editrix 's review for:

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

---

Fantastic stuff. It’s basically a history of human civilization, with all the most interesting parts set like jewels in a bedazzled pathway leading from Cro-Magnon times to the present. It is loooooong (as is the history of human civilization), but it bounces around from detail to detail and story to story with a lightness that keeps it all peppy and entertaining. I’d pay a pretty price to be able to retain this stuff for later recall. Bryson is also very dryly funny, and I find his voice soothing, so this really worked for me. If you liked his “The Body,” read this; if you like this, read “The Body.”