Bill Bryson lives in an old parsonage in a rural part of England, and he uses this home as a framework to work through a lot of history that made his home a home. Although he goes into a number of specifics about his own home, including when it was built, who lived there, and how it has transformed over the years, he also uses his home as a jumping off point to explore a number of other somewhat related topics.
These topics vary from the World's Fair in 1851 with a never-before-seen iron and glass building (the Crystal Palace), the spice trade, various inventions that have changed how we live, and many different architects and builders. It's sometimes hard to imagine where Bryson will go next, and it's often hard to keep the many people and topics he brings up straight in your head--especially when reading it on Audiobook.
I did find this book generally interesting, but it is my least favorite of the Bryson books that I've read. I found it more difficult to follow and pay attention. I really did lose interest in the architect discussions. I also got frustrated at Bryson's lack of focus on anything but white people. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt because his writing stems from his home in rural England. But he goes on tangents that encompass history from around the world. He was even discussing--in great detail--the invention of the cotton gin, but he never even mentions slavery. There were a number of times I felt the book left glaring holes in his history. I would have been much more satisfied if we had less discussion of architects and a wider view of some of his topics.
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