One Summer by Bill Bryson

I have long been a Bill Bryson fan. His books, In a Sunburned Country and A Short History of Nearly Everything, are among my all time favorites. His books are filled with interesting things and have grace and charm and wit.  So I eagerly awaited his latest book, One Summer, which is about the events of the summer of 1927. 

I couldn't imagine what would be so interesting about 1927 as to write a 500 page book but I was sure if anyone could do it, Bill Bryson could. 

Sure enough, there were a lot of interesting thing going on that summer:
     Charles Lindbergh and his flight to Paris
     Babe Ruth and the Yankees
     Calvin Coolidge (Who would have guessed how interesting he was!)
     The Great Mississippi flood (Never heard of it.)
     Sacco and Vanzetti and the anarchists
     Prohibition and the government allowing strychnine to be added to industrial alcohol resulting in thousands of deaths

Yes, it really was an interesting summer and BB lays it all out. Therein lie the two flaws in the book. First, it should have been a crisp 350 page book but when drawn out to 500 pages, is grows limp and tedious.  And limp and tedious are far from the grace and wit and charm of his previous books.  I found myself wanting to take scissors and nip out the repetitious tedium. 

It is worth reading because it was quite a summer and because BB does a good job bringing it to life but be prepared to do a fair amount of skimming.