I have 2 Advance Reader Copies of Radio Shangri-La: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth that I would like to give away. First call will go to folks in the Tri-Cities.
Leave a comment letting me know you would like a copy.
Sentence: Ever a fabulist, he told investigators that Ofuna [prison camp] interrogators were “always kind to prisoners,” that he’d never seen a prisoner abused, and that prisoners rarely complained.
Page: 369
Word: fabulist
Definition:
- A composer of fables.
- A teller of tales; a liar.
You may look fabulous but don’t be a fabulist.
Sentence:
- He got three steps before two rocks caught him, one in the arm and the second in the face, a spray of blood and a crunch of bone and a tooth that flew high in the air as the boy fell backwards as if poleaxed.
- He'd never had much use for art, but he'd been poleaxed by these ones.
Page: 276 & 317
Word: poleaxed
Definition:
- to attack or fell with or as with a poleax (a long-handled battle-ax)
Interesting to find this ‘new to me’ word used both literally and figuratively in the book. I have not had much experience with battle axes but am betting my kids have in their virtual worlds.
Sentence: It was the fighters, gunned by the B-29s, blowing up. The bombers flew on, imperious.
Page: 275
Word: imperious
Definition:
- domineering in a haughty manner; dictatorial; overbearing: an imperious manner; an imperious person.
- urgent; imperative: imperious need.
I guess bombers can fly arrogantly but more likely they were impervious?


