My mother has made choices in her life, as we all must, and she is at peace with them. I can see her peace. She did not cop out on herself. The benefits of her choices are massive-a long, stable marriage to a man she still calls her best friend; a family that has extended now into grandchildren who adore her; a certainty in her own strength. Maybe some things were sacrificed, and my dad made his sacrifices, too-but who amongst us lives without sacrifice?

The memoir was on the New York Times Best Seller List of non-fiction in the spring of 2006 and in October 2008 after 88 weeks the book was still on the list at number 2. She is best known for her 2006 memoirs Eat Pray Love which as of December 2010 has spent 199 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list and was also made into a film by the same name in 2010. Along with her only sister novelist and historian Catherine Gilbert Murdock Gilbert grew up on a small family Christmas tree farm in Litchfield Connecticut.

Gilbert (born July 18 1969) is an American author essayist short story writer biographer novelist and memoirist. She is best known for her 2006 memoirs Eat Pray Love which as of December 2010 has spent 199 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list and was also made into a film by the same name in 2010.