Cross Country (2006)

''We're off.'' How else could a book about road trips begin? And who better to write such a book than Robert Sullivan, who previously told us everything we ever wanted to know about rats in his 2004 work of the same name? As he drives across the U.S. with his wife and two kids (a trip he's done many times before), Sullivan takes us on a propulsive ride. He combines charming personal recollections with compelling musings on the history of American roads, motels, the Cannonball Run, the coffee-cup lid, and...you get the idea. By the end of Cross Country, you'll feel pleasantly tripped out, both glad it's over and wide-eyed at all the sights you've seen along the way.