I heard customer #1 saying that she enjoyed Eat, Pray, Love most of all for its introspective tone and chronicling of self-growth leavened with humor; as such, I’d recommend she try Anne Lamott’s books, especially Traveling  Mercies which is Lamott’s very honest, and sometimes quite funny, accounting of her spiritual journey.  Since #1 was also drawn to the foreign locale in Gilbert’s book, she might like  Alice Steinbach’s Without Reservations in which Steinbach writes of her travels in Europe whilst rediscovering herself.

Before I’d offer customer #2 some ideas, I’d have to ask another question or two to determine if she didn’t like Twilight because it was too fluffy…or too serious. If she was looking for a more literary vampire read, I’d suggest Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian which takes a more scholarly, and, well, historical, approach combined with the suspense of a dark and gradually unfolding thriller.  If she is looking for more action without the angst, I’d direct her to the Sookie Stackhouse series, which are fast-paced books with plenty of fighting, plot twists, and sexy encounters rather than angsty drawn-out romance.

Customer #3 sounds likes she enjoys non-fiction outdoor adventure and history, so I’d offer her Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson; it’s the exciting story of two recreational scuba divers who discover an WWII u-boat sunk off the New Jersey coast and then, with repeated perilous dives, try to solve the mystery of the identification of this uncharted wreck. I’d also tell her about Manhunt, James Swanson’s account of chasing down John Wilkes Booth, which reads like a thriller.