One summer

I pretty much loved this from start to finish. I am a slow reader, but found myself frequently picking this book up whenever I had a spare ten minutes.

He also uses a trick, that John Irving uses, which really hooks me. At the end of several chapters, he gives a spoiler about the current topic, but then the next chapter is on a different topic. The spoiler just teases you enough to want to keep reading now to get closer to when the teaser is fully expunged.

His voice and style is the same as with pretty much all Bill Bryson books, if you love Bill Bryson, there is no good reason not to read this one. That said, if you aren't a fan this will likely be a long slog. If you've never read any Bill Bryson, perhaps start with a shorter one as a taster.

Who cares about the summer of 1927? If the author was anyone other than Bill Bryson, I would have been skeptical. He uses the summer of 1927 as a jumping off point for well-researched stream of consciousness discussions about topics as diverse as air travel, boxing, baseball, fear of immigrants, economic policy, crime, and Herbert Hoover. Herbert Hoover is always around. It is sort of creepy.

I love all of Bill Bryson's books and I especially like listening to them on audio.