Canon Digital Rebel XSi 12MP Digital SLR Ca… Too low to display	Canon EOS 40D 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera wit… $1,129.00	Canon EOS 40D 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera (Bo… Too low to display
Canon Digital Rebel XSI 12MP Digital SLR Ca… Too low to display	Canon EOS 5D 12.8 MP Digital SLR Camera (Bo… $1,799.95	Canon EOS 5D 12.8 MP Digital SLR Camera wit… $2,607.10
Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR Came… $394.95	Canon Digital Rebel XSI 12MP Digital SLR Ca… Too low to display	Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR Came… $599.95

Canon EOS 30D 8.2MP Digital SLR Camera (Bod… $737.79	Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR Came… $689.99	Canon EOS 1D Mark III 10.1MP Digital SLR Ca… $4,049.88
Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR … $499.00	Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III 21.1MP Digital SLR C… $7,575.00	Canon EOS 40D DSLR with 17-85mm lens $1,338.00
Canon Digital Rebel XSI 12MP Digital SLR Ca… Too low to display	Canon EOS 6.3MP Digital Rebel Camera (Body …	Canon EOS-10D 6.3MP Digital SLR Camera (Bod…
Canon EOS 20D 8.2MP Digital SLR Camera (Bod…	Canon Digital Rebel XSi 12MP Digital SLR Ca… $1,034.95	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi 12.2-Megapixel … $969.95
Canon EOS D60 6MP Digital Camera	Canon EOS 30D 8.2MP Digital SLR Camera Kit … $1,199.99	Canon EOS-1D MARK-III Digital SLR Camera wi…
Canon EOS-40D Digital U.S.A. Camera w/ 28-1… $1,310.33	Canon EOS-40D Digital SLR Camera U.S.A.Kit,… $999.57	Canon EOS 20D 8.2MP Digital SLR Camera with… $1,895.90
Canon EOS 6.3MP Digital Rebel Camera with 1…	Canon Digital Rebel XSi 12MP Digital SLR Ca… $964.95	Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II 16.7MP Digital SLR Ca… $6,949.99
Canon EOS D30 3MP Digital SLR Camera (Body …	Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR Came… $538.50	Canon EOS 30D 8.2MP Digital SLR Camera with… $1,993.72
Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi 12.2-Megapixel … $939.95	Canon EOS 20D 8.2MP Digital SLR Camera with… $1,998.93	Canon EOS-1D Mark II 8.2MP Digital SLR Came…
Canon EOS-40D Digital U.S.A. Camera w/ 28-1… $1,292.28	Canon EOS-40D Digital U.S.A. Camera w/ EF-S… $1,586.73	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi 2 lens Zoom Kit… $1,399.99
Canon EOS 30D 8.2MP Digital SLR Camera with…	Canon EOS-40D Digital SLR Camera U.S.A.Kit,… $1,107.32	Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR Came… $949.95
Canon EOS-1Ds 11.1MP Digital SLR Camera (Bo… $2,699.95	Canon EOS-1D 4.15MP Digital SLR Camera (Bod…	EOS-30D Digital SLR Camera Kit, - USA Warra…

ShareThis

New iPod Touch (Video)

Apple iPod touch 8 GB with Software Upgrade $284.54	Apple iPod touch 16 GB with Software Upgrade $379.00	Apple iPod touch 32 GB with Software Upgrade $467.54
4GB Touch Screen 2.8" TFT MP3/MP4 Music/Vid… $57.49	Zune 30 GB Digital Media Player (Black) $199.99	Apple iPod touch 16 GB without Software Upd… $349.99
Samsung YP-P2JAB P2 Widescreen Touch Screen… $160.75	Apple iPod touch 8 GB without Software Upda… $289.99	Samsung YP-P2JAW P2 Widescreen Touch Screen… Too low to display
Archos 605 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player (30 … $278.34	Apple iPod Touch 8GB WiFi Media Player with…	Latte Communications Neon 2 GB Video MP3 Pl… $75.77
Virtual Touch VT-2 2GB Touch Screen Persona…	8 GB Touch Screen MP3/MP4 Player	Apple iPod Touch (16GB)
Apple iPod touch 8 GB Refurbished Like New! $269.99	Apple iPod® touch 16GB MP3 player with … $399.99	RAmos V80 Touch Screen Player with Windows …
Apple iPod Touch (8GB)	SeeThru iPod Touch - Orange	Impecca IMP MP1820P Pink 2GB WMA WAV MP3 Pl… $53.95
TuffWrap iPod touch Pink	8GB Onda 4.3 inch MP3 & MP4 Music/Movie…	ToughSkin iPod Touch - Clear
NEW Black Touch MP3 (2GB 6GB) + Accessories	TechStyle iPodTouch Pinstripe	The One Touch Any Media iPod Uploader

ShareThis

iPod Classic 6th Generation Video Review

Apple iPod classic 80 GB Black (6th Generat… $228.54	Apple iPod classic 80 GB Silver (6th Genera… $228.54	Apple iPod classic 160 GB Black (6th Genera… $319.00
Apple iPod classic 160 GB Silver (6th Gener… $319.97	Apple iPod classic 80 GB Black (6th Generat… $219.99	ShieldZone invisibleSHIELD, LCD Screen Prot…
ShieldZone invisibleSHIELD, LCD Screen Prot… $9.95	Apple iPod Classic 160GB (Black)	TechStyle iPodTouch Pinstripe
Apple 80GB iPod Classic Video 6th Generatio…	Ipod Classic 160 Gb Kit ( with Charger)	APPLE IPOD CLASSIC 80GB-SLV #03
Wolverine WaterLock Pouch for the iPod Clas… $29.99	Apple iPod Classic 80GB (Silver)	Apple 80GB iPod classic & Logitech Audi…

ShareThis

	Apple iPod touch 32 GB with Software Upgrade Buy new: $475.00 / Used from: $409.99 Wow, they finally released it! The 32 GB iPod touch clocks in at $500 and is the best iPod you can buy. It’s going to be a while before that high price moves though.
	Apple iPod touch 16 GB without Software Updates Buy new: $349.99 / Used from: $299.99 It’s hard to argue with the features of the iPod touch. It’s not expandable, but 16GB is a good start. Apple needs to reconsider charging for software updates though.
	Apple iPod nano 8 GB Black (3rd Generation) Buy new: $185.95 / Used from: $134.79 The nano is a great overall player with a SMALL footprint!!! Apple executed great on this one by including the ability to play video.
	Apple iPod touch 8 GB without Software Updates Buy new: $289.99 / Used from: $192.99 Same great form factor, just less space. The touch requires larger video files than the nano, so those 8 gigs don’t go as far. Not to mention the temp files used for surfing the net. So it goes to third place.
	Apple iPod nano 4 GB Silver (3rd Generation) Buy new: $145.95 / Used from: $98.99 This guy is kind of the entry level video iPod. I still choose it over the classic models with larger space. Apple really priced this unit properly. It’s a great player and a great value.
	Apple iPod classic 80 GB Silver (6th Generation) Buy new: $228.54 / Used from: $177.11 The 80 GB classic is the same as the 160 in design. Both the classic models have experienced higher than usual failure rates. Apple will be retooling these models soon.
	Apple iPod classic 160 GB Black (6th Generation) Buy new: $319.00 / Used from: $262.99 Is $100 more worth it for an extra 80 GB? It usually would be if the unit were as reliable as previous iPods. Both the classic models have experienced higher than usual failure rates. Let’s see how they address this.
	Apple iPod shuffle 1 GB Silver (2nd Generation) Buy new: $48.72 / Used from: $28.45 The shuffle does it’s job very well. It has just fallen behind the curve in capacity. Apple should have updated the line with larger sizes LONG ago.

ShareThis

Mistaken Identity: Two Families, One Survivor, Unwavering Hope

Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com

43 new or used available from $11.99

Average customer review:

Product Description

Meet Laura Van Ryn and Whitney Cerak: one buried under the wrong name, one in a coma and being cared for by the wrong family.

This shocking case of mistaken identity stunned the country and made national news. Would it destroy a family? Shatter their faith? Push two families into bitterness, resentment, and guilt?

Read this unprecedented story of two traumatized families who describe their ordeal and explore the bond sustaining and uniting them as they deal with their bizarre reversal of life lost and life found.

And join Whitney Cerak, the sole surviving student, as she comes to terms with her new identity, forever altered, yet on the brink of new beginnings.

Mistaken Identity weaves a complex tale of honesty, vulnerability, loss, hope, faith, and love in the face of one of the strangest twists of circumstances imaginable.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #88 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-25
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Editorial Reviews

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

“The county chaplain is monitoring this call,” the coroner told her. Then he asked what struck Colleen as a very strange question. “Are you alone?”

“What? Yes. I mean no,” she said. “Carly, my daughter, is home with me.”

“Would you please ask her to listen in on this conversation?”

If she hadn’t been so asleep, Colleen might have asked why it mattered if she were alone, and why the coroner had called at such an ungodly hour. But she didn’t. Her body was awake, but her mind hadn’t caught up with it yet. She climbed out of bed, walked across the hall to Carly’s room, and woke her up. “I need you to listen in on this call. I’m going downstairs to get the other phone. Don’t hang up,” Colleen said.

Carly was sound asleep when her mother threw the cordless phone on her bed. “What? You want me to do what? Why?” Carly asked, but Colleen had already started down the stairs. Half asleep, but already panicking, Carly put the phone to her ear. She listened as her mother asked the man to identify himself again. The moment she heard him say he was the coroner, Carly felt sick to her stomach.

“We now know,” the coroner said, “that the accident survivor in the hospital identified as Laura Van Ryn is not in fact Laura. This fact was confirmed earlier this evening through her dental records.”

Carly listened upstairs while Colleen was downstairs on the main extension. Neither of them said a word, their minds unable to comprehend what they were hearing. Then the coroner dropped his bombshell. “We have reason to believe your daughter may be alive.”

“No. No. That’s impossible. We buried her,” Colleen said. In her half-awake state, she thought the coroner was saying that Whitney had been alive when she was placed in her casket, meaning the family had buried her alive. The thought horrified her. The coroner quickly clarified what he meant. “We have reason to believe that the girl identified as Laura Van Ryn is, in fact, your daughter Whitney Cerak.”

The moment Carly heard the coroner say that Laura was Whitney, she threw down the phone and stormed down the stairs. “No, no, no!” she screamed. “Hang up the phone, Mom. hang up! I can’t believe someone would be so cruel as to pull a prank like this. This is the worst thing I’ve ever heard of in my life!”

“What did you say?” Colleen said to the coroner. She could hardly hear his response.

“Mom, listen to me!” Carly yelled. “There’s no way that isn’t Laura. Her family and her boyfriend have been right at her side for five weeks. Five weeks! Don’t you think they would have noticed if it weren’t Laura? A lot of my friends have seen her. Kelly was there! Mom, don’t you think my own roommate would have noticed something as obvious as this!? Whitney doesn’t look like Laura. Why would someone do this?” She began crying. “Mom, hang up the phone. Hang up, HANG UP!”

Finally Colleen asked the coroner, “May I call you back? I really need some time to think.”

The coroner seemed taken aback by her question. “Mrs. Cerak, this is a very serious matter. We need you to bring your daughter’s dental records to the hospital in Grand Rapids as quickly as possible so that we can make a positive identification.”

“I understand that. What’s your number there?”

“Mrs. Cerak!”

“May I please have your number?” Colleen’s mind could not process what he was telling her; she was in shock. Maybe Carly is right. Maybe this is nothing but a cruel, cruel hoax. Once Colleen had the phone number, she hung up the phone and sank into her chair. Carly sat across from her on the sofa, fuming.

“Who could be so cruel?” Carly asked. Colleen didn’t respond. She checked the phone number and discovered that the call had, in fact, come from Marion General Hospital in Indiana, the hospital to which Whitney’s body had been taken on the night she died.

“That doesn’t mean the call was real,” Carly protested. She looked over at her mother. “Mom, you don’t actually believe this garbage, do you?” She threw up her hands in frustration. In her mind, Carly believed she had to be the voice of reason in the family. Her father, a youth pastor, was in New York with a group of high school seniors for their annual graduation trip. With him gone, she kicked into full big-sister mode. “Mom, believe me. I know that the girl in the hospital is Laura, not Whitney. I know what I’m talking about. Who are you going to believe, your own daughter or some stranger making prank calls in the middle of the night!?”

Colleen didn’t know what to do next. She hesitated to call and awaken her husband, Newell, when she didn’t yet have any firm information. Going on this trip had been a hard enough decision for him. It was his first step toward something approaching normalcy in his job since they’d lost Whitney five weeks earlier. If this was in fact a hoax, Colleen saw no reason to make him suffer through it as well. Unsure of where else to turn, she called Newell’s best friend and coworker, Pastor Jim Mathis, who had walked with the family through the tragedy of Whitney’s death. “Jim, we have a situation here,” she said, “and I don’t know where else to turn. We just received a phone call…”

“A fake phone call!” Carly shouted in the background.

“We just received a phone call from someone claiming to be the Grant County coroner. He said…” — Colleen could hardly believe the words were coming out of her mouth — “he said that Whitney may be alive.”

“What?” Jim said. “How?”

“I don’t know. I don’t even know if the call was real. Would you check it out for me? I don’t think I can.”

“Sure. What’s the number?”

Five minutes later he called back and said, “It looks like we need to go on another road trip.”

As soon as she hung up the phone, Colleen called the family dentist for Whitney’s dental records, which he said he would bring over right away. Only then did she call her husband. The moment Colleen said his name, Newell knew something was wrong. “Not Carly,” he said. “Please tell me that it’s not Carly.” With Whitney gone, he couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to their only surviving daughter.

“No, no, no. Carly’s fine. It’s uh…it’s about Whitney.”

“What?”

“I just got a call from the Grant County coroner’s office, and they think…they think Whitney may be alive.”

“That’s impossible,” he said. “We buried her. She can’t be alive.”

“Let me talk to him,” Carly yelled in the background and then grabbed the phone out of her mother’s hand. “Don’t believe any of this, Dad. The phone call said they think Laura is Whitney, but she can’t be. My friends saw her. They know Whitney. Believe me, Dad, this is impossible!”

“I know, Carly. I know” was all he could say in response.

Colleen got back on the line. “Jim is going to drive us down to Grand Rapids so we can hand over Whitney’s dental records to the hospital. I’m sure it’s nothing but a wild-goose chase, but we have to go.”

“Be sure to call me as soon as you get there,” Newell said. Then he hung up the phone and tried to sleep, to no avail. His mind spun out of control as he lay in the dark. He replayed all that had happened since Colleen had first called him on April 26, 2006, and told him that Whitney had been in an accident. He had been away on a ministry-related trip that night as well. Since then he’d carried a hole in his soul that could not be filled. Yet it wasn’t a grief without hope. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Whitney was in the very presence of God in heaven. Yet now the family was told she was not in heaven, but alive in a hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “Unbelievable,” he repeated over and over.

As he tossed and turned in his bed, one thought raced through his mind: How can this even be possible? If a mistake had been made, someone would have noticed in the first couple of days. But five weeks? Five weeks?! Impossible. How could the Van Ryns not have realized this girl wasn’t their daughter? She must be horribly disfigured, since it wasn’t just the immediate family who would have to be mistaken. Her boyfriend and all of Laura’s closest friends had also visited her in the hospital, and not one of them had alerted authorities that there might be a mistake. How could no one have noticed they had misidentified the person in that bed?

Neither he nor Colleen had seen Whitney’s body after the accident. It had made sense at the time, but now a wave of self-doubt washed over him. We didn’t want the image of Whit lying in a casket burned in our minds, he reminded himself. Colleen and I agreed that we didn’t want that to be the first thing we thought of when we thought about her. Not once had they questioned their decision. Now, for the first time, Newell wondered how the authorities had identified the bodies at the scene of the accident. That opened the door for the biggest question of all: Could Whitney really be alive?

While Newell tossed and turned in bed at a campground in New Jersey, the rest of the family got ready for what Carly later called “the worst car trip of my life.” Colleen told her, “You should pack some clothes to take with us. If this really is Whitney, we’ll probably stay down there for a while.”

Carly shot her mother a look. “Would you be realistic, Mother? I told you. My friends have been down there. They’ve seen her. They all know it’s Laura. If it were Whitney, don’t you think Laura’s best friends would have noticed?”

“Carly, please, we just have to make su…

Customer Reviews

Far too much scripture and prayer
I agree with the review from “A Different Point of View, April 14, 2008.” The story is phenomenal. The families extraordinary with their deep faith, yet I cannot help but keep asking what the blessing in all this was? Obviously the family whose child lived, they have the biggest miracle of all. But the praise that goes on and on and how other people became deeper in their faith due to their story — huh? I believe in Christ and know that God has a plan for us all. A reason for everything. Yet I cannot understand what the families’ points are. Perhaps, in order to survive such a travesty a person has to sink themselves into faith because there is nothing else to take away the pain. The story certainly didn’t leave me feeling with a deeper sense of faith and it was annoying to constantly read the scripture, etc. I began skimming through that more as the book went on. When I watched the story on Dateline I expected to hear the same and was shocked that Whitney herself wasn’t raving the praise of God. Perhaps, as time passes, more reality sets in. I don’t know. And I do not want to judge them for their actions. Both families seem like amazing, genuine, wonderful people.

This is a horrific tragedy that should never have happened. Christian or not, I would be suing the pants off those who made the mistake. And this story is a HUGE lesson to everyone that we all should listen to any gut feeling we might have that something isn’t right, or off, or something isn’t resonating within ourselves. I can certainly understand the emotional trauma of everything and how a person wouldn’t even be thinking of reasons not to believe it was their daughter. But…

So I agree with those who were overwhelmed with the religion in the book. I suppose the families believe those at fault will meet the ultimate judgment some day and they didn’t need to do that here on earth.

Morbid
I wanted to like this book but couldn’t get past the dead college students. Then to realize that one family buried the wrong girl and no one in the family looked to see if this was this daughter? They were asked in the hospital to identify the body and they didn’t. I understand grief and am not judging these families, but it gave me the creeps to know that this issue could have been resolved earlier. As for the families, a huge amount of credit should be given to them for neither family blamed the other and each cared for the other child with care and tenderness. I just felt depressed reading the book, but then again I am only one opinion. It was well written and included many pictures of the girls.

Sweet and Inspiring
This book was very well written, especially considering there were so many people to work with. The families and all their friends were amazing people. I did struggle with some of the religious tones, it was too much for me, but the story itself and the way these people dealt with the situation were wonderful. I am glad they took the time and effort to put this together. Make sure you have tissue nearby.

ShareThis

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com

259 new or used available from $4.00

Average customer review:

Product Description

This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. By turns rapturous and rueful, this wise and funny author (whom Booklist calls “Anne Lamott’s hip, yoga- practicing, footloose younger sister”) is poised to garner yet more adoring fans.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-30
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Gilbert (The Last American Man) grafts the structure of romantic fiction upon the inquiries of reporting in this sprawling yet methodical travelogue of soul-searching and self-discovery. Plagued with despair after a nasty divorce, the author, in her early 30s, divides a year equally among three dissimilar countries, exploring her competing urges for earthly delights and divine transcendence. First, pleasure: savoring Italy’s buffet of delights–the world’s best pizza, free-flowing wine and dashing conversation partners–Gilbert consumes la dolce vita as spiritual succor. “I came to Italy pinched and thin,” she writes, but soon fills out in waist and soul. Then, prayer and ascetic rigor: seeking communion with the divine at a sacred ashram in India, Gilbert emulates the ways of yogis in grueling hours of meditation, struggling to still her churning mind. Finally, a balancing act in Bali, where Gilbert tries for equipoise “betwixt and between” realms, studies with a merry medicine man and plunges into a charged love affair. Sustaining a chatty, conspiratorial tone, Gilbert fully engages readers in the year’s cultural and emotional tapestry–conveying rapture with infectious brio, recalling anguish with touching candor–as she details her exotic tableau with history, anecdote and impression.
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The New Yorker
At the age of thirty-one, Gilbert moved with her husband to the suburbs of New York and began trying to get pregnant, only to realize that she wanted neither a child nor a husband. Three years later, after a protracted divorce, she embarked on a yearlong trip of recovery, with three main stops: Rome, for pleasure (mostly gustatory, with a special emphasis on gelato); an ashram outside of Mumbai, for spiritual searching; and Bali, for “balancing.” These destinations are all on the beaten track, but Gilbert’s exuberance and her self-deprecating humor enliven the proceedings: recalling the first time she attempted to speak directly to God, she says, “It was all I could do to stop myself from saying, ‘I’ve always been a big fan of your work.’”
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

From The Washington Post’s Book World/washingtonpost.com
The only thing wrong with this readable, funny memoir of a magazine writer’s yearlong travels across the world in search of pleasure and balance is that it seems so much like a Jennifer Aniston movie. Like Jen, Liz is a plucky blond American woman in her thirties with no children and no major money worries. As the book opens, she is going through a really bad divorce and subsequent stormy rebound love affair. Awash in tears in the middle of the night on the floor of the bathroom, she begins to pray for guidance, “you know — like, to God.” God answers. He tells her to go back to bed. I started seeing the Star headlines: “Jen’s New Faith!” “What Really Happened at the Ashram!” “Jen’s Brazilian Sugar Daddy — Exclusive Photos!” Please understand that Gilbert, whose earlier nonfiction book, The Last American Man, portrayed a contemporary frontiersman, is serious about her quest. But because she never leaves her self-deprecating humor at home, her journey out of depression and toward belief lacks a certain gravitas. The book is composed of 108 short chapters (based on the beads in a traditional Indian japa mala prayer necklace) that often come across as scenes in a movie. And however sad she feels or however deeply she experiences something, she can’t seem to avoid dressing up her feelings in prose that can get too cute and too trite. On the other hand, she convinced me that she acquired more wisdom than most young American seekers — and did it without peyote buttons or other classic hippie medicines. When Gilbert determines that she requires a year of healing, her first stop is Italy, because she feels she needs to immerse herself in a language and culture that worships pleasure and beauty. This sets the stage for a “Jen’s Romp in Rome,” where she studies Italian and, with newfound friends, searches for the best pizza in the world. It’s a considerable achievement because she is still stalked by Depression and Loneliness, which she casts as “Pinkerton Detectives” — Depression, the wise guy, and Loneliness, “the more sensitive cop.” They frisk her, “empty my pockets of any joy I had been carrying” and relentlessly interrogate her about why she thinks she deserves a vacation, considering what a mess she’s made of her life. After literally eating herself out of depression, she returns to the United States for Christmas holidays. Next stop: the ashram. It seems Gilbert has been a student of yoga and meditation for years. Her rural Indian experience features Gilbert grappling mightily with some of the meditative practices. She finds quirky co-practitioners such as Richard from Texas, a former truck driver, alcoholic and Birkenstock dealer. Richard nicknames her “Groceries” because of her appetite at meals and offers wise advice. Picture Willie Nelson in a non-singing cameo role. Gilbert acknowledges that Americans have had difficulty accepting the idea of meditation and gurus, and she does a mostly fine job in making her ashram education accessible. She deftly sketches the physical stress of sitting in one position for hours, as well as the metaphysical stress of staying on message. Still, Gilbert sounds like a giddy teenager as she describes her relationship with Swamiji, the yogi who founded the ashram where she is studying: “I’m finding that all I want is Swamiji. All I feel is Swamiji…. It’s the Swamiji channel, round the clock.” The concluding 36 beads find Gilbert in Bali, palling around with an ageless medicine man who looks like Yoda, a Balinese mother and nurse, Wayan, who is a refugee from domestic violence, and other colorful characters. Gilbert is healed enough by now to render a really good deed: She raises $18,000 via e-mail from American friends for Wayan to buy a house. (”Jen: Bigger Do-Gooder Than Brad?”) And after 18 months of self-imposed celibacy, she finds mature, truer love thanks to a charming older Brazilian businessman. Eat, Pray, Love as a whole actually is better than its 108 beads. By the time she and her lover sailed into a Bali sunset, Gilbert had won me over. She’s a gutsy gal, this Liz, flaunting her psychic wounds and her search for faith in a pop-culture world, and her openness ultimately rises above its glib moments. Memo to Jen — option this book. — Grace Lichtenstein is a travel writer and author of six books who lives in New York and Santa Fe, N.M.

Reviewed by Grace Lichtenstein
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Customer Reviews

AMAZING!
I am only 20 years old, so when my older cousin told me to read a story about a woman going through a divorce, I was a little hesitant. How can that possibly apply to me? I have no way to relate to it. But this book is so much deeper than that. It taught me so much about life and how different perspectives can turn one situation into a totally new and different situation. I loved reading this book and I am actually reading it for the second time right now!

Dare I say I’m enjoying this book?
A friend gave me this book and I am most of the way through India (and personnally have a long great marriage as well as experience with meditation). Any way, like my friend, I really like this book! I don’t think one must be politically correct all the time. Her marriage sucked - she wanted out and left. Her business - no children were involved. She wanted time to evaluate her life. I can relate to that. She was just fortunate to write well enough to get it paid for. But it was a time of pain and growth. This is a personal memoir so of course it is about her and her thoughts! If you don’t like memoirs read a novel!

Inspirational work
This is the most enjoyable book I have read in a long time. Elizabeth Gilbert writes in a flowing, descriptive and amusing style. I found myself even laughing outloud at times! Her story is inspiratonal and her writing is superb. I was sorry to reach the end of this book ! I recommend it to all who enjoy travel, personal growth and adventure.

ShareThis

The God Delusion

Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com

49 new or used available from $6.54

Average customer review:

Product Description

In this provocative must-read, the preeminent scientistand worlds most prominent atheistRichard Dawkins asserts the irrationality of belief in God and the grievous harm religion has inflicted on society, from the Crusades to 9/11. The God Delusion makes a compelling case that belief in God is not just wrong, but potentially deadly. It also offers exhilarating insight on the advantages of atheism to the individual and society, not the least of which is a clearer, truer appreciation of the universes wonders than any faith could ever muster. With rigor and wit, Dawkins eviscerates the major arguments for religion and demonstrates the supreme improbability of a supreme being. He shows how religion fuels war, foments bigotry, and abuses children, buttressing his points with historical and contemporary evidence. This is a book that challenges all of us to test our beliefs, no matter what beliefs we hold.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-16
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The antireligion wars started by Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris