At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

This was an entertaining look at the history of the domestic life of humans.  Though I've been familiar with Bryson's name for quite a while, this is the first of his books I've actually picked up and I understand why people enjoy his writing. 

He uses the current home, a former rectory in Norfolk, built in 1851, as a starting point for a rambling, broad sweeping tale of just how exactly humans have developed their dwelling places over the years.  At Home's chapters are each assigned a room of the rectory (with the exception of the first two, which deal with the year & setting in which the house was built) and Bryson then regales the reader with all sorts of esoteric bits of information that he manages to connect with each room.  I enjoyed waiting for him to make those connections and the many anecdotes he shares with his readers.