Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of all Things is available now

****4/5 stars

Join Elizabeth Gilbert on a foray through the world of Alma Whittaker, where turn-of-the-century science meets mystic faith. Can one overwhelm the other?

Recommended readers:

• If you loved Eat Pray Love…
• If you hated Eat Pray Love…
• If you never even read Eat Pray Love…this book is still for you.  It is different and it is the same.

Here’s my Rankings:

• 4/5 for characters
• 4/5 for plot
• 4/5 overall

REVIEW FROM BOOKS FOR HER:

Born into wealth and privilege at the turn of the 19^th century, scholar Alma Whitaker embarks on a life-long journey to understand herself and the world around her. Her study is botany, specifically mosses, and we soon find within her life a metaphor for all life.  As in other works, most famously Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert shows herself to be something of a mystic, and poet enough to express her philosophy compellingly and eloquently. This novel is huge, weighty and difficult at times, but at once gorgeously written and well worth the time. Forays into subjects the reader may care nothing for (i.e., botany) and time spent on lesser characters and seemingly unnecessary plot devices are all worth it, indeed forgotten, for the sheer stunning and sudden majesty of the moment The Whole Point begins to culminate.