Every once in a while, you get lucky and everything — EVERYTHING — about an audiobook works. There’s the perfect narrator, the perfect story, and just the right amount of pacing, musical interlude, length, and breadth to the audio that you wish it could go on forever. The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Place on Earth by Eric Weiner (pronounced “whiner”) was that book for me.

Weiner is a correspondent for NPR, and he is the reader on the audio. It’s what you would expect — the intonation is even, the emphasis on certain words and phrases are spot on, and the pacing is even and intentional. There are a lot of people who don’t like when authors read their own works, but in this particular title, I don’t think it could have been done better by another reader.

The premise of this is quite simple: Weiner wanted to go in search of the happiest places in the world and figure out what makes these places so happy. He begins his journey in Holland, and he goes from there onward to Bhutan, then on to Qatar. Within each of these countries, he interviews locals by drawing upon his journalism experience, and with incredible wit and utter respect for the people and customs, he shares what he learns. In addition to sharing the insights into happiness, he offers bits of wisdom from philosophers historical and contemporary.

But this isn’t just a book about happiness. Weiner goes to unhappy places too, including Moldova (the unhappiest place in the world) and India. His insights are at times laugh-out-loud funny, precisely because he is spot on in his observation and utter love for people. Weiner devotes time on this adventure, too, to Iceland, to Thailand, and to Great Britain.

I found it quite interesting that the bulk of his travel was in southeast Asia, particularly given a comment he makes near the end of the book about people in Latin America consistently ranking high on the happiness scale. I wish we could have gotten his take on a Central or South American country, too.

Lest you think Weiner is just interested in telling us about how other places are better than America, the last chapter of his book, along with the epilogue, bring us back to America. What he does in the end of the book is perfect: he brings together all the bits of wisdom collected from both the happy and unhappy corners of the world, and he offers those nuggets. He makes no judgement about who is living better or why they’re living better. Instead, the central premise boils down to the fact that happiness comes down to love and relationships. This point is so cleverly woven into the whole of the story with his own humorous vignettes.

This is a heartwarming but funny, insightful, adventure-filled, and straight up fun read. I love travel narratives like this — almost in the style of Bill Bryson — and listening to it was the ideal way to go. If you like reading about adventures, the notion of happiness, travel, other cultures, or even a book that’s just “different,” this is a winner. If you haven’t tried an audiobook yet, this would be a great place to start. There are no quality issues and no editing issues, and the sound is smooth and crisp through all 11 discs. Weiner maintains a steady narrative, and he speaks clearly, thanks in part to his career with NPR.

The Geography of Bliss would be a perfect go-to for those looking for something after finishing The Happiness Project. Reading them simultaneously was a great experience for me, as I didn’t find myself tired of the topic, but instead, I felt Weiner’s book really informed my reading of Rubin’s personal story.