At Home: A Short History of Private Life

Bill Bryson tells the story of life by describing his hallway

Bryson’s new book is a masterful balance of scale. He uses the layout and history of his small house – a former parsonage – in England as the framework for a story about why we live the way we do. Whether writing about the gifted amateurs who created some of the most enduring habitation-building techniques or the quaint sociology that allowed village parsons to live well – until they couldn’t – follows the tradition of Bryson’s best quirky, observation-based writing.

The Wave – In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean

Surfers and scientists chase giant waves - great read - no, really

Susan Casey’s subtitle could be about the mysterious giant waves that have wreaked havoc on unsuspecting ships and over-confident surfers, or about those surfers and the equally-obsessed scientists who actively seek out the unpredictable monster swells. I don’t know and I don’t care. This is a compelling narrative that mixes history, science, global surf-culture and manic behavior into an adrenalin-rush of a book.