Reclining on my sofa I stole occasional glimpses out the window in between chapters; Denver was getting dumped on by Mother Nature in a serious way. Approximately 20" of snow covered the ground outside my home and it was still coming down. It almost seemed masochistic to read Peter Rudiak-Gould's first book, Surviving Paradise: One Year on a Disappearing Island, about his time spent teaching English in the tropical Marshall Islands.

Rudiak-Gould traveled to Ujae, a Marshall Island, where...