Radio Shangri-la: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth in Around the World in 80 Books

Mar 14, 2011 Jayme Pendergraft rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2011, around-the-world-in-80-books

I won this book on Read it Forward.

I really enjoyed this book. A lot of people compared it to Eat Pray Love but I actually liked this quite a bit better. Lisa set out to contribute, whereas I don't think Elizabeth Gilbert really had that in mind.

This memoir is set in the tiny Kingdom of Bhutan, a place I had heard of but wasn't really sure where it was or if it was its own country. Until a few years ago, Bhutan did not have any connection to the outside world, not tv, no internet, nothing.

Lisa ...more

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Aug 07, 2011 Mary rated it liked it

Lisa Napoli was in the grip of a crisis, dissatisfied with her life and her work as a radio journalist. When a chance encounter with a handsome stranger presented her with an opportunity to move halfway around the world, Lisa left behind cosmopolitan Los Angeles for a new adventure in the ancient Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan—said to be one of the happiest places on earth. I loved the anecdotes on Bhutan as I had visited there around the same time as the author, and found them to be true. However, ...more

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Jun 26, 2011 Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance rated it liked it

Shelves: adventure, travel, happiness, nonfiction

What's going on when a country bravely tosses the idea of measuring a society's worth in GNP and seizes upon attempting to measure it instead with Gross National Happiness? I've always been curious about Bhutan. Sadly, Napoli reveals in this book that the food in Bhutan is abysmal, but in every other way Napoli finds a small Eden, epitomized by the fact that Bhutan is a country where the king's phone number is actually published in the local phone book.

(Side note: Just when I was feeling all goo ...more

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