Reviews
PRAISE FORAT HOME: A Short History of Private Life: "...a delightful stroll through the history of domestic life. Now living in a 19th-century church rectory in Norfolk, England, the author decided to learn about the ordinary things of life by exploring each room in his house.... In a sense, Bryson's book is a history of "getting comfortable slowly".... Informative, readable and great fun."-Kirkus Reviews(starred), . . . whatever happens in the worldwhatever is discovered or created or bitterly fought overeventually ends up, in one way or another, in your house. Wars, famines, the Industrial Revolution, the Enlightenmentthey are all there in your sofas and chests of drawers, tucked into the folds of your curtains, in the downy softness of your pillows, in the paint on your walls and the water in your pipes. So the history of household life isn't just a history of beds and sofas and kitchen stoves, as I had vaguely supposed it would be, but of scurvy and guano and the Eiffel Tower and bedbugs and body-snatching and just about everything else that has ever happened.Houses aren't refuges from history. They are where history ends up., PRAISE FOR AT HOME: A Short History of Private Life : "...a delightful stroll through the history of domestic life. Now living in a 19th-century church rectory in Norfolk, England, the author decided to learn about the ordinary things of life by exploring each room in his house.... In a sense, Bryson's book is a history of "getting comfortable slowly".... Informative, readable and great fun ."- Kirkus Reviews (starred) " [D]elightful .... Considering our homes means a dash through history, politics, science, sex, and dozens of other fields. If this book doesn't supply you with five years' worth of dinner conversation, you're not paying attention ."- PEOPLE magazine " Fascinating .... Join this ambiable tour guide as he wanders through his house, a former rectory built in 1851 in a tranquil English village.... [It] takes a very particular kind of thoughtfulness , as well as a bold temperament, to stuff all this research into a mattress that's supportive enough to loll about on while pondering the real subject of this book -- the development of the modern world.... Bryson is fascinated by everything, and his curiosity is infectious ...[ his] enthusiasm brightens any dull corner .... You'll be given a delightful smattering of information about everything but...the kitchen sink."- Dominique Browning, The New York Times Book Review, PRAISE FORAT HOME: A Short History of Private Life: "...adelightfulstroll through the history of domestic life. Now living in a 19th-century church rectory in Norfolk, England, the author decided to learn about the ordinary things of life by exploring each room in his house.... In a sense, Bryson's book is a history of "getting comfortable slowly"....Informative, readable and great fun."-Kirkus Reviews(starred) "[D]elightful.... Considering our homes means a dash through history, politics, science, sex, and dozens of other fields. If this book doesn't supply you with five years' worth of dinner conversation, you're not paying attention."-PEOPLE magazine "Fascinating....Join this ambiable tour guideas he wanders through his house, a former rectory built in 1851 in a tranquil English village.... [It] takesa very particular kind of thoughtfulness, as well as a bold temperament, to stuff all this research into a mattress that's supportive enough to loll about on while pondering the real subject of this book -- the development of the modern world.... Bryson is fascinated by everything, and his curiosity is infectious...[his] enthusiasm brightens any dull corner.... You'll be given adelightfulsmattering of information about everything but...the kitchen sink."- Dominique Browning,The New York Times Book Review From the Hardcover edition., PRAISE FOR AT HOME: A Short History of Private Life : "...a delightful stroll through the history of domestic life. Now living in a 19th-century church rectory in Norfolk, England, the author decided to learn about the ordinary things of life by exploring each room in his house.... In a sense, Bryson’s book is a history of “getting comfortable slowly".... Informative, readable and great fun ."- Kirkus Reviews (starred) " [D]elightful .... Considering our homes means a dash through history, politics, science, sex, and dozens of other fields. If this book doesn't supply you with five years' worth of dinner conversation, you're not paying attention ."- PEOPLE magazine " Fascinating .... Join this ambiable tour guide as he wanders through his house, a former rectory built in 1851 in a tranquil English village.... [It] takes a very particular kind of thoughtfulness , as well as a bold temperament, to stuff all this research into a mattress that's supportive enough to loll about on while pondering the real subject of this book -- the development of the modern world.... Bryson is fascinated by everything, and his curiosity is infectious ...[ his] enthusiasm brightens any dull corner .... You'll be given a delightful smattering of information about everything but...the kitchen sink."- Dominique Browning, The New York Times Book Review From the Hardcover edition., PRAISE FOR AT HOME: A Short History of Private Life : "...a delightful stroll through the history of domestic life. Now living in a 19th-century church rectory in Norfolk, England, the author decided to learn about the ordinary things of life by exploring each room in his house.... In a sense, Bryson's book is a history of "getting comfortable slowly".... Informative, readable and great fun ."-- Kirkus Reviews (starred) " [D]elightful .... Considering our homes means a dash through history, politics, science, sex, and dozens of other fields. If this book doesn't supply you with five years' worth of dinner conversation, you're not paying attention ."-- PEOPLE magazine " Fascinating .... Join this ambiable tour guide as he wanders through his house, a former rectory built in 1851 in a tranquil English village.... [It] takes a very particular kind of thoughtfulness , as well as a bold temperament, to stuff all this research into a mattress that's supportive enough to loll about on while pondering the real subject of this book -- the development of the modern world.... Bryson is fascinated by everything, and his curiosity is infectious ...[ his] enthusiasm brightens any dull corner .... You'll be given a delightful smattering of information about everything but...the kitchen sink."-- Dominique Browning, The New York Times Book Review
