*Bill Bryson*

I write this post today in honor of Bill Bryson. If you haven't read him before, start now. As in I'm giving you permission to stop reading this post right now if you feel the need to run out to your local Borders and purchase one of his many fabulous books.

I was first introduced to this man and his brilliant writing skills when my brother gave me "Notes from a Small Island" for Christmas last year. Bryson grew up in America but lived in England for a substantial portion of his adult life. Before returning to America, he decided to make one last trek through the whole of England, detailing several funny anecdotes from different towns along the way. I carried that book around and read it whenever I got the chance. Since then, I've also read "A Walk in the Woods" and started "Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words: A Writer's Guide to Getting it Right." I own a few other Bryson books, but I haven't started them yet because I have this Dark Tower series to finish first (I'm on book 3 out of 7, in case you were wondering)...

And now Bryson has come out with another book for our reading pleasure. Just the title alone makes you want to buy it and add it to your bookshelf-- it's called "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid." Doesn't that sound cool? I can't wait to get this book. Here are a few quick reviews of the book:

“Bill Bryson’s laugh-out-loud pilgrimage through his Fifties childhood in heartland America is a national treasure. It’s full of insights, wit, and wicked adolescent fantasies.” –Tom Brokaw, NBC News

“While many memoirs convey a bittersweet nostalgia, Bill Bryson’s loving look at his childhood in The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is genuinely sweet. Framed within young Bryson’s fantasy of being a superhero, it matches the author’s sparkling wit with his vivid, candid memories of 1950s America. Adding a healthy dose of social history, Bryson tells a larger story, with vignettes that reveal the gap between America’s postwar glow and its underlying angst. Bryson also touchingly recalls his father’s career as a sportswriter, his mother’s awkward experiments with cooking and the outrageous adventures of his infamous traveling companion, Stephen Katz.”–Publishers Weekly, Fall Preview

So I must thank my brother for recognizing that I'm an anglophile and giving me a book by another anglophile for Christmas. And now I pass my love on to you, reader. Pick up a Bryson book and read. Now.