It's another book review! I rented At Home: A Short History of Private Life, by Bill Bryson, digitally from the Boston Public Library. Bill Bryson is one of my favorite authors generally, and probably one of my top two favorite non-fiction writers. What sets Bryson apart from other non-fiction writers is his sense of humor. Although his books are not usually laugh-out-loud funny (although, they can be), a tremendous amount of information is always provided through a steady stream of wit, and At Home is no exception. Bryson, an American living in a 19th century English rectory, goes through his home, room by room, detailing the history of each room and each room's place in history. This might sound boring to some, but it really was absolutely fascinating. Our conception of history is so often split between the rote names/dates/places approach of high school textbooks and the (often) laughably inaccurate portrayal of the past in period films, that it was incredibly refreshing to read about how real people actually lived throughout history.
