On my weekend slog to Connecticut, I finished Eat Pray Love -- nothing like a five-hour stint on I-95 to free up some reading time. Maybe a highway's the perfect place for this book, because of the theme of a journey (the Baltimore County library keeps it in the travel section).

Gilbert's book was never a struggle to read, thanks to her clever writing. In one passage, she compares the Balinese fervor for land to the way her "five-year-old niece values lip gloss: namely, that you cannot have enough of it, that once you have claimed it you must never let it go, and that all of it in the world should rightfully belong to you."

But the Pray section left me cold, rather than inspired. It's impossible to describe mystical experiences in words, so a lot was lost in translation. I couldn't help wondering whether she would have achieved the same effect by spending four weeks on an Ocean City beach, just watching the waves come in. And I wanted to say: Try maintainng this balance when you're scrambling after two kids, or working a 60-hour week. Now that would be an achievement!