Welcome to the weekly gathering of the Swagbucks Book Club.  Today we will be discussing Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert but as usual we have a little bit of business first.

Thank you to all 2,292 people who voted last week to choose our next selection.  The winner was Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay.  Here’s a quick synopsis from Publisher’s Weekly:

De Rosnay’s U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d’Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél’ d’Hiv’ roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand’s family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the more she uncovers about Bertrand’s family, about France and, finally, herself.

I hope you will join us in reading Sarah’s Key which author Risa Miller sums up with, “Sarah’s Key unlocks the star crossed, heart thumping story of an American journalist in Paris and the 60-year-old secret that could destroy her marriage.  This book will stay on your mind long after it’s back on the shelf.”  We will meet the first or second Friday in March for that discussion.

Today we are discussing Eat Pray Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia.  Before we begin I have to be honest and say that I have not finished this book, I’m still stuck in India.  It is not for lack of interest but sometimes life (and Spirit Week) get in the way and reading takes a backseat.  I will begin the discussion but feel free to post your own questions if there are revelations from the last half of the book not being represented.  I humbly apologize for not completing my task but feel confident that you guys can help pick up my slack.  Every month I’m blown away by the insightful comments you contribute.  And if you see a comment you particularly appreciate, don’t forget to “like” it.  The two users whose comments receive the most “likes” will receive a free copy of next month’s selection, Sarah’s Key.  I will also be hooking up about 50  users who contribute most to the discussion with 25 Swag Bucks.  Okay, enough out of me, let’s get this party started.  It is Fun At Work Day after all!

-Becky