At Home : a Short History of Private Life, by Bill Bryson

While I wasn't thrilled with the author's reading of the book, the writing itself was the usual in-depth research combined with wry humor. I may have to find this book and read it (with my eyes) as so many of the names he mentions didn't stick because I didn't see them.

In any case, following the floor plan of his home in England, Bryson explains why and how our houses work the way they do today, and what has changed over the course of history, specifically in the last 150 years or so.