travel

Thank you for participating in this month's book discussion! If you were unable to pick up a copy of The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner, it is never to late to read the book and join the discussion. Feel free to post your comments any time by visiting The Reader's Den!

If you enjoyed the book, here are a few more titles you might like:

Avoiding Prison and Other Noble Vacation Goals by Wendy Dale
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

Join us next month as we discuss Anne Enright's The Gathering!

I hope you have been enjoying The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner. Here are a few discussion questions to think about as you finish up the book. Feel free to post your own thoughts and comments!

• Do you think Eric Weiner achieved his goal in finding the happiest places around the world?
• A few of the places mentioned in the book such as Iceland and Thailand seemed like surprising places to find happiness. Were you surprised by some of the locations that he picked?
• What locations around the world would you have assumed to be the happiest places?
• After visiting Switzerland and Qatar, what do you think is Weiner's conclusion about wealth and happiness?
• If you were to visit any of the places mentioned in the book, where would you go and why?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments!

Eric Weiner, the author of The Geography of Bliss, has been a correspondent for National Public Radio since 1993 and has been assigned to work in various places across the globe including India, Jerusalem, Iraq, and more. Weiner reported on serious topics in these places, so The Geography of Bliss allowed him to cover new territory and happier topics. In his introduction he ponders, "What if, I wondered, I spent a year traveling the globe, seeking out not the world's well-trodden trouble spots but, rather, its unheralded happy places?"

You can find out more about Eric Weiner by visiting his website. Be sure to click on the "photos" tab to see pictures from Weiner's stay in Bhutan. Stop by The Reader's Den next week for discussion questions!

For some of us, taking an exotic vacation this summer just isn't in our budget, but sometimes it's nice (and maybe a little bit cheaper) to live vicariously through other travelers' stories. Join The Reader's Den this month as we travel with Eric Weiner in his book, The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World.

In this non-fiction travel book, you'll venture to Switzerland, Iceland, Great Britain, and more in Weiner's search for some happy places across the world. The Geography of Bliss is also a non-fiction pick on this year's adult summer reading list! Make sure to visit The Reader's Den to follow the discussion and post your comments about the book.

So take a trip to your local library and pick up a copy of The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner. It will be the cheapest vacation you take all summer.

This is one of my favorite images from the million and a half items held by the NYPL’s Picture Collection. Of course, I haven’t seen them all, and if you ask my co-workers they’ll tell you that I usually work with pictures about ships, airplanes, battles and weird animals like bats, insects and snakes. But this image really stirs me. Every few months I take it from its folder (labeled FAMILY LIFE – 1950s) and revisit it to remind me of the evocative power of art from another time. This picture stands for all the reasons we save it and other pictures for the public to use and enjoy.

It’s an illustration from an elementary school level reading book, and it shows a family getting ready to leave after a visit to relatives on a farm. It’s dated 1951, but still has a strong late-40’s feel, especially in the car with its small-windowed, round-fendered “roadster” look so unlike the plumper, chrome-adorned autos we associate with the Eisenhower era and which turned into the big-finned “land yachts” of the Kennedy years. Look how the artist has captured the behavior of the animals: the dog pulls back from the baby’s outthrust hand, while the cat leans into the ear-scratching given by the little girl. A chicken comes running to see what all the fuss is about. Father is opening the trunk of the car. He has his jacket and hat ready to go with those suit pants because, even though he may have gone around with his tie off and top button of his shirt undone, he’s going back the city now, and men have to dress for this. The young boy wears a straw hat as a memento, but his Mom has a hat and high heels. Grandpa (in overalls) and Grandma (in her apron) are bringing a farewell gift of fresh vegetables and eggs to take back to the suburbs.

Yes, it’s idealized, and even a little corny (no pun intended!), but it speaks to me in so many ways. I love the trim neatness of the farm buildings against the blue sky. I feel the undertones of modest prosperity and the strength of family ties. I’m reminded that there’s a whole country beyond the borders of New York City, with real people whose work feeds us all, and whom we often dismiss from our lofty urban perch. It all makes me try to imagine the classrooms where this book would have been used. What did the kids there do after school? Where did their parents work, and what did they watch on TV? It’s almost too clean and perfect, and all the faces are white.

It’s very much a product of its era, and I know this. But it still suggests how America wanted to see itself at the time it was made. To me, it’s as evocative of its era as anything by a Greek black-figure vase painter, Breugel or David Hockney. It’s an America I just missed seeing, and perhaps that’s why it appeals to me so strongly.