A review by mamalemma
Made in America by Bill Bryson

3.0

I have never had a book “in progress” for so long. This is not an indictment of the book at all. It is filled with fascinating information, and I frequently found myself reading aloud to my family (to their chagrin) the interesting things I was learning. But it wasn’t compelling. It is the kind of book you keep on your coffee table and read a chapter from time to time. And in fact, that’s essentially what I did (though my “coffee table” was my Kindle and the sporadic download from the library). It must also be said that I picked up the book at the start of the pandemic as an alternative to a book that was weighing my heart down tremendously (Thanks, “The Overstory” — great book, wrong time in history to read it) and my focus this past year has been wretched. I really needed compelling stories of humans overcoming obstacles, rather than snippets of interesting facts. I hate leaving books that I like unfinished, so I’m very glad I finished it, even if it took over a year and many library checkouts to do so.