At Home by Bill Bryson

By Kate Phillips
 

 

As a reader, I always love finding books that appeal to me. As a writer, I am twice as pleased when the authors also provide Masterclasses for me within their books.

            Masterclasses take place when performance artists or musicians work one-on-one with students. Writers don't generally have this option, but I have found some books to be Masterclasses for characters, dialogue, backstories, plots, settings, voice, and/or creativity.

 

 

            Most of us just want to be home for the holidays--whether that means our own homes or the homes of loved ones.
 

After all the festivities are over, this is the perfect time of year to read At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson. You will appreciate your homes as you never have before.

 

 

            From the inside cover flap: Bill Bryson and his family live in a Victorian parsonage in…England…[where] he began to consider how very little he knew about the ordinary things of life as found in that comfortable home. To remedy this, he formed the idea of journeying about his house from room to room to "write a history of the world without leaving home."
 

Do not hear the word history and think dry and dusty facts. This book is entertaining, fun, and funny, but, on occasion, sad and poignant—even disgusting, too. Sadly, humans took a long time to realize the importance of good hygiene.
 

People who changed the course of history—and improved our homes—with inventions and discoveries were sometimes honored and rewarded and sometimes were cheated and forgotten. Yet our homes would not be the same without them. And you will be surprised how often synchronicity played a part in the evolution of our homes.
 

From page 4, "Sitting at the kitchen table one afternoon, playing idly with the salt and pepper shakers, it occurred to me that I had absolutely no idea why, out of all the spices in the world, we have such an abiding attachment to these two. Why not pepper and cardamom, say, or salt and cinnamon?"
 

Such a simple observation and questions about ordinary things led to this fascinating book.