Eat, Pray, Love

When Lisa came into her 30s, she says she felt pressured to get married and have a family. "So I moved across the country to follow that path. When I got there, I realized I was in the wrong place with the wrong person, and I had many, many nights on the bathroom floor," she says. "So I made the decision to leave. I came back and have watched countless friends get married and have babies, and I've always wondered if I made the right decision."

That is, until she found Eat, Pray, Love. "I felt free," she says. "I felt free of that burden and I felt like I knew that I made the right decision. I felt inspired to live a better life."

In the book, Liz enrolls in Italian language classes. That inspired Lisa to also expand her horizons. "Before I even got all the way through Italy [in the book], I enrolled in a Spanish immersion program at Dartmouth for 10 days," Lisa says.