I saw the ad for Mary Norris’s new book Greek to Me and ordered it immediately. Just started reading this morning and she already has me smiling, just with her style.

Bill Bryson’s upcoming The Body: A Guide for Occupants, will bear more investigation, I’m afraid. As much as admire some of his work ( At Home, 1927, A Walk in the Woods among some others), other titles not so much. I do love his style of course, what’s not to love, but he sometimes plays the tiniest bit fast & loose with facts and logic, which – in a piece designed to maximize the “gee-whiz” factor and dazzle the reader with the author’s mastery of arcana from all corners of history and geography, is a problem. My inclination is to grab a new Bryson, but there’s that “I dunno…” factor lurking.