Stephen Fry in America by: Stephen Fry
Non-fiction: travel 313 pages
Book COunt: 26
In this book British actor/comic/writer Stephen Fry travels to every state in the USA. As he does so in less then 2 years with a large amount of it driving and leaves the country at least once during the time to work on a different show (this book is a companion to a TV special on the BBC) he misses a lot of major things for each state. In fact he only drives to the state line for Ohio. But, what he does see is a strange mixture of America. He repeatingly talks about how he didn't believe the world's stereotype of Americans before this trip and has grown to love America more after seeing it, but he also makes fun of America's love of over the topness and our cheeses. (Not like I don't also cringe every time the Kraft cheese commercial about American cheese comes on. "Hey look, its a bright orange processed milk based plastic like product, isn't it patriotic?") He does many things you would expect a TV show to do for each state (Salem on Halloween, car things in Michigan, wine tasting in Napa) but also many times just interacting with different people around the country (thanksgiving in a families home, watching a high school basketball game, ice fishing). Most of the book was fun to read. It had a sidebar for each state with information on the state like the capital, nicknames, state motto, bird, drink, tree, etc and famous people from there. It was originally written for a British audience and so often has British spelling, and word usage. It even has an American English word quiz at the end.
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