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Jun 29, 2008

Michelle rated it:

What a wonderful surprise this book was! I came upon it by accident and found all of the secrets of life oozing out of the pages. It was funny, and tragic and overwhelming all at the same time. In the tradition of the great across-America reads, it offered little snapshots of our country as Mr. Otto Ringling and his sister's guru journey back to Otto's home to settle some necessary business.

I loved this book as much for the questions, as for the answers.

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Sep 21, 2008

Cheryl rated it:

I am always searching for a book like this: funny, wise, philosophical, magical, but real at the same time. So much fiction that gets awards and rave reviews is so depressing! This book is great if anyone is open to what Buddhism can teach, and if they are skeptical, they will feel instant kinship to the main character who takes a guru (mainly Buddhist, but he incorporates some Taoism and Hinduism and others) on a roadtrip to North Dakota. I am changed just from reading it once, but I will aga More...

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Oct 25, 2007

dina rated it:

There are moments in this book that are great. The chapter when he stays at an inn where he went with his wife is touching and real. There are some sweet moments between the main character and his travel partner...the guru Rinpoche. I liked the idea of the book more than the book but it does have some moments that make it well worth reading.

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Aug 27, 2008

Christina rated it:

This one was found while wandering the stacks of Borders while my husband looked for books for his classroom. It seemed like a funny enough premise so I requested it from the library. What a great way to spend a beautiful afternoon outside with the puppy!!

Well crafted with a very personable first person narrative Mr. Merullo really makes you feel as if you are along for the ride with these two men! At the end of the book he does say that it is based on a similar cross country tr More...

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Feb 04, 2008

Denise rated it:

I lolved this book. It is the story of a man travelling cross country. Through a series of events he ends up taking his sister's friend, a monk, with him. He is totally uncertain of the way thing will go but they end up having a unique relationship. I love the descriptions of the places they go, which are real. Then there is the journey of faith and the understanding of enlightenmnet. It is one of my recent favorites. I learned a lot and it made me think about my beliefs and the state of o More...

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Jan 01, 2009

Deb rated it:

1.5 stars. I wasn't in the mood for this book...
As a friend said, the author does too much navel gazing." I'm glad Merullo is a "seeker of enlightenment", but nothing happened in the book. The 2 main characters, the ordinary middle aged successful "author/editor" and the "guru" he travels with, are not very interesting. The guru's language skills are mediocre, as are all the conversations - and that's what makes up most of the book.
C'mon Novel Wom More...

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Mar 29, 2009

Leslie rated it:

Hmm.. slightly artificial. Maybe the problem I had with the book was that the spiritual journey of the main character was so short, he already lives around the block from Nirvana, he is sensitive, loving and committed. He did not have much to overcome. He already is infatuated with his wife, loves his teens with the adoration of a toddler dad and hasn't really suffered much. Anybody out there have teens? Oh, and did I mention he is not too rich but just rich enough not to need the hefty pro More...

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Feb 25, 2009

Beth rated it:

Road trip! Breakfast with Buddha is a funny, thought-provoking tale of Otto, a middle-aged, food-book editor who gets roped into driving cross-country (from New Jersey to North Dakota) with guru, Volya Rinpoche. Otto believes he is taking this trip with his New Age sister, Cecilia, to sort through their family-farm estate after the sudden death of their parents. But, when he arrives she informs him that she's giving her part of the estate to Rinpoche and thinks it would be helpful for Otto to More...

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Sep 21, 2008

lee lee rated it:

honestly, i didn't care for this book. i couldn't really get into the plot and i thought merullo's characterization was weak. the premise is semi-interesting, so i'm sure he could've done a better job with the writing. however, i still don't think he could've convinced me of his "moral," which seems to be that you can always be more spiritual/a better person than who you are now. while i definitely believe in growth and growth potentials, right now i'm more preoccupied with accepting More...

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Aug 01, 2011

Jen rated it:

I was a little worried when I picked up Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo at the library and saw above the title that he was also the author of Golfing with God. I thought my book group had picked something from a hokey theology-lite series designed to provide self-help of some sort. What would be next? “Shuffleboard with Shiva”? “Mumblety-Peg with Mohammed”?

I was wrong to worry. It may be part of a series, but it was not hokey. This was, perhaps, exactly the book I needed to read at More...

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Jun 23, 2010

Cathy rated it:

I started out really likeing this book. It was funny, entertaining, and I liked the many ways of seeing God that were presented. The narrator is on a road trip back to his parent's house to settle their estate. They were both killed in a car accident. He ends up taking along a passenger as a favor to his sister. This passenger is a sort of monk or holy man. At first he is very skeptical, but by the time they reach their desitnation he is sold on the wisdom and almost deity of his passenger. More...

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Jun 18, 2010

Frank Jude rated it:

I really like the narrator of this book. He's a regular guy with an above average level of self-awareness, but held back from the full open engagement with life that we can all fall victim to all too easily. There's humor and good social observation throughout.

The title, however, is a bit misleading. Author Merullo acknowledges sources as diverse as Thomas Merton and 'real' Buddhists such as Pema Chodron, Trungpa Rinpoche and Thich Nhat Hanh but also the new-agey Scott Peck. The " More...

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Feb 27, 2010

Karen rated it:

Just now I finished a book that was the most spiritual moving I have read in a long time and the funniest! I am reeling with its images.

It is “Breakfast with the Buddha” by Roland Merullo. A novel.

“Otto Ringling is a food-book editor and a happily married father of two living in a New York suburb. After Otto's North Dakota parents are killed in a car crash, he plans to drive his ebulliently New Age sister, Cecilia, back home to sell the family farm. But when Otto ar More...

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Dec 23, 2009

Laura added it

I don’t understand why I enjoyed this book so much. I stopped about 1/3 f the way through, but then picked it back up and just kept reading. It felt like a non fiction essay – full of one man’s search for truth and enlightenment kind of thing. It was written in the first person and had all the trials and tribulations, doubt and skepticism that usually accompanies such essays. But it is fiction. In a little afterward the author explain that he trip across the country was one he had made, so More...

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May 23, 2009

Kristine rated it:

Humorous but thoughtful. Volya Rinpoche from Siberia who spent a few years in jail in Siberia meets the VOICE of the story-- Otto Ringling, a 40 year old brother of Cecilia. Otto is an editor with a specialty in food books. Volya is a writer/monk. Cecelia has a fear of planes and flying. Otto and Cecelia's parents were killed by a drunk driver, leaving a 2000 acre farm in western North Dakota. Cecelia wants her "share" of the inheritance to go to the monk for a meditation retrea More...

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May 22, 2009

Wendi rated it:

This is one of my new favorite books. I saw so much of myself in Otto Ringling - the struggle of living what I would consider a good life but still feeling like something is missing. I don't mean for this "review" to be so long, but I feel this true connection to this book, to Otto and the journey he was on. It's my journey too.

Grew up learning about Christianity on my own. I mean, my mom gave me a head start taking me to church when I was little and then periodically after More...

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Nov 20, 2011

Chris rated it:

Review of Breakfast With Buddha by Roland Merullo

This book was what I call an ‘Introduction To Why’. It is a prelude to a vibrant thought life, ushering us to a mindset in which we contemplates our meaning in the world. In the rush of modern society and the technology advances that keep us spinning from one noise to another, quiet moments of reflection are becoming more and more scarce. The ‘why’ of our existence is becoming increasingly frowned upon as wasted time and a distraction More...

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Apr 29, 2010

Claire rated it:

when Otto's salt of the earth parents die in an untimely auto wreck, Otto knows he will have to go back to the farmstead to settle the estate with his new age (to him- nutcake) sister. This requires a car trip from New York to South Dakota because his sister will not fly.

After procrastinating, he settles a date to pick Cecelia up. When he arrives,Cecelia has pulled a switch- she wants Otto to take her guru on the 6-day trip. She is giving her portion of the extremely valuable farm t More...

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Aug 07, 2009

Michael rated it:

A little too much of the author's thinking about what he wants the reader to get from this shows - that is, the story clearly proceeds as it does to serve the author's purpose and not to provide a story that is engaging or plausible. It sometimes seems almost like a religious tract.

Well - actually it <is> a tract, I suppose. And using this approach of explaining a life philosophy through a novel may have some advantages over a book that gets filed in the "how to" More...

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Aug 18, 2009

Christine rated it:

I would give this a 3.5 stars - I more than 'liked it', but I less than 'really liked it'. The ending rankled me - I don't know why, I need to examine that a bit more I guess...but overall it was a cute book and it made me think. At times I thought deeply and at other times I knew I could think deeply but chose not to yet still enjoyed the story. I liked the book for that purpose - it opened up avenues for thought, but if you chose to read it as a 'roadie book', well, that was okay too (alth More...

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Jun 30, 2011

Robert rated it:

This was a book club selection. I thought this was a very good book. I am impressed by people that can discuss profound concepts with humor. I think these people really have a lot of intelligence. This book is the story of a journey taken by a "regular guy" in the company of a Guru. I have studied small amounts of Buddhist doctrine. Strictly speaking the "Buddhism" presented in the story is not strictly doctrinal in my opinion. The story was told in an engaging way. I More...

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Mar 11, 2011

Songbird rated it:

I read "Breakfast with Buddha" for our church book group, and I'm sorry to say I didn't finish it before the discussion. Others felt it was light-weight or fluffy. I wouldn't call it that. Merullo uses humor to make an exploration of deep matters accessible. The characters were effectively drawn. I enjoyed the road trip details, especially the narrator's enjoyment of different cuisines and his effort to show Volya Rinpoche some "American fun." Their adventures with "bohl More...

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Apr 13, 2009

Vince rated it:

I am surprised that I liked this one-I usually hate books from the genre of "novels with a spiritual message." This is probably due to the fact that many writers of the form have such a ham-handed touch (Yann Martel, you awful hack, I am looking right at you-I have never wanted a tiger to eat people so badly as I did while enduring "Life of Pi"). In this case, though, the story carries you right along, and Merullo leaves the reader to take what they want from his superficia More...

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Nov 23, 2008

Paula rated it:

A wonderful book that I never would have read were it not for my bookclub choosing to read it this month. Even though the situation and characters involved in the road trip described in the book are fictional, the actual road trip itself along with the places where the travelers ate is true. This combination of autobiography/fiction is compelling, and the honesty of the writing is apparent and not overbearing.

If one considers some of the other books written by Merullo, one can tell t More...

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Mar 02, 2009

Cosmic Sher rated it:

This is one of those books that jumped off the shelf and asked "Take me Home. You need to read me!". And I'm glad I listened.

The book was a fun little meandering road of Otto's thoughts as he experiences an unusual trip with a spiritual guide. (or is he, really?) I won't spoil it. But, I think anyone can relate to the trip, see the similar emotions that come up when we face the walls that we've put up around us and decide if it's time to take them down. I think it had many More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Oct 10, 2009

Sarah rated it:

What do you do when life gives you the unexpected? Otto Ringling has been coasting along on his successful editing career, with the support of a loving wife and two well behaved teenagers. Tragedy strikes when his parents are killed by a drunk driver near their North Dakota farm. Otto and his sister haven’t been particularly close throughout the years. He’s grounded while she’s more focused on cosmic energy and the power of meditation. It’s not that he’s opposed to alternative viewpoints; h More...

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May 10, 2011

Tita rated it:

I enjoyed this read. 3.5 stars... It's a novel about an ordinary middle-aged American white man, Otto Ringling, who is going through a mid-life transition. After losing his parents Otto plans a road trip across America to settle their estate. Otto's carefree, and intuitive sister was supposed to accompany him, but instead she has tricked Otto into making the trip with a spiritual guru instead. Otto takes Rinpoche across America, and opens his mind to the teachings of the spiritual leader, whil More...

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Apr 04, 2010

Jen rated it:

The Boston Globe described this book as "Enlightenment meets On the Road" so I had high hopes. But Merullo is no Kerouac, and this is no Dharma Bums - instead, it's sort of like Nicholas Sparks for spirituality. I had to fight off initial irritibility with the author because it seemed like he was trying to cast an annoyingly Sparks-like net - the protagonist, Otto, describes himself on page 1 as "Mr. Ordinary - good husband, good father, average looking, average height, middle-of- More...

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Feb 05, 2009

Bookmarks Magazine added it

With Breakfast with Buddha, Roland Merullo, the author of seven books, including the critically acclaimed Revere Beach Trilogy and A Little Love Story (HHHH Selection Jan/Feb 2006), takes on one of the oldest and most popular literary genres��the road novel. Authors from Chaucer to Twain to Kerouac have already written journey-focused masterpieces, and some critics pointed out that Merullo isn't necessarily doing anything new in this novel. However, as the Washington Post declares, "Yes, it

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Jan 26, 2009

Tim rated it:

Lauren Averill dragged me kicking and screaming into this novel, and I became quickly absorbed into the world of Otto Ringling, the narrator, a cynic and skeptic and very good man, who takes a road trip with his sister's lover and spiritual leader, Rinpoche. Because Otto was so like me in his pragmatism and sense of purpose, he was as put off as I am by the meditative drivel being spewed by this Zen master. And yet, slowly, the two become friends and discuss essential questions of life. While I More...

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