What a fun, pleasant memoir. No one does easy reading better than Bryson. This look at his early years in Des Moines, Iowa, focuses on the mundane yet weird naivete and optimism underpinning life in 1950s middle America. Not much happens in Bryson’s childhood, but it happens in glorious fashion. Bryson’s dry wit and self-deprecation make growing up normal an extraordinary thing. For readers of a certain age, the book will awaken the best kind of nostalgia—reminiscences of not only all that was good in the bygone era, but of all that was strange, dumb, insane and (thank God) now gone. This is a good book to read if you’re in need of a breezy pick-me-up.