The Moran Prairie Library Book Club will be meeting to discuss Bill Bryson's "At Home: A Short History of Private Life" on Thursday, August 25.
The Moran Prairie Library, located in one of Spokane's South Hill neighborhoods at 6004 South Regal Street, is part of the Spokane County Library District. The book club meets once a month to discuss a new book intended for adults.
Bryson is the author of eight nonfiction books, such as the New York Times bestseller "A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail" and "A Short History of Nearly Everything." In his most recent book "At Home: A Short History of Private Life", Bryson used interesting things about his own house to discuss what life was like in Victorian times.
In a review posted on Amazon, Lynette Mong said:
"Bill Bryson (A Short History of Nearly Everything) turns his attention from science to society in his authoritative history of domesticity, At Home: A Short History of Private Life. While walking through his own home, a former Church of England rectory built in the 19th century, Bryson reconstructs the fascinating history of the household, room by room. With waggish humor and a knack for unearthing the extraordinary stories behind the seemingly commonplace, he examines how everyday items--things like ice, cookbooks, glass windows, and salt and pepper--transformed the way people lived, and how houses evolved around these new commodities. 'Houses are really quite odd things,' Bryson writes, and, luckily for us, he is a writer who thrives on oddities. He gracefully draws connections between an eclectic array of events that have affected home life, covering everything from the relationship between cholera outbreaks and modern landscaping, to toxic makeup, highly flammable hoopskirts, and other unexpected hazards of fashion. Fans of Bryson's travel writing will find plenty to love here; his keen eye for detail and delightfully wry wit emerge in the most unlikely places, making At Home an engrossing journey through history, without ever leaving the house."
According to Bryson's web site, "At Home" has sold over six million copies in the United States and received rave reviews.
Rob Merrill of the Chicago Sun-Times said, “… Bryson never misses a chance to point out the absurdity of history. Arsenic in wallpaper, sawdust and urine diets at sea and rotting bodies in sitting rooms - they're all part of how we got here. And how lucky we are to have a writer like Bill Bryson reminding us of the journey.”
The free Book Club meeting will begin at 2:00 p.m. Everyone is welcome. For more information, visit SCLD.org or call (509) 893-8340.
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