Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Two: What the Dog Saw

This collection of Malcom Gladwell's essays for The New Yorker brings together some of the bestselling nonfiction author's favorite short pieces, ranging across topics as diverse as women's health, the Dog Whisperer, the history of hair dye in the United States, and ketchup (a more involved subject than you might at first suspect).  Whatever the topic, Gladwell was always able to gain and sustain my interest, and I picked up plenty of trivia factoids along the way.  (Did you know ketchup is so satisfying because it invokes all five major flavor groups?)  If you like short nonfiction, I'd highly recommend What the Dog Saw.

Chapter One Hundred Eighty-One: One Summer: America, 1927

Ever since listening to Hamilton, I've really been feeling I should brush up on my United States history, and Bill Bryson's One Summer fits the ticket.  While its focus is pretty narrow--the summer of 1927, as per the subtitle--Bryson didn't choose that summer at random, but because its events reflected or epitomized many of the larger historical trends of the times.  From prohibition to racism and eugenics, baseball to talking movies, the rise of aviation to the fall of the global financial system, Bryson weaves together numerous historical threads to paint an expressive (if meandering) picture of not just 1927 but the years leading up to it and the effects of some of its events on future years.  If you're looking for a highly focused history with a clear thesis, One Summer is not the book for you, but if you're willing to wander at a leisurely pace through the long, hot summer of 1927 and enjoy listening to stories that end up being more interconnected than they seem at first, One Summer offers an interesting glimpse into part of U.S. history--or at least provides a lot of trivia factoids!