Ten travel books like Eat Pray Love to read next.
When I first read Eat Pray Love (many years ago), it was a favorite. I was taken by the way Elizabeth Gilbert shared her story with the chatty, TMI abandon of a friend, three strong, spicy margaritas deep into a conversation. She joked and teased and joked and teased. She showed her lows, her loneliness. She divulged her delusions, and she did so humorously (gamely knocking herself down from the pedestals she placed herself atop of).
On the days leading up to the 20th anniversary of Eat Pray Love, I reread Gilbert’s first memoir. There were quotes that charmed me and chapters that frustrated me. I imagined Gilbert as a (messy, erratic, witty) Sophie Kinsella-style rom-com protagonist bopping from Italy to India to Indonesia (the descriptions of all three countries, glowy and gleaming).
I wanted to read more travelogues after Eat Pray Love. And if you do too, here are ten travel books like Eat Pray Love to satisfy your wanderlust. Most of these books are former Eden Travel Book Club picks; some are similar to Eat Pray Love in themes, others in tone, but all of these stories remind me of Eat Pray Love in some small way.
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10 Travel Books Like Eat Pray Love
Luca Spaghetti
Un Amico Italiano
Un Amico Italiano is a memoir best binged right after reading Eat Pray Love (or watching the film). The subtitle is Eat, Pray, Love in Rome, but that’s not quite how the book flows. Luca Spaghetti (the Luca Spaghetti mentioned in the book and movie) details his upbringing in Rome, his love of American music (and James Taylor), his first coast-to-coast trip to America (from New York to California), and his friendship with Elizabeth Gilbert. Spaghetti writes earnestly, yet the memoir feels disjointed. It’s personable but a whole stadium away from personal. Because it’s so guarded, I think of Un Amico Italiano as the bookish version of a straight-to-DVD bonus feature – a goofy, easy read that adds a new perspective to Eat Pray Love.
Kamin Mohammadi
Bella Figura
Bella Figura recounts a fashion journalist’s year in Florence; 2008 was the year Kamin Mohammadi learned about bella figura, a way of romanticizing life, slowing down, and leaning into beautiful moments. Each chapter begins with a little list: fresh produce in season (blood oranges in January), the scent of the city (iris and acacia in May), and an Italian word of the month (tranquillità in November). Then segues into Mohammadi’s time in Italy (mostly, her dating life). In between are vivid descriptions of Florence, memories of Iran, and over a dozen simple recipes. Pinzimonio, ribollita, bistecca fiorentina (Mohammadi never misses a chance to pull out her highest-quality extra virgin olive oil). For those whose favorite parts of Eat Pray Love were the spotlights on pretty Italian words and the pleasures of Italian food.
Cheryl Strayed
Wild
After drowning in grief in the years following her mother’s death, Cheryl Strayed pulls herself onto the Pacific Crest Trail. There, she hikes and hikes and hikes, from the Mojave Desert in California to the Bridge of the Gods in Oregon. Strayed moves forward slowly, step by step; she crosses 1,100 miles. She finds her strength. Wild forgoes the buoyancy of Eat Pray Love. Strayed’s memoir is weighed by emotional baggage as heavy as her physical baggage (her pack is even nicknamed Monster). Wild is fierce and gritty, our first-ever Eden Travel Book Club pick and one of my favorite memoirs of all time.
Tembi Locke
From Scratch
From Scratch is the (true) story of an American actress who finds love and chooses love, even after her lover is gone. When her husband, Saro, a Sicilian chef, dies, Tembi Locke returns to Italy. There, she reconnects with Saro’s family, slowly, over three summers. Locke describes Sicily (its roving vendors, fields, and foothills) with warmth and tenderness. She heals through food, from a shallow bowl of lentils and pasta (prepared by her mother-in-law, Nonna) to a tall pile of fresh fava beans (harvested in memory of Saro’s favorite spring dish). From Scratch is one of the most moving travel memoirs I’ve ever read and a love story for the ages.
Sara Dykman
Bicycling With Butterflies
When Sara Dykman pedaled for nine months on a makeshift bicycle along the spring and fall routes of Monarch migrations, she did so intentionally, her 10,201-mile trek across three countries (Mexico, The United States, and Canada) doubling as a howling plea for conservation. Bicycling With Butterflies is a journey marked by Dykman’s stubbornness, confidence, recklessness, and intense passion for environmentalism. One of my favorite lines from the memoir: “No one could know for sure if they were on the right path, but one could have a feeling. I had a feeling, at that moment, that I was not lost; I was where I needed to be, heading toward something bigger than myself.”
Hisham Matar
A Month In Siena
A Month In Siena is Hisham Matar’s follow-up to The Return (a memoir about legacy, loss, and exile). In 2017, the Pulitzer Prize committee described The Return as “a first-person elegy for home and father that examines with controlled emotion the past and present of an embattled region.” A Month In Siena is not an elegy, though; it is a travelogue. Quiet, reflective, and short (under 150 pages). A series of musings on Sienese paintings. Matar reacts to the art he sees in Siena, as he paints his own inner world onto narrow alleyways and the medieval walls that circle the city.
Elizabeth Von Arnim
The Enchanted April
The first three-fourths of The Enchanted April is delightfully transportive. When Mrs. Wilkins sees an advertisement in The Times that reads, “To Those who Appreciate Wistaria and Sunshine. Small mediaeval Italian Castle on the shores of the Mediterranean,” she starts daydreaming about April in Italy and can’t stop. Italy is stuck in her mind, and she sees herself there. So she flees London’s wet, rainy days with three other women (who couldn’t be more different) and journeys to The Riviera on a holiday meant to be free of men. The Enchanted April is a classic, originally published in 1922. It was the Eat Pray Love of its time, a story that made English women pluck their bags and jaunt off to Italy on girls’ trips during the Interwar Period.
Jenna Evans Welch
Love & Gelato
Love & Gelato is one of my favorite young adult travel books (and travel romance books). The story is charming, a soft (and truly gelato-sweet) mix of Eat Pray Love, Mamma Mia, and Letters To Juliet. When Lina Emerson’s mom passes away, she moves to her father’s home in Tuscany. There, she pores over a journal her mom wrote while living in Florence and (with the help of her cute Italian neighbor) sees Italy through her mom’s eyes. Lina falls in love with (and in) Italy. Love & Gelato is a hope-filled, coming-of-age story with dreamy, armchair travel descriptions of Florence.
Rebecca Asher et al.
Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It
Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It is an essay collection that celebrates the popularity of Eat Pray Love. Women (from all backgrounds) share the decisions they made, the leaps they took, and the places they traveled to as a result of Gilbert’s memoir. I love the concept; in execution, each essay is as gushy as a thank-you letter, the stories merging into a yes-woman chorus upon each repetition of “thank you, Liz”. But given the divisiveness of Eat Pray Love (and its chick-lit mislabeling), this was a book that needed to be made to show just how powerful a memoir can be. P.S. The Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It audiobook is a full-cast production, which I am always partial to.
Andrew Sean Greer
Less
In many ways, Less, by Andrew Sean Greer, feels like a satire of Eat Pray Love. Writer (Arthur Less) travels the world to avoid a wedding. He hops from country to country (Germany, India, Morocco) to escape his problems; Gilbert hops from country to country (Italy, India, Indonesia) to embrace her problems. Yet, both books stick the literal definition of flight into fight-or-flight response. Both are light-hearted, comedic, and witty, with cheery, uplifting endings. Both feature characters who travel from positions of privilege (Less comments on the privilege more). And when read after Eat Pray Love, Less reveals how easily the lines of running towards and running away can blur. Movement does not always equate to self-improvement. Less is proof.
Did you enjoy this list of travel books like Eat Pray Love? What are your favorite books like Eat Pray Love? Let me know in the comments below!
Loved the list. Thanks for the recommendations 🙂