Rating: 
Summary: hypnotic
Review: This was one of those books that jumped into my hands (you know that experience?) Usually, I am not easily impressed with travel writers, but this is an exception. Jamie Zeppa is courageously honest and brutal in her confession of falling in love with a landscape, and a people. With her idealism, struggles with disappointment and personal growth and failures. A fantastic summer read, I laughed out loud with her (some parts are hilarious), and cried. I am torn between wishing success for this gifted author and this incredible book, and the desire to keep Bhutan a secret. (At least until I can see it for myself. Her book made Bhutan a place I now know I MUST see)
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Summary: Some of these reviews are thoughtless
Review: Before criticizing an author who has undoubtedly poured years of sweat and toil into her first book, some of these reviewers should look a little closer at themselves. A memoir--and this book IS a memoir--is "self-centered" by its very nature. It is about one person's experience, and their particular view of the world through that lens. To criticize a memoirist for writing too much "about herself" is like criticizing a biographer for writing to much "about someone else." If you wanted a travel guide, to Fodor's with you. Instead what you got is a very honest description of a young woman's trials and tribulations in a very foreign country. Some of this took courage to write, too, and we should respect that, rather than trying to use some of that honesty (some brief passages about her sex life, for example) against her.
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Summary: Beyond The Sky And The Earth
Review: I was instantly engulfed in this book. Ms. Zeppa is honest and self-searching. Her questioning, frustrations, growth, eagerness to learn and experience is refreshing and challenging. She is not afraid to share her imperfections, her sometimes selfishness and her inner conflict. The book gives insight into the culture, tremendous landscape, history and people of Bhutan. This is not a History book or travel guide. If you are looking for that, read something else. This is a travel memoir and an honest one that challenges the mind and spirit and encourages you to let go and not be held back by all the "what if...s in life."
Rating: 
Summary: Too Self Centered
Review: It is difficult to imagine how someone who spent three years teaching in a geographically isolated, culturally unfamiliar, and economically impoverished country could possibly come across as shallow and self centered, but Jamie Zeppa manages to pull it off in her book "Beyond the Sky and the Earth : A Journey into Bhutan." A Canadian, Zeppa began her journey as a teacher in Bhutan teaching young children in the eastern part of that country. The first half of the book covers those experiences as well as her efforts to deal with the inevitable culture shock, and adjustments to her unfamiliar surroundings. She covers this material reasonably effectively as she slowly begins to adjust to her new life and falls in love with the nation of Bhutan and its people. But things go woefully wrong in the second half when she gets transferred to teach at a college in the western section of the country. Here Zeppa seems to want to have it both ways - developing a somewhat snide attitude towards the western values she left behind in Canada while at the same time using those values to come dangerously close to passing judgment on many aspects of Bhutanese culture. Even worse is the uncaring attitude she takes concerning the sexual relationships she develops with not one, but two, of her students (one is a one night stand, the other an ongoing relationship which eventually results in pregnancy). This behavior on her part results in uneasiness and apprehension, not because of its thoroughly unprofessional nature, but because she seemingly is only worried about being caught. By this point the book has taken on a rather unpleasant tone in which Zeppa seems more interested in talking about herself than about the nation of Bhutan and her observations there. This is unfortunate as the premise of this book could have resulted in compelling reading. Maybe there is one out there.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Travel Writing
Review: I loved this book. A wonderful example of personal travel writing--a very personal memoir. In addition to beautifully describing the countryside, some of her insights were quite interesting--the lack of privacy in the culture, the obedience to authority. Her appreciation of and eventual conversion to Buddhism helped me really understand in a very different way the nature of this most un-western form of spirituality. I too was a little disappointed in the second half of the book where her falling in love interferes with the very compelling story of ethnic tensions, and I did think the ending was a bit of a cop out--"oh,well--cultural differences"--unexplained reason for her separation. Still, having been to Nepal and seeing just a glimpse of the things she writes about, a must read for people visiting that part of the world.
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Summary: Not what I was expecting
Review: Granted, this isn't quite what I had in mind. I was hoping for a book about the country of Bhutan from the standpoint of its culture, society, history, its people, and its place in a world that it has, in large part, intentionally shut itself off from. Instead this book is more a personal memoir in which the nation of Bhutan serves as a backdrop to the authors thoughts, experiences and philosophy. This is not to say that the book isn't quite interesting at times. The first half of the book, especially, does bring in some of the elements I was looking for, and the author is to be commended for her willingness to not paint an overly sentimental portrait of the Himalayan kingdom as when she openly discusses, in the second half the ethnic tensions that have at times resulted in violence in Bhutan. Perhaps the 'west' does not have a monopoly on ethnic cleansing after all. But more often then not the author makes herself the center of the book with Bhutan acting as an observer rather then the other way around. I was really not interested in how many of her students she slept with or with her excessive hand wringing over whether or not to return to Canada. While I'm sure her ultimate conversion to Buddhism is most sincere, too often she comes across as just another of the many privileged westerners who are helping to turn Buddhism into the latest the latest trendy fad.
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Summary: A Story of Charm and Fascination
Review: Jamie Zeppa's book can be broken into 2 parts. The first part being a wonderful account of her journey from a safe middle North American town to a place far from the nearest McDonalds. The second part being a romantic story between her and a Bhutanese man. The first part captures Bhutan wonderfully; its culture, lifestyle and idiosyncrasies that only a country like Bhutan can enjoy and get away with. Her experiences, concerns and delights and the way she portrays them adds colour and meaning to the story that she is telling. Her syntax and charm only enhances the story that unfolds page by page. The second part, the romantic story, falls short in its ability to continue the exploration. The book started to feel flat as her beau obsessed her. It seemed as though, through her love obsession, she missed events going on around here and her ability to explore them. The narrative was of a twenty-something college love relationship; spiced up by the fact that she was the teacher. I feel she could have leveraged off the charm of the first part of the book and explored the issues of her relationship and the events going on around her. At the end of the book she did comment on "relationship problems" they encountered, and one wonders if one day we will get to know what they were, for that is surely part of her experiences of Bhutan. But I must say this is a wonderful book for anybody who wants to explore Bhutan, or who has been there, and has cherished memories of the place.
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Summary: Bhutan through the eyes of a self-centered writer
Review: Jamie Zeppa joined the Canadian equivalent of the Peace Corp to experience life as a teacher in Bhutan. We see the experience through her eyes--the culture shock, followed by her enchantment with these innocent, nonmaterialistic people. Then, she's transferred from a remote elementary school to a college (actually more of a secondary school), where she becomes aware of the ethnic and religious conflict (Buddhist vs Hindu). Some of her students are taken by the police in the night for questioning and worse. However, it's hard to like this writer. It's surprising that she's unaware of the Hindu-Buddhist conflict until page 190 of the book. She unthinkingly gets involved in a religious protest; she ignores her closest friend during the friend's personal crisis. She has sex with two of her students, but this doesn't seem to bother her because she sees her desires as pure. One wonders what would happen to a secondary teacher in her hometown that decided to sleep with students, but Zeppa gives little thought of how her actions affect others. She gets pregnant, married, and separated. The book is an interesting introduction to Bhutan, but the author seems unaware of how badly she comes across.
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Summary: Travel to Bhutan Without Hopping on A Plane
Review: I @ first read this book for a high school literary analysis paper...my genre being travel essays. Unlike the works of Bryson and Kraukaur, Zeppa really shared her expirience vividly. She wrote about dreams I have had of a certain paradise. There was a certain romance in reading this book. Indeed there was romance as Jamie's desire brought her to fall in love with a Bhutanese man. Bhutan has definatly caught my spirit. Thanks to Jamie Zeppa. She proves that detail in writing lets you go somewhere in spirit. Whether you are traveling to Bhutan or wanting a good travel essay...Beyond the Sky and the Earth will bring your heart to tears and joy. This is a good book!
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Summary: Among my list of favorite books.
Review: Jamie writes a beautiful account of Bhutan & it's people. And although she would like to believe that it is an ideal existence - a shangri la, she soon realises that every country has it's own unique problems. This however does not prevent Jamie from falling in love with Bhutan & the way of life. After adjusting to living with no electricity, no running water, a drastic change in diet, language problems & the local bus aptly named the 'vomit comet', Jamie's mind finally arives in Bhutan. Gradually, through letters to her boyfriend she finds a widening gap between her new life & life in Canada. So much so that on returning home for a visit, she finds her former life to be a complete culture shock & shortens her stay. Her tales of the school children in the village of Pema Gatshel are both amusing & heartwarming. This is a society where children revere their teachers. Jamies acknoledges that that these children have taught her a lot more than she was able to teach them. A must for anyone with an interest in Bhutan, the Himalayan region, Buddhism & teaching in a foreign country.
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