New Slacker Title: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson

February 2010

The new Slacker title is a sure cure for the end of winter blues and is guaranteed to put a smile on your face…

Slackers titles are displayed each month on a shelf near the Bestsellers display area.

“Bryson recounts the world of his younger self, buried in comic books in the Kiddie Corral at the local supermarket, resisting civil defense drills at school, and fruitlessly trying to unravel the mysteries of sex. His alter ego, the Thunderbolt Kid, born of his love for comic-book superheroes and the need to vaporize irritating people, serves as an astute outside observer of life around him. His family’s foibles are humorously presented, from his mother’s burnt, bland cooking to his father’s epic cheapness.

The larger world of 1950s America emerges through the lens of ‘Billy’s’ world, including the dark underbelly of racism, the fight against communism, and the advent of the nuclear age.”

–Library Journal