You Might Be Interested

We can't read everything in book club. Sometimes a book isn't exactly right for RS, and will never make our list, but is worthy of a good read. Except for an occasional biography, I never choose to read nonfiction, yet now I'm completely enthralled with Outliers, and want to pass on this recommendation too. The Geography of Bliss was an award winning book in 2008, written by a former NPR foreign correspondent, Eric Weiner. He is smart and funny and insightful. It's easy to make connections with the places he travels to in this book - I had been to Switzerland, Ty had been to Nepal (the author visits neighboring Bhutan), my friend vacationed in Iceland (after she saw it on The Amazing Race) - and these connections draw you in to his theories on why different places are happier. The book is not for RS (warning, warning) because: He visits the Netherlands and uses pot there, which is legal, but not in line with the Word of Wisdom, and in the Bhutan culture, they hang something that might be offensive (if it wasn't so funny) from their houses to ward off evil spirits. The book is pretty free of swear words, except I remember there were a couple right toward the end. I think he was quoting someone, but I can't remember for sure. You actually could skip the chapters on the Netherlands and Bhutan and still get a lot of pleasure, good quotes, and insight out of this book. I give it two thumbs up, and I really want Nancy Butler to read it.

BSU President, Bob Kustra, interviewed the author a couple weeks ago on his radio program, New Horizons. You can listen to that broadcast at http://radio.boisestate.edu/NewHorizons.html. You can read more about the author and his book here. If you visit Eric Weiner's web site, be sure to go to the page 'Your Happiest Place' and check that out. (I'm really just trying to see how linking works. I hope it does.)