Chasing Dirt: the American Pursuit of Cleanliness, by Suellen Hoy is a dense and detailed book. (Take a look at the Notes section, wow)! Early on the U.S. was just plain dirty ... seems some visitors even commented on it. Imagine, as cities grew, having to haul ALL your water up several flights of stairs. Or every business (including slaughter houses) tossing refuse onto the street (unpaved, muddy, etc). There was no plumbing, no sewers. No wonder yellow fever or cholera ran amok. Bathing was considered unhealthy. Things needed to change. Committees (usually women) were created (all volunteers) to come up with answers. One woman, Caroline Bartlett Crane was especially aggressive here ... she visited and established standards for everything from the slaughterhouses to the family home. Soon there were street cleaners (dressed all in white) that swept up and hauled away the garbage, etc. on the street, children would be taught basic hygiene in school, factory workers were taught at work, immigrants when they arrived ... it took some time, and was met with some reluctance, but the U.S. became one of the cleanest countries. The scope is huge here, the author discusses everything from city streets and alleys, factories and slaughterhouses, homes and tenements .... it's quite the read. And, thankfully, no test at the end! ;-)

On Island: Life Among the Coast Dwellers, by Pat Carney, is a collection of short stories about the people that live on a small island off the west coast of Canada. Most are true, the author said, and since no names are used, none had to be changed! I love the sense of community in this quirky little town, and one story, Storm, I liked so much I read it twice. One I didn't like much at all, but mostly this was a nice read.

After many years of living in England, Bill Bryson returned to his home in Iowa. He then took a drive, a long drive, one that covered 38 of the lower 48 states, and that became the book The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America. As usual with his writing, it was funny, sarcastic, irreverent, and affectionate, but this time I thought it bordered on the cruel every now and then. I loved his description that to get a view in Iowa all you needed to do was stand on two phone books. (Published in 1989, we were still using them). He visited the town of Bryson just because of the name! His comment on how he forgot just how vast this country is was brought into focus when he said that Illinois was twice as big as Austria. I got out my map!

Reading Hermit With Dog