Reading “Radio Shangri-La: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth” by Lisa Napoli will fill you with the urge to grab a knapsack and be on the next flight to Bhutan however reading “Radio Shangri-La: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth” by Lisa Napoli will let you know that this is not a country one visit’s on whim.

For Napoli it took a chance meeting, a volunteer job opportunity and the intense desire to break away from life as she knew it to get this journalist from LA to the tiny Himalayan kingdom where on the surface time had stood still. 

A lot of the press coverage and even the book jacket attach the word 'crisis' to Radio Shangri-La; some become even more clichéd by adding 'midlife'. That nearly lost me as a potential reader but thankfully curiosity prevailed. Napoli’s decision to take her journey was not some peri-menopausal whim. It was a culmination of past and present events - “I yearned for meandering conversations about all thing important, all things banal.” She uses words like ‘searching’ and ‘craving’ but don’t worry there is nothing remotely narcissistic about this memoir.

Of particular interest is her perspective on today’s media especially as it plays an integral part in Napoli's reasoning process. The purging of her book collection, getting rid of the television was a touch preachy but Napoli is quick to reign in any self-absorption. She stays down to earth with the rest of us imperfect mortals and writes that her life is ‘……….. a little more than okay’

Napoli has the tendency to suddenly drop a story line or pick a new train of thought out of thin air. She does the same with some of the people. The book survives because one is so immersed with the main character which is Bhutan itself; complex yet naïve, struggling to understand what its place is in the world.

The author is at times a disenchanted and cynical observer of that world, especially when it comes to the media but it is that very train of thought which enables us to look at Bhutan not through rose coloured glasses but with a thin shred of hope. Will this tiny country modernize themselves but do it their way or is that ultimately an oxymoron?

If you have been feeling a bit jaded about travel memoirs Radio Shangri-La will return your enthusiasm. Whether you load it onto your e-reader or read the hardcover in the backyard this is the perfect read for the summer of 2011

To find out more about Bhutan:

Kingdom of Bhutan

Lisa Napoli

Photo caption:  THIMPHU, BHUTAN - His Majesty Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck greets his people at the ceremonial grounds of The Tendrey Thang on November 6, 2008 in Thimphu, Bhutan. The young Bhutanese king, aged 28, becomes the world's youngest reigning monarch. He was handed the Raven Crown by his father, the former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in an ornate ceremony. Thimpu is the capital of Bhutan, a Himalayan kingdom and Buddhist nation of 635,000 people, wedged geographically between China and India. (Photo by Paula Bronstein)