Tom Bodett, humorist, radio star, and pitchman for Motel 6, lives and writes in Homer, Alaska, the little town in the blue Northwest where America stops, carwise. If you got into your car in New York, he said, and wanted to take a nice long drive, I mean the longest drive you could without turning around or running into a foreign language, this is where you'd wind up. It's a place of moose and salmon and spectacular sunsets, but, Bodet insists, it's also small-town America, a place not all that different from the Michigan town of his youth. That's why he's made it his everyday, for the rigors...

Tom Bodett, Alaska's main comic export, is that rarest of commodities, an original new talent in American humor. His commentaries on "All Things Considered" and his radio spots for Motel 6 have delighted millions, but he's never been funnier than in this, his second collection of casual essays. Here are further musings ont he everyday joys and embarrassments of being a husband, father, citizen, and breadwinner by the author of As Far As You Can Go Without a Passport. Fans will be comforted by the familiarity of this return visit to Bodett country. Those new to his work will discover...