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• Book Review: At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson Share

  In At Home: A Short History of Private Life author Bill Bryson takes readers on a tour of his home, a Victorian-era parsonage which was built in 1851. He uses the rooms in it as a starting point to explore the origins of things like stoves and toilet ... (read full critics)

  blogcritics published on Mon, 14 May 2012

• AT HOME, A SHORT HISTORY OF PRIVATE LIFE by Bill Bryson

  Review by Vesna McMaster (OCT 14, 2011) What would the world do without Bill Bryson? One simply wants to sit at his knee with a huge grin and listen interminably. I’m an irredeemable skinflint and get all my reading material from the library, but At ... (read full critics)

  mostlyfiction published on Sat, 15 Oct 2011

1 Review

• 

  Overwhelming, yet entertaining

  Bryson takes us thru each room of his home in England, a former rectory. He uses each room as a launching pad to explore & explain its origins in purpose, content and actual usage. And much like a an Eddie Izzard sketch he dives off in all sorts of directions to explore the history & origin of many ... (continue)

  Bryson takes us thru each room of his home in England, a former rectory. He uses each room as a launching pad to explore & explain its origins in purpose, content and actual usage. And much like a an Eddie Izzard sketch he dives off in all sorts of directions to explore the history & origin of many products, industries, movements and customs, before returning to the original premise. Almost head hurtingly full of facts and explanations, this book will unveil many things to you that you'll find you've always just assumed to be. Two criticisms. There's almost too much to take in. Almost as if he's having a last charge at history. And the closing of the book is pointed, yet out of context of the rest of the book. Almost as if there was a compulsory requirement to add a comment on current social ills in his contract. Don't let it deter you though. You'll learn plenty

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Book Details

• Rating:
  (36)
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• English Books
• Paperback 700 Pages
• ISBN-10: 0552772550
• ISBN-13: 9780552772556
• Publisher: Black Swan
• Pub date: Jun 01, 2011
• Also available as: Hardcover, Audio CD, Others and eBook

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