Notes from a Small Island

Reacting to an itch common to Midwesterners since there's been a Midwest from which to escape, writer Bill Bryson moved from Iowa to Britain in 1973. Working for such places as Times of London, among others, he has lived quite happily there ever since. Now Bryson has decided his native country needs him--but first, he's going on a roundabout jaunt on the island he loves.

Britain fascinates Americans: it's familiar, yet alien; the same in some ways, yet so different. Bryson does an excellent job of showing his adopted home to a Yank audience, but you never get the feeling that Bryson is too much of an outsider to know the true nature of the country. Notes from a Small Island strikes a nice balance: the writing is American-silly with a British range of vocabulary. Bryson's marvelous ear is also in evidence: "... I noted the names of the little villages we passed through--Pinhead, West Stuttering, Bakelite, Ham Hocks, Sheepshanks ..." If you're an Anglophile, you'll devour Notes from a Small Island.

• The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain
• Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe
• I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away
• The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America
• The Mother Tongue - English And How It Got That Way
• In a Sunburned Country
• At Home: A Short History of Private Life
• Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behavior
• A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
• A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (Official Guides to the Appalachian Trail)