Sic Semper Tyrannis

The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Other than the intriguing subject matter, a real strength of this book is the author's literary style. Weiner is very conversational and humorous at times, but in that unique way that a trained journalist is able... It was a pleasure to read his adventures.

Equally uncomfortable with the "happiness" and positive psychology movements, Weiner doesn't get bogged down in the surprising amount of available research and science and instead presents a (well-informed) regular person's search for what exactly "happiness" is and why it's so elusive and seemingly counterintuitive. For instance, great happiness and misery can be found in similar environments throughout the world--poverty and affluence are no guarantees of either end of the spectrum.

And the author's struggle to face these kinds of contradictions, along with a slew of others, are exactly what made his voice trustworthy and interesting for me.

Part travel book, part soft philosophy book, all worth the couple of days it took to read it!

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posted by Mike @ 4:13 PM