker C: Whereas it folds in together. It's a different thing. And you could stretch it out and be like, this is what it really looked like when I was young.
[00:25:54] Speaker E: Gross.
[00:25:55] Speaker F: Oh, my God. That's hilarious.
[00:25:57] Speaker C: You could probably do with, like, chest because, you know, like, women, as we get older, it gets wrinkly. Like, up and down wrinkles, kind of like this. You could stretch it out, squeeze it together. I don't see as many old man chests. You know what it's like?
[00:26:09] Speaker A: It's like those mad magazines.
[00:26:11] Speaker D: Remember? You folded them over and it would say, like, what is whatever that you folded over to get the answer.
[00:26:16] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:26:17] Speaker A: Start doing those for chest taps.
[00:26:18] Speaker E: I love it.
[00:26:19] Speaker C: I like that a lot. They start thinking about Aliyah. You could be a specialty. The tattoo that ages gracefully with you.
[00:26:27] Speaker E: Listen, head of the curve, celebrating our aging with it, just to find that funny. It's like, I'll just be old.
[00:26:34] Speaker C: Yeah. Like, what are you going to do.
[00:26:36] Speaker E: If you don't have kids when you get old?
[00:26:37] Speaker C: I'll be old, I'll be old and.
[00:26:41] Speaker E: Rich and I won't have kids. I'll still be the same.
[00:26:44] Speaker B: There's a great line in the movie, actually, where Viola Davis says when they're talking about having kids and Viola Davis'character is changing her baby. And she says to the Liz character, having a baby is kind of like getting a face tattoo. You kind of want to commit. Once you have it, you got it really committed.
[00:27:06] Speaker F: Yeah, I like that because it's so true.
[00:27:08] Speaker C: It is.
[00:27:09] Speaker F: And sometimes I feel like people don't think about how life changing having a baby is. Some people just really be popping babies out, like, know you can't send them.
[00:27:21] Speaker C: To the SPCA if you change your mind.
[00:27:23] Speaker F: Oh, totally.
[00:27:25] Speaker C: This is what happened during the pandemic. All these people got dogs and then they're like, after it ended, they're like, yeah, I don't know if I'm a dog person anymore. They don't fit into my life. And they got rid of their dogs, which I think is terrible coming from someone who plans several years ahead when to get a dog, what dog, when they get and what breed and where she's going to go when we go away. I'm a big player with pets. But still, if you make that commitment, you're committing to a life. Our society is set up that you don't actually have to commit your life to the dog. You can send it to BCA where it might be destroyed.
Is that too dark?
[00:27:57] Speaker D: I mean, it's realistic. It's the same thing as the way we eat meat. If you want to get really dark, let's get dark.
[00:28:04] Speaker E: If you want to double down on.
[00:28:05] Speaker D: Dark, there's not the same respect for animals that there is for other humans, I think is the summary of your point.
[00:28:12] Speaker C: Right.
[00:28:13] Speaker F: For babies, I think children and babies being their own person.
Oh, you're my child. And you will do a, B, and C and have zero autonomy. And then they go out into the world and it's like, I've had no autonomy my whole life. Sometimes people treat kids as these dolls.
[00:28:31] Speaker C: And toys or like a way to undo their, like, I regret not going all the way with badminton. So you will play badminton from the minute you can walk.
[00:28:42] Speaker E: It's a classic bad parent badminton metaphor.
It's a tale as old as time, really.
[00:28:51] Speaker B: So many regrets with badminton.
[00:28:55] Speaker C: This story is speaking to only one listener out there. You hit me. You hit me right in the heart. Right? One listener is like, that was my life.
[00:29:03] Speaker E: Mary's poor children, they have to play badminton.
[00:29:06] Speaker F: My nephews are in badminton, so it almost relates to.
[00:29:09] Speaker E: Well, which country would y'all want to go in the book? You could choose from Italy. We're not going to get specific to region, but what country would you choose, Ashley? Italy, India or Bali?
[00:29:23] Speaker F: Oh, that is so hard. Okay. If I'm traveling alone, I'm probably going to Italy, but if I'm with a group of people, I would love to go to Bali so much. Yeah, I think it would just be absolutely amazing. What about you guys?
[00:29:39] Speaker C: I have no desire, really, to go to Italy. I would go. I think it's got, like, a lot of culture stuff. I like going to museums and whatnot. Yeah, probably Bali. I don't know much about what is to be had in those places.
[00:29:51] Speaker E: So, Sarah, what about you?
[00:29:52] Speaker B: I've already been to India and I went alone.
[00:29:55] Speaker C: Nice.
So India. The food would be good.
[00:29:58] Speaker B: I liked India. Yeah, the food was great. I think if I had to choose, I would probably choose somewhere I haven't been because I'd like to go somewhere I haven't been. I would lean towards Bali over Italy, but I would go with either. But I'm not, like, desperate to go to either one of those places. But I think I wouldn't mind visiting Bali.
[00:30:14] Speaker E: We lost Kim. Is she frozen?
[00:30:15] Speaker C: Kim, are you frozen?
[00:30:18] Speaker D: I don't know. I don't feel like traveling right now, so it's hard for me to answer. And I'm all being really analytical too. I'm like, how long is the flight to Bali?
[00:30:26] Speaker E: I just did it in June. We spent the month there.
[00:30:30] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:30:30] Speaker E: It's on paper, probably 22 hours of flying, but there's downtime, obviously, depending on how many flights you take. It is backbreaking.
[00:30:38] Speaker A: You literally went to Bali for a month in June.
[00:30:41] Speaker E: Yeah, in June.
[00:30:43] Speaker C: Is that why you chose this book, you think? Do you think you chose this book partially because you went there and you're.
[00:30:47] Speaker E: Like, yeah, I do. I think on some level, without even knowing it, and I think I chose Bali on some level. Back in my mind, back in the day of my list of places I wanted to go because of this book.
[00:31:00] Speaker B: I think, oh, that's neat.
[00:31:02] Speaker A: Okay, so wait a minute. Who did you go with and what were you doing?
[00:31:05] Speaker E: I went with my husband and my daughter. Well, I'm like the queen of impulsive behavior, but this was one of my impulsive behavior. And early in my sobriety, my impulsive behavior was at a crazy upswing because.
[00:31:19] Speaker D: Of it was a balancing.
[00:31:21] Speaker E: So I was spending like a mofo. So I just booked it. I booked it. I went on Airbnb and I booked it. I was like, I'm doing all the things I want to do. If I can feel this uncomfortable and this much pain, then I need to have things I can look forward to.
[00:31:36] Speaker C: And it worked.
[00:31:37] Speaker E: It got me through the first three months of sobriety. Yeah, it was amazing. It was a great trip. Prices were really low because of just, like, coming out of the pandemic. It was all good. There's a lot about it. This is probably the same for India. Sarah, you can probably speak to this. It's like, oh, yeah, it's busy there. And then there's, like, Indonesia busy. Like, as many people live in Canada, live on the island of Bali. So driving anywhere is insane, anxiety producing insane, and is very beautiful and very culturally beautiful. We preferred the islands surrounding Bali for lots of reasons, but it was totally worth doing for me.
[00:32:16] Speaker B: When I went to India, there was another friend of mine who read this book in 2008, and she was obsessed with it. That's why I read it. And she wanted to take italian lessons, and she asked me to take italian lessons with her because she was so into this book. I took italian lessons with her and we were going to go to India, and I always wanted to go to India, not just because of this book. This is before I read it even. And I was like, I'll go to India with you because I've always wanted to go. Then she lost interest. She went to, like, three italian lessons. And the one I went by myself. I'm like, I'm going to take Italian.
[00:32:46] Speaker C: By myself because this is a book. Who am I going to talk to? Supposed to talk to you.
[00:32:51] Speaker B: I'm very bad at languages anyway, so it was bad.
[00:32:54] Speaker C: You're like, this is a stretch for me, and I did it for you.
[00:32:57] Speaker B: And then she bailed on India. I had someone else say they'd go if she bailed because they knew her. And then they were, like, engaged. So they're like, oh, we can't go now because I'm engaged. I got to save for my wedding. And I was like, oh, okay. And then Kara said, I'll go with you. I have a friend that lives in India.
[00:33:13] Speaker F: Right?
[00:33:14] Speaker B: And then she ended up bailing. I can't remember why.
[00:33:16] Speaker E: Kara's not going to India.
[00:33:18] Speaker D: I love your sister reaction.
[00:33:20] Speaker C: Yeah, right away.
[00:33:22] Speaker E: You're not going.
She is not a traveler. She's such a liar.
[00:33:29] Speaker B: I assume that Kara's like, that other.
[00:33:30] Speaker C: Person will go, she wanted.
[00:33:33] Speaker D: Yeah, exactly.
[00:33:34] Speaker A: That's the sister vision, being like, she's.
[00:33:38] Speaker C: Just speaking with her heart, though, right? Like she wasn't planning ahead.
[00:33:41] Speaker E: Her heart wants to go, but her head won't let her.
[00:33:45] Speaker C: Her heart wanted to go, but she didn't think about the logistics.
She didn't.
[00:33:50] Speaker B: And then I was like, screw it, I'm going anyway. I said, I'm going in October. I always wanted to go to India. I'm just going to find tour group or whatever. So I'm not completely adrift. So I found one that was. They just book your hotels and your transportations to different places. So, yeah, I even went to where the Dalai Lama's temple is.
[00:34:08] Speaker C: It was awesome.
[00:34:09] Speaker B: But it was because of this book.
[00:34:10] Speaker E: That's nice.
[00:34:11] Speaker B: The reason I went to India, not because I read this book, but because someone else was like, we need to go to India. Let's learn Italian.
[00:34:18] Speaker C: No way.
[00:34:19] Speaker E: Well, that's kind of fun.
[00:34:21] Speaker C: I wonder how many people went to India after reading this book.
[00:34:27] Speaker F: Wonder if they had going there. They had a very cultural shock.
[00:34:31] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:34:32] Speaker F: Maybe not fully knowing what they were getting themselves into and just being like, oh, my God, I'm going here because.
[00:34:38] Speaker B: Of the, like, I think. You think it's. Everybody's doing yoga and stuff. It's not like that at all.
[00:34:45] Speaker F: Yes.
[00:34:45] Speaker B: People are living their lives. It's really busy and so busy.
[00:34:49] Speaker C: There's so many people.
[00:34:51] Speaker B: It's outrageous how many people are in India.
[00:34:53] Speaker C: But that's Canadians. Right? Our personal space bubble is humongous. Right?
[00:34:58] Speaker E: So big.
[00:34:58] Speaker C: Because we've got space. There's so many places you can go where you're like, why is that person so close to me? And they're just like, why is this person standing so far away? Do they not like me?
[00:35:07] Speaker B: You know what mean?
[00:35:07] Speaker C: Like, it's probably. Everyone's thinking something different. Like, all those Canadians. Like, a lot of space.
[00:35:13] Speaker E: No, I found that traveling. Yeah. There's no reason to lean against me. Why are we doing this? But I guess it's just everyone's fine.
[00:35:19] Speaker C: We might have to touch each other's bodies, even if we don't know each other.
[00:35:22] Speaker F: Yeah. I went to Asia a few years ago, South Korea and Japan. I wasn't as shocked at how condensed everything was. I had more of a cultural shock coming back to Canada. I was like, there is so much space. It almost felt more dystopian coming back, seeing how much extra space there was. And, yeah, most of the time, they respect your personal space. In South Korea, we were, like, walking arm in arm together with strangers. It's so interesting to see different parts of the world and just based on their population, how they interact with each other.
[00:35:59] Speaker B: I remember when I was in China telling people that in Canada, a lot of people have their own garden. They're like, even in the cities. And I was like, yeah. They're like, wow, it's very beautiful.
[00:36:12] Speaker C: Is. Yeah.
[00:36:13] Speaker D: I can remember we were at Niagara Falls once with Josh's brother. It was like a tour bus of people who were clearly a different race. I can't remember just by looking, they were not white, but that doesn't mean that they weren't from our country or anything. But I think that they may not have been, because I think that there was a brush up of cultural differences that wasn't understood. So he think that Fred was, like, maybe one or something. The brother may have been holding a door open for me, but then this rush of, like, 40 people were just, like, all pounded through the door and didn't even care about him. Or he was very upset because he was so upset. I always remember thinking, I don't know that they even know that that might be felt as rude or aggressive. I think that they were just traveling through the world as they do wherever it might not be because if you're in a place that has crazy population and everything's so busy, that's just how you roll.
[00:37:10] Speaker C: That's a nice person opening the door for everybody.
[00:37:13] Speaker E: Maybe he works it out.
[00:37:14] Speaker B: He worked there.
[00:37:15] Speaker C: That's interesting. We talk a lot about what's rude and what's polite, because sometimes when you tell your kids stuff, they're like, why not? I'm like, it's considered rude here, right? Where we live, it's considered rude. They're like, well, why is it rude? And you say, well, because where we live, the culture says this, but if you went somewhere else, the opposite might be considered rude. So you just got to learn before.
[00:37:36] Speaker B: You go, yeah, like, here, people don't say please. There's no translation for please.
So even in translation, if you say, like, maima, the translation is, give me. Give me that. Like, give me also little things like when you're eating. When you're done eating, you get up and leave. It's not like you wait for everyone else to finish. You're done. So you get up and leave. And it's not rude. You have completed eating. You're not required to eat more than you want to eat.
[00:38:02] Speaker C: Or we should do this in my house.
[00:38:05] Speaker E: Oh, Sarah. This means you're always alone at the table at the end, because anyone who's eaten a meal, Sarah, knows that this is a long. This is a waiting man's game.
[00:38:16] Speaker C: Maybe that's a family thing, because I'm always the last, too. Between you and me, Sarah. See, me and Sarah can just sit there and eat for a long time and be completely happy.
[00:38:26] Speaker B: I'm a very slow.
[00:38:27] Speaker E: No, it's not unhappy. It's just amazing how you really take care of chewing.
[00:38:31] Speaker C: You're doing a good job.
[00:38:33] Speaker E: Listen, I think it's good health.
[00:38:35] Speaker B: I can't eat quickly. I think I trained myself as a child because, you know, they said it at some point when I was a kid, you're supposed to chew your food so many times before swallowing 30 times or something. I remember a teacher or some sort of health person in school telling us that because I'm such an obedient person, especially a child, I can't eat fast. I start to gag. If I try to hurry to eat something, I start to look, I can't force myself to eat quickly. I just have to decide not to eat if I don't have time to eat, because I can't force it down.
[00:39:06] Speaker C: I just had a flashback.
[00:39:08] Speaker A: Did you do that at a red lobster once?
[00:39:10] Speaker B: No.
[00:39:13] Speaker C: She's laughing like it was.
[00:39:15] Speaker B: Yeah. So at the red lobster, I wasn't trying to eat quickly, but what happened was we were talking, and you said something shocking. We were with Nancy, another friend, and you said something shocking, and I laughed like this. But I had food in my mouth, and it got choked, man.
Not a pretend choke. A choke where no air is coming in or out. Like, I was actually choking. Like dying choking. And I realized it. And then I remember thinking, literally thinking, oh, my God, I'm going to die in the red lobster.
[00:39:52] Speaker C: I was so mortified.
[00:39:54] Speaker B: And I got up and started making a scene, and Kim was like, do you need me to do the need?
[00:40:00] Speaker C: And I was like, yes.
[00:40:02] Speaker B: And then she came to do it. But then I guess it was bread or something, and it dissolved. And then I was like, it was a big scene with everyone staring at me.
[00:40:11] Speaker C: I was like, it got caught.
[00:40:14] Speaker B: And Kim was like, yeah, no, we got that.
[00:40:16] Speaker C: We got that. You almost died at the red lobster.
[00:40:18] Speaker D: Just when you did your gagging thing. I was like, I know that face.
[00:40:22] Speaker C: That's a dying face.
[00:40:23] Speaker D: I saw that face in Red Lobster 1997.
[00:40:26] Speaker B: I've been to Red lobster since then.
Love red lobster.
[00:40:31] Speaker C: For the listeners that don't know, Red Lobster is a chain restaurant in Canada. I don't know if it's anywhere else. That's a seafood chain restaurant where you can get fairly reasonably.
[00:40:45] Speaker D: And the admirals feast. Everybody loves their cheese biscuits.
That you would highlight about red lobster.
[00:40:52] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:40:52] Speaker B: I might have been choking on a cheese biscuit.
[00:40:54] Speaker C: That might be.
[00:40:55] Speaker D: That's highly likely.
[00:40:57] Speaker E: You guys are going to get sued by Red lobster.
[00:40:59] Speaker C: For what? Telling the truth?
[00:41:01] Speaker D: Those things are dangerous. We should sue them.
[00:41:06] Speaker F: Yes, Ashley, I'm all about.
[00:41:08] Speaker B: Watch it.
[00:41:08] Speaker D: Red Lobster. We're lucky you didn't get sued yourself.
[00:41:11] Speaker C: Holy moly.
[00:41:12] Speaker E: Okay, well, is there anything else anyone wants to add about the book?
[00:41:16] Speaker B: We should recommend it.
[00:41:18] Speaker C: Yeah, I do not recommend it. It was a slog. I didn't like it at all. Yeah. I'll go next.
[00:41:24] Speaker B: Who's next?
[00:41:24] Speaker D: I still recommend it with the caveats of remember when this was written?
But I still like it. I do. Yeah.
Don't listen to the audiobook if you're looking for a good time. That's not it.
[00:41:41] Speaker E: I don't think I would recommend it.
[00:41:42] Speaker B: Oh, you win it.
[00:41:43] Speaker E: No, I don't think so.
I don't know me today. I know this was my book choice, but me today, I don't think I would choose to read this ever again. I don't think I'd pass it on, though. I will probably put it in the little book nooks that are outside for donation books. No, didn't do it for me. And that's a weird experience because you look back on things so differently. Barely. I'm not 2008, Leah.
[00:42:09] Speaker D: That's good, it turns out.
[00:42:11] Speaker C: Yeah, that's good. You grew.
[00:42:13] Speaker B: I'm the same as Kim. I would still recommend it, but I'd say, like, it's kind of outdated. And also, I would say I've read other things from Elizabeth Gilbert since. And I think her writing is even better now than this book. I've read fiction and nonfiction from her that I really enjoyed. And I think she has come even further in her writing style. Like, I enjoy her books now, so I'd still recommend it, but same as Kim. I'll be like, just remember when this was written, and this is before she became this big writer, and this is her journey. And now with Ashley, I would probably say it's for someone that's in their late 20s, early 30s kind of thing.
[00:42:52] Speaker F: Yeah, I totally agree. So I would recommend to a specific age group, and I think it would probably be like my age group, but I do agree. Again, I would also say, just remember when it was written. But to that point, I think it's also important for people to read. I guess it's not supposed to be a timepiece, but it kind of is. And it's like, that's kind of what life was like for a lot of women at that time. And so, yeah, I think it's important for people to read that, because, again, I was growing up through that, and it didn't resonate with me then, but now I'm like, I didn't even realize I was dealing with so many of the same things she was. It's same time, just different ages kind of thing. So, yeah, I would recommend, because I think it's important to see what life was like for different groups of people in certain time periods.
[00:43:45] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:43:45] Speaker D: Elizabeth Gilbert herself, I believe, has grown as anyone from 2008 would, but I think that she's owned some things. Like Glenn and Doyle knows her. They're really good friends. I think the. Is it Elizabeth that she talks about in the Book is Elizabeth Gilbert?
[00:44:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:01] Speaker D: Anyway, I don't know what that's supposed to mean with what I started. It doesn't prove anything.
[00:44:05] Speaker E: Good enough for Glennon.
[00:44:06] Speaker B: Good enough for.
[00:44:07] Speaker A: She knows Glennon, Doyle, you guys. So she totally grew.
[00:44:10] Speaker C: There's a point in there. I'm not sure what it is.
I'll figure it out.
[00:44:15] Speaker B: Do you know that she's not with that guy anymore? Felipier?
[00:44:20] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:44:20] Speaker B: I didn't know that she got married. I read the second book, committed, and she did get married to him, but maybe Covid at time, maybe. Or just before COVID they got divorced, and she was in a romantic relationship with a woman. I don't know what she identifies as, but, yeah.
[00:44:37] Speaker E: Interesting.
[00:44:37] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:44:38] Speaker A: So she's been on, like, a big, long love journey, and she wrote a.
[00:44:41] Speaker C: Whole thing similar to Glenn Doyle.
[00:44:43] Speaker B: Yeah. So she ended up leaving him to be with this woman. And I'm not sure if that woman died. Did she? I wasn't sure. I didn't know if she died or not.
[00:44:53] Speaker E: But she was very ill.
Yeah, you.
[00:44:55] Speaker C: Don'T want to say somebody died. They didn't.
[00:44:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:58] Speaker E: Well, two lawsuits coming your way, coming in hot, and Elizabeth Gilbert.
[00:45:05] Speaker C: This is the lawsuit episode.
[00:45:07] Speaker E: This is the lawsuit episode.
[00:45:10] Speaker A: This isn't the only one. There's lots of misinformation.
[00:45:13] Speaker C: I like to spew, imagine to sue.
[00:45:16] Speaker F: Us, and they're like, so we're suing Sarah, Leah, Meredith, Ashley, and Rigatoni.
[00:45:21] Speaker B: Rigatoni.
[00:45:22] Speaker C: Yeah. They name us, and the lawyers are like, the pasta and rigatoni. Ricotoni.
[00:45:30] Speaker E: This is Red Lobster versus rigatoni.
[00:45:33] Speaker A: That's the name of this episode.
[00:45:35] Speaker D: Red Lobster versus rigatoni.
[00:45:36] Speaker C: One Honda.
I know that. Our time is up. But did anybody try to think of what the word for their city know? She's like, every city has a word, and Rome's word is sex. Anybody try to think of what the word of their city was?
[00:45:54] Speaker D: Let's take a minute, though, to do it.
[00:45:56] Speaker C: Okay. I asked my husband, like, what is it for our city? This is as good as we got. We figured it's giver.
[00:46:03] Speaker D: Giver.
[00:46:03] Speaker C: Yeah. Okay. Because people are always like, let's give her. A lot of people have, like, snowmobiles and side by sides and they mountain bike and they snowboard and they're always giving her. Right. But it's a northern community, so, like, volunteer work and actually giving back is a huge part of the culture. So people are also giving their time as well. So we thought it was a nice giver. And people use the term giver all the time. Let's give her.
How are you doing? I'm giving her.
[00:46:34] Speaker E: Yeah, I like it.
[00:46:35] Speaker B: My word, I think, is peace. We have lived in the most peaceful place. Everybody asks when they see you on the street, because it's so small. Like, you greet everyone and they say, like, negative, which means, are you at peace? You always say, jam rake.
[00:46:47] Speaker C: I'm at peace. Everyone's at peace. Are you at peace? Yeah, peace is nice.
[00:46:52] Speaker F: Kim, I'm interested to see what you think since we now live in the same city.
[00:46:56] Speaker D: Well, I don't live in the city that I work in.
[00:46:59] Speaker F: Oh, I guess that's true. Have. Okay, fair enough.
[00:47:02] Speaker B: Fair enough.
[00:47:02] Speaker F: Okay.
[00:47:02] Speaker C: I can't believe you made that mistake, Ashley.
[00:47:06] Speaker D: Well, because I'm just thinking about my city. That's not even really a city if you want to be legal about it.
I don't even know. Mine's like a district.
[00:47:14] Speaker C: A town.
[00:47:15] Speaker B: Yeah, mine's like a village.
[00:47:17] Speaker D: And mine's not even a town. Like, it's not incorporated or anything, just an area of a larger. I don't even know. I don't understand it's that complicated. But the first thing that came to my mind was sleepy.
[00:47:30] Speaker C: Is that because it's early morning? No.
[00:47:32] Speaker D: And then I thought, Karen.
[00:47:34] Speaker C: To be sleepy. Karen.
[00:47:36] Speaker D: Karen.
Because I thought about the Facebook community here, where someone will post something like anonymous on Facebook, and then everybody else will attack them, including the ironic attack of, why would you post anonymously? And it's like, read the 50 comments above yours, sir.
[00:47:54] Speaker C: Because of the attack.
[00:47:56] Speaker F: It's actually him that keeps posting anonymously.
[00:47:59] Speaker C: It's me, rigatoni.
[00:48:03] Speaker D: And then there's also, like, this flip side of community. So I was trying to be really smart and say, like, meanie attacky as well as supportive. So whatever that is. Dysfunctional.
[00:48:15] Speaker F: Contradictive.
[00:48:16] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:48:17] Speaker D: Ironic.
[00:48:18] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:48:18] Speaker D: Because I'm interested to hear what you're going to say. Now.
[00:48:23] Speaker F: There'S a lot of older people. Like, it's a retirement town, right. And I feel like you can really feel that outside of summer. Summer, it feels so lively. But the rest of the year. Yeah, it feels old.
[00:48:36] Speaker D: It's definitely like everything's closed on Monday type of town.
[00:48:39] Speaker F: Everything's closed like noon to four every day. Everything closes at 08:00 p.m. Or sooner, like, it's Christmas.
[00:48:47] Speaker D: And I'm like, I can't even go shopping after 05:00 p.m. When am I supposed to buy my presents outside of my work hours?
[00:48:53] Speaker F: Yes. So I do think it's like a cute, quaint town, but definitely old.
[00:48:57] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:48:58] Speaker D: What do you say, leah?
[00:49:00] Speaker E: I'm really thinking about this because four of five of us have lived here. I live here presently, and it's not a bad place. It's a very beautiful place to live. But there's something about where I live and where some of you have lived. There's something pretend about it.
[00:49:16] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:49:17] Speaker D: Good one.
[00:49:18] Speaker E: Yes.
I don't know if pretend is too harsh. I was like, looking up synonyms for fate. Synonyms like counterfeit.
[00:49:26] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:49:27] Speaker E: Sham sounds not right.
[00:49:28] Speaker C: Perform almost like.
[00:49:33] Speaker E: Yeah. There's something about it that's keeping up with the Joneses. Everybody's.
[00:49:37] Speaker C: You got to do it this way.
[00:49:38] Speaker E: Facade, like a competitive, but not in an ambition business sort of way. There's like a fake plastic trees kind of way.
[00:49:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Plastic Lego.
[00:49:50] Speaker C: Yeah, it's plastic. Yeah.
[00:49:51] Speaker E: So that's beautiful. But it's really surface heavy, so.
[00:49:56] Speaker D: Barbie.
[00:49:56] Speaker C: Barbie.
[00:49:57] Speaker B: Yeah, it's Barbie.
[00:49:58] Speaker E: All right, guys, well, thanks for your time. I look forward to seeing you again. I'm going to try to jump in on some, well, I think on mayor's book.
[00:50:04] Speaker D: I'm going to be done these books so fast. I'm trying to balance between audiobooks and actually reading books.
[00:50:11] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:50:13] Speaker C: I'm not. I have to get on.
[00:50:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:15] Speaker C: Wait, one of them is Ashley's book, right?
[00:50:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:18] Speaker A: So you're already done that?
[00:50:19] Speaker C: I read that one already. I haven't seen the movie yet.
[00:50:21] Speaker D: I'm excited to see that movie.
[00:50:23] Speaker F: Okay, let me know if y'all want to go see it. It will be my fourth time. I will go see it again.
[00:50:28] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:50:29] Speaker F: Snowlands on top, y'all. I will say to see it.
[00:50:35] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:50:35] Speaker F: I will say if you are reading the book. The audiobook isn't my favorite.
[00:50:41] Speaker D: Mayor said already.
[00:50:42] Speaker F: Yeah, because it's the ballad. There is a lot of singing and just the person who does the audiobook doesn't have, like, a super nice singing voice. And it's kind of like, hurts the ears a bit. So that's my only thing about the audiobook for that. Otherwise, it was fine.
[00:50:58] Speaker D: I can't believe an audiobook wouldn't take advantage of the opportunity to put actual song in there as well as the franchise of Hunger Games to not have a number one single or something. If they could actually produce this song.
[00:51:14] Speaker B: You can get a Grammy from the audiobook because I just read Viola Davis's audiobook, which is amazing, by the way. If you haven't listened to it, don't read it. It's so good. She won a Grammy for it, her audiobook of her memoir.
[00:51:28] Speaker D: Nice.
[00:51:29] Speaker C: Did she sing in it? No, she just read her audiobook, beautiful voice.
[00:51:33] Speaker B: And it was a good performance. So good. And because it's audio anyway.
[00:51:37] Speaker C: Okay, well, great.
[00:51:38] Speaker A: So you can get a Grammy for an audiobook regardless of whether there's a song in it. However, because the format lends itself to.
[00:51:45] Speaker C: Music, a lot of songs, you would.
[00:51:47] Speaker A: Think if there was music in a book, you would jump on that, not just recite it.
[00:51:52] Speaker C: I wonder. Maybe they'll rerecord it now that the movie's out, because they could actually have the songs from the movie embedded in the book.
[00:52:00] Speaker B: It needs to.
[00:52:00] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:52:01] Speaker A: If it's not, that's a major miss.
[00:52:04] Speaker F: I completely agree, Kim. But I will also say the original trilogy, the audiobooks were also not.
You know, it's such a powerful moment when Katniss goes and volunteers for her sister, right. In the book. She goes, it's just like, it's such an intense moment. She goes, I volunteer no emotion.
Yeah, I think the Hunger Games needs to get it together with the audiobooks. Totally. And I do hope they redo it because the music, it's not great.
[00:52:39] Speaker D: Okay, sneak peek.
[00:52:40] Speaker E: Let's save it.
[00:52:41] Speaker B: You have to save it for next time.
[00:52:42] Speaker F: Okay, sounds good.
[00:52:43] Speaker C: All right.
[00:52:45] Speaker B: This interruption is brought to you by unpublished. Do you want to know more about the members in Book interrupted? Go behind the scenes, visit our
[email protected].
[00:52:58] Speaker A: Book interrupted hi, everyone.
Currently, I'm having a physical interruption, not to my body, but to my environment.
Recently, my son has taken a liking to hockey. And because he's a good dad, my husband has also joined in the hockey fever. So now a place where we live that didn't have very much space already is even more full of stuff because of course we have all the gear.
So I'm really super happy for my son. I'm happy that he likes that and wants to play. And I'm super happy for my husband and my son because they get to now spend all this time together having some solid father son time. But I'm very, very unhappy about my space because it is even more cluttered than it usually is. And for me, that causes me anxiety. I don't know what we'll do. Hopefully this is what keeps me hanging on, is dreaming about my son potentially being an NHL hockey player one day, and then I'll look back at all this clutter one day from my mansion and laugh.
[00:54:07] Speaker B: Hopefully book interrupted it's book report time. We're going to find out from each member their final thoughts and do they recommend the book. Let's listen.
[00:54:18] Speaker E: Hi, this is my personal journal for EPRA Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.
I have mixed feelings about this book. It was my book choice, first of all. So that being said, I feel like a lot has changed since I originally read this book and watched the movie. And it does not speak to me the way it did then, which is very strange because I really loved this book and the movie for different reasons. Back in the kind of early 2000s when I read it, I think around probably 2010, it's changed for me quite a bit. But the underlying message of self discovery and kind of carving out and creating your own spiritual path does resonate with me still. And that still touches me and is still very important to me today. My version has a 10th anniversary preface, which she does say something in it that I thought was worth mentioning. Here we go. It's on 21 of the preface. So who am I? Who does my life belong to? What is my relationship with divinity? What have I come here to do? Do I have the right to change my own path? With whom do I want to share my path, if anyone? Do I have the right to experience pleasure and peace? If so, what would bring me pleasure and peace? It is true that for most of world history, women were not allowed to ask any of these powerful questions. But we can finally ask them today. And I think that is very true that, like looking back on this book then to now, so much has changed and so much has changed for us women in the world. And just to be grateful to be able to ask ourselves these questions and explore these different life paths, I think is really important. And she kind of really sums it up in those questions to ask yourself in life.
Another part that did resonate with me still is the way she so freely speaks about her depression and loneliness, which I think was what touched me most then and carries through to now is the way she doesn't shy away from it. Back then, maybe there wasn't as much writing as there is now, like today in 2023. Mental health is such an important topic. It always has been, but there wasn't the language around it. I really think that she spoke about it in a time when people weren't. There is a section early in the book on page 52 and 53 where her depression comes with her to the first part of her journey in Italy, and she kind of assigns depression and loneliness as two characters, good cop bad cop style. And she does such a great job describing them like their people who found her. And on page 53 she writes this and it really kicked me right in the chest when I read it. It's not fair for you to come here, I tell depression. I paid you off already. I served my time back in New York. But he just gives me that dark smile, settles into my favorite chair, puts his feet on my table and lights a cigar, filling the place with his awful smoke. Loneliness watches in sighs, then climbs into my bed and pulls the COVID over himself, fully dressed, shoes and all. He's going to make me sleep with him again tonight. I just know it.
It gives me shivers up my spine. That's just like that description of loneliness crawling into bed with you, depression throwing its feet up in your life and blowing smoke into your world and your mind and just not caring. Oh, it's such a powerful few sentences that just really brings up so much emotion in me. And I thought just a beautiful piece of descriptive writing there. Anyways, like I said, my feelings are mixed about the book, but she is one hell of a writer, there's no denying that. So that's all I have to say and thanks for listening. Bye.
[00:58:25] Speaker B: So this is my second read. I've read this book before. I read it when it first came out. I think it was around 2008 ish and I really liked it then. I believe I'm the one that suggested it to Kim. Kim loved it. I remember she secured her on her backpack after she finished reading it as like a comfort or something. Anyway, it was great reading it again. I really like the middle part. Actually, I like the middle and the end the best. When she is in India and then Indonesia. There is some things in this book like I've read other books from her since fiction and nonfiction, and there's, like, an insecurity in this book. She's a lot more confident in her other books. I feel like her voice, her book voice. That was interesting to go back to a book before she really hit it big, I guess, because this book did that. Also, there are things in this book that are like, ooh, I want to say my daughter is a cringe. Like, they're kind of, ooh, cringy. She uses a lot of stereotypes to describe something that kind of make you feel like, oh, so I didn't love that. But then I watched the movie afterwards, and I feel like some of the things are even worse. For instance, the part in India, she meets someone in the ashram who's a teenager and who cleans the floor with her. And she is describing to her that her sister is getting married and that her parents want her to start going to these functions and kind of getting into dating kind of thing, like be in the marriage market, that she's old enough now. She should be going to these events and stuff, meeting matchmakers and stuff like that. And she's not really that interested. But she's talking about her sister's wedding, and in the movie, they make it that she's having arranged marriage against her will. And I really dislike that. There's also some other things, like in Italy, too, that are a little like, ooh, stereotypes that I didn't love. Even in Bali. Actually, in the book, she adores the characters that she's discussing and talking about also in the movie, how they created a whole new story for what's her friend's name from Texas. I can't remember. He calls her groceries. Anyway, there's a whole story about him being an alcoholic and stuff, and that's not true at all. I wonder how some of these characters that really existed in real life feel about the adaptation of the movie being not real at all and taking some liberties with their lives.
[01:01:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:01:07] Speaker B: So there's definitely discrepancies from the movie to the book. The book is super dense, though, so obviously they would have to cut out a ton of stuff in it. I don't think they really captured how really depressed she was. Like, she's really struggling with depression. So I don't think they really outlined that that much in the movie. But in the book, I loved her talking about meditation and working out, like connecting to God and that kind of quest of finding herself and connecting with her spirit and trying to heal her wounds and all that kind of stuff. I really like that. I enjoyed it. I took those lessons that she was doing or just reminding myself of different things that I do. I normally do guided meditation now just because there's so much great guided meditation these days, but I used to just meditate in silence and maybe using a little mantra or whatever, and I haven't done that forever. So ever since reading this book, I started doing that. I would still recommend this book, but it feels a little bit outdated, maybe. I mean, it is older and I do not enjoy the movie compared to the book. So there's that. All right, that's it for now.
[01:02:19] Speaker C: Okay.
[01:02:19] Speaker A: This is my personal journal for eat, pray, love, and I want to try to remember what I was going to say because I was saving these comments for this moment and now I don't remember them. I will tell you this. I read this book a long, long time ago and then I came across it now in our podcast. And so I didn't want to reread it because I don't want to really reread any books. Because of that, I decided I would try audiobooks. And this was my first audiobook and so I loved it because I was able to consume this book in like three days. Because right now my job has a major travel component and so I have the possibility of spending 3 hours driving to and from a location in my car. So I can just listen to books, which for me, I'm not even sure I can describe how excited I am about this because I am going to crush so many books now. Can't even wait. I'm so excited about this. So it was read by the author, and I didn't really like her voice. Not her actual voice, but the fact that she didn't have, I don't know, ever know what the right describing words are to describe the parts of language like the nonverbal communication, your tone and your volume, and you're this and you're that. That version of communication was really lacking in the book. This is like the author herself reading her own life story. And it was really performative. And it wasn't performative in like an on stage play type way. It was performative like chapter one.
I wanted to do this because I wanted to do that. And I never thought about that until this really, really monotonous, lacking feeling and emotion and contained and controlled. And I just didn't think it lent itself to the book because this is major life changing moments in her life. And she just only talked in this really soft voice. And then a voice said, go back to bedless. It was just I don't know. Anyway, so I did not like that. And the other thing which I mentioned in our group discussion, she also puts on accents for some of the characters in her book. And so it doesn't sound right. And I don't know if it's wrong or not, but it definitely doesn't sound right. Having a white woman do the broken English of the balinese man that she's talking to just really did not sound nice. It just didn't come off well. So I don't know, again, if it's right or wrong. I think you're not supposed to do that because it's offensive. I also don't know when her audiobook was recorded. Were there audiobooks in 2008? I have no idea because that's like the pass that we're giving her for some of the culturally insensitive things that are in her book or surfaced from the content or the audiobook. So I don't know if the audiobook was 2008 too. Maybe she didn't know any better. But knowing better now get actually an actor who is balinese to speak those words so that you can have the authenticity that I'm sure she was trying to go for, which is great, but it's hilarious, actually, and ironic that she's so authentic as a balinese man, yet she doesn't sound the slightest bit authentic as her own self. So the book itself still, I think, has a pretty good theme. And I do think it's important to get to know yourself, which I think is what she was trying to do. And we can't fault anybody for that.
[01:05:55] Speaker C: Hi. So we just finished reading the first book of season four. Hard to believe we're in season four and it's eat, pray, love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I did finish reading this book. I started by reading it, as you see, I have it here for my library and it was just taking so long and I was not enjoying it. So I managed to get the audiobook from my library as well and then proceeded to listen to it on double time so I could get through faster. Yeah, I actually enjoyed the audiobook less and you'd think it was because I was listening to it on double time, but that's not why. It's because she was doing accents of the various people that she met in her travels. I'm not really that surprised. I didn't like this book. I think the audience for this book is 20 something women who feel this pressure to conform to the north american ideal of what a woman is supposed to want, like marriage and children. And the big house and all the things, and that's not really who I am. I never really felt that pressure when I was younger. I didn't really think I would get married. I couldn't see myself finding somebody that I'd want to spend the rest of my life with. Yeah, I just didn't imagine a traditional trajectory to my life. So even I think if I had read this book back when it first came out, I don't think I would have liked it either. She seemed to complain a lot in the book. Like she went to this ashram in India and she was supposed to do this chant every day and she complained about it all the time. And I'm just thinking, like, you went there, you chose to go there, so just do the things that you are supposed to do when you're know. She was complaining about meditation and how boring it was, and it just came off as kind of like a child's reaction to having to do something. It wasn't something she had to do, she chose to do it anyways. So I did not enjoy that. I guess I'm just kind of the type of person that either if I want to do something, I'm going to do it and be game like she went there. So just be game for all the things you're supposed to do when you're there or don't go there. Just realize that you don't actually want to do that. But a lot of people did like this book, and it spoke to them because it said something like, you don't have to conform and you can decide what you want, what you actually want, not what other people want of you. So I get it, but I would not recommend it. We talked a lot about this in the podcast. I won't dwell on it, but I could not help but think about the book in the context of the current year. We did the book white fragility on the first season of the podcast, and that book taught us all a lot about white woman tears and saviorism and a lot of themes that show up in this book. So I just couldn't get past that, I guess, when there was a lot of her crying and hearing about other people's harder lives, but still focusing on herself. So anyway, I hope that doesn't upset too many people, but this book wasn't for me, and maybe it's for you, or maybe my review here will make you realize it's not for you. So that's about it. We'll see you next time for the next book that is movie oh, that's what I forgot. So this whole season we're doing books that have been made into movies, and it's quite possible that you could read this book and like it and not like the movie or vice versa. And I just have to say I didn't like either one. They're a little bit different, but I didn't like either of them for maybe the same reasons, actually, which is interesting, seeing as they were kind of different. Okay, bye.
[01:09:26] Speaker B: Thank you for joining us on this episode of book Interrupted. If you'd like to see the video highlights from this episode, please go to our YouTube channel, book interrupted. You can also find our videos on www.bookinterrupted.com.
[01:09:41] Speaker E: Have a listen to our off the shelf episodes. These are the silly, fun and weird wonderful things we do when we get off queue. So listen to our off the shelf episodes to hear more from us. The book interrupted crew I think you'll love it, and I know you'll laugh.
[01:10:01] Speaker A: Book interrupted never forget, every child matters close.
