A Wintry Day with “City of Girls”

It’s a snowy cold day in Michigan. At 5:45am my body woke me and though the sun wasn’t up yet, I was.

Light. Coffee. Blanket. Spot to nestle. Book.

On my coffee table was the 40% finished City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert. I had started it a week ago and had been sporadically picking it up since. Wrapped up as I was in this letter full of many stories across one life, I knew this had to be my quiet morning companion.

This book has been on my radar for a while because I’m an admirer of Elizabeth Gilbert. No, I didn’t read Eat, Pray, Love (I watched the movie, but that doesn’t count) but I did read Big Magic and loved it. Her writing advice and general human-ness she shares on her social media has made her someone I will like for life.

When my book club picked this for our next read, I was excited. I hadn’t yet picked up the book but had been meaning to. Here was my excuse to buy it in all its hardcover beauty.

At 8:43am when I checked the time and my reading progress (if you’re like me this is one of those books that you’ll get so wrapped up in that you’ll lose track of time) I had devoured more than 100 pages. It was then that I knew I would finish this book today.

I was deep into life in New York City in the 1940’s, feeling like I was living in the Lily Playhouse with the characters in the narrator/main character’s story.

The characters that Gilbert created are lovable, laughable, and loathe-able. Makings for a great novel if you ask me. Make me feel something about these fictional folks and I’m in.

You’ll find I’m not one to give away too much plot, or beautiful quotes I loved because I want you to discover them for yourself in the moment Elizabeth meant you to. I have a couple pages dog-eared because of enchanting sentences that I would love to write here, but they were so special to me because of when they showed up in the story.

If this book sounds interesting to you, I’d love nothing more for you to go and find those words for yourself. It’s a story of a life and life itself. Of love and friendship and the things that happen to and around us.

And it’s lovely.