‘Committed’ (Books)

First comes “Eat, Pray, Love,” then comes marriage for best-selling author Elizabeth Gilbert, whose latest travel memoir describes her fitful and resistant journey back into matrimony.

“Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage” is a good effort but comes up a bit short. It’s hard to have much empathy for a woman who finds herself forced to marry her Brazilian lover, who is, by all accounts, the man of her dreams.

The sequel picks up where “Eat, Pray, Love” left off, with Gilbert happily in love with — but legally unattached to — her Brazilian boyfriend. Both are divorced and fearful of marriage.

Then Homeland Security intervenes. Gilbert’s boyfriend is detained at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and denied entry because he had unknowingly made too many frequent trips to the U.S. The couple are advised they must marry to make him a citizen if they ever want to reside in the United States.

Gilbert retains her delightfully chatty writing style, but many pages are spent recounting her research on marriage, which starts to feel like a book report.

Skyzoo (Music)

After hearing all the underground hoopla about Skyzoo’s “The Salvation,” it was refreshing to listen to an entire album and not feel the need to quickly press the skip button.

Skyzoo, who released a series of successful mixtapes, completely delivers on each of the 16 tracks of his debut album, released in late September. It was also comforting to listen hear the Brooklyn rapper hold down the entire album with his potent rhymes without a featured rapper.

Each track also has solid production, most notably from Just Blaze on “Return of the Real” and 9th Wonder on five tracks, including the album’s single, “The Beautiful Decay.”

There are several solid tracks like “Dear Whoever,” “The Necessary Evils” and “Maintain,” making it tough to pick a favorite one. He raps with clarity, painting a picture on top of nice beats that’ll keep the listener wanting to learn more about Skyzoo.

‘Psycho Too’ (Books)

“Psycho Too” by Will Self begins with a mini-epic journey from the home of writer J.G. Ballard in England to a sinking archipelago of sand called “The World” off the coast of Dubai.

The link between Ballard’s impending death from prostate cancer and the trip to “a collection of artificial islands scooped out of the Arabian Sea, and bulldozed into an approximation of the world’s landmasses,” isn’t entirely clear, but Self enjoys a good hike and spins a good yarn along the way.

The rest of the book is made up of 50 collected newspaper columns and they suffer from being considerably shorter than the opening essay’s 60 odd pages.

Self’s finely wrought literary style is better suited for the long haul, and confined to a couple of pages, he often appears to be just getting started when he has to finish.

“Psycho Too” is illustrated by Ralph Steadman, best known for working with the late “new journalism” pioneer Hunter S. Thompson.