The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the… (2008)

This book is Eat, Pray, Love for the less...I can't think of a word that doesn't sound offensive. I really enjoyed reading about Weiner's travels and I appreciated the lack of finding-yourself anguish. If you want a lighter read than Eat, Pray, Love, I think this could work for you! ( )

I found this strangely cheerless for a book about happiness. It left me feeling vaguely bummed. The best part was the section on Iceland, whose people are so buoyantly and bizarrely cheerful that not even Weiner's smirky snideness could dent it. If I were his editor, I would ban him from using either "bittersweet" or "animus" ever, ever again. He used up his lifetime allotment of both of them over the course of this book. Maybe it was just me, but I feel like you'd get more out of a stack of old National Geographics than from this cranky, superficial read. ( )

Eric Weiner is a grump with a mission -- trying to discover the happiest places in the world, and what makes them that way. From the World Database of Happiness in Rotterdam, Netherlands, to the Gross National Happiness of Bhutan, from binge drinking and happiness in Iceland to binge drinking and unhappiness in Moldova, Weiner travels the world and discovers some of what makes different people happy, and the many paths one can take to get there.

I love Weiner's writing style. Not only did I have fun while learning a lot about happiness as it relates to geographical location, but I now feel inspired to finally get a passport and go traveling. How long this plan will actually take to put into action is yet to be seen, but the desire to travel abroad feels delightfully unique to me.

I really enjoyed reading about the paths to happiness different individuals and different cultures have taken. It's given me a lot to think about (and post about on my blog). ( )

The idea that a place (versus frame of mind, attitude towards the experience, culture, or degree of freedom) has a great amount of power in making one happy is an extremely appealing point of research. However, Eric Weiner was not the best one to successfully complete or convey this research. While Weiner may have interviewed several people while on location, typically making the final edit were socially/relatively-financially prominent people. When describing the destinations, Weiner seemed to exaggerate stereotypes rather than give a true, personal opinion. In the end, the reader is unable to determine if a place does or does not contribute to one's happiness.

While it does have funny moments and the reader may learn some interesting facts about the different locations visited, this is not the book for the reader genuinely interested in determining if location is a major contributing factor to one's overall happiness. ( )