I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away by Bill Bryson
ISBN-13: 9780767903820
Synopsis: "After living in Britain for two decades, Bill Bryson recently moved back to the United States with his English wife and four children (he had read somewhere that nearly 3 million Americans believed that had been abducted by aliens-- as he later put it, it was clear my people needed me). They were greeted by a new and improved America that boasts microwave pancakes, twenty-four-hour dental-floss hotlines, and the staunch conviction that ice is not a luxury item..."
Review: Bill Bryson is a new favorite author of mine. I started with A Walk in the Woods. It was something to read between classes, but I didn't realize it would cause me to become the weird girl, giggling over a book in the back of class. Once I finished, I wanted more! I asked a co-worker who has read more Bryson than anyone I know and she told me her favorite was this title.
The chapters are short, but hilarious nonetheless. He is bewildered by things such as a dental floss hotline, how enthused New Englanders are for snow, and voyeurism in the workplace, to name a few. It reads nothing like some crazy old man failing to keep up with cultural and technological advances, but more like an insight into how ridiculous certain things are that we have come to accept as "normal".
Bryson's humor keeps everything light-hearted, even the chapter on losing a son to college. The reader feels a sense of sentimentality that went into the chapter, but his anecdotes are sprinkled in to make it less depressing.
Overall, this book is like an homage to America and our absurd values, traditions, and inventions. If you're looking for something fun and quick to read, this is it!
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