I love San Francisco and the USA, its beauty, diversity and people, but I loath Trump, so I approached this book with slight trepidation.
I found this travel diary very well written, I could see and feel each place and felt as though I was there which was entertaining and educational and reignited my desire to visit again and plan another road trip, thankfully it was more wonderful roadtrip and not too much Trump!

I love travelogues, and especially those that make me want to follow in the authors footsteps. For me this is one of those books.

Along the way David encounters fascinating tales and people. Until I read his book I wasn’t aware of the underground railway and the brave souls who helped people to escape from slavery or of the more positive interactions between the early settlers and native americans. The book is a gentle read and David’s descriptions of the Skyline Drive, the natural beauty of America, the wide open spaces and the big skies were very evocative. No road trip would be complete without a sound track and I even learned more about the Blues and Jazz and picked up some recommendations for new music along the way!

DNFed at 40%. An elderly British travels from East to West across the USA, hanging on Highway 50. I thought that would be a good idea, because Covid-19 bars me to travel to the states.
He stubbornly refuses to use a GPS, gets lost every couple of pages in recurring patterns, and describes his panic and finding back in details. I can’t figure out why I should be interested in this dumbness, but maybe there’s some hidden message to be released in the second half of the drive which I didn’t read.
Most of the descriptions are about him going to bars, ordering chicken salad or salmon, commenting on Baseball plays. When he talks to people in the bars, nearly always the topic of „how stupid can Americans be to vote for Trump“ comes up. His dialogue transcripts are boring, as are his comments on loo rolls and peeing.
While some of his touristic visits along the way are in fact very interesting - with remarks on the Underground Railway or the Founding Fathers - they were to scarce within all his minute descriptions of uninteresting details of his journey.
I stopped bothering in Ohio, and stopped reading this overlong travel diary.

The Slow Road to San Francisco is David Reynolds’s relaxed and easy-going account of his solo US coast-to-coast road trip that I would guess a good number of us have contemplated making at some stage in our life. It’s a great read!

Throughout his journey, David is happy to make acquaintance with total strangers in bars and other places to get a sense of how the locals live their lives and how happy they are with their President 2 years after his election. He encounters a wide variety of characters with views that are interesting to hear. It took me a little bit longer than normal to read the book as I was regularly referencing Google maps to see images of places visited (the author however avoided any navigation tools on his trip adding a few extra pages as a result!)

I tried to have an open mind as I approached “Slow Road to San Francisco: Across the USA from Ocean to Ocean” by David Reynolds – I read his book on Brexit and was not too impressed, but I thought that a travel essay about my home country would be something much more interesting. Of course, I’m not sure if it’s the same person since there are several authors with this name, but I’m giving it a try anyway.

The book seemed to elicit the same feeling as the Brexit book – this book was OK, nothing spectacular, and I’m not really sure what the point of this book was or who the target audience is. As a travel guide, Mr. Reynolds doesn’t really explore a lot of the touristy or historical things on his trip. As a sociological study, Mr. Reynolds basically only gets the viewpoints of people sitting at the bar of wherever he stopped for dinner. As a travel essay, there is very little other than some basic descriptions.

The stories started to get a bit repetitive – drive to a new town, mention one or two things about it or see a museum, go to a bar and talk to locals while watching baseball, maybe somehow bring up Trump (though not always), repeat the next day. Some of the encounters, like with the couple who played music together, were interesting. But I also must admit that I was angry when he would get lost and refuse to use GPS – who drives around lost in the dark for three hours when the answer is right in the palm of his hand? Kind of describes my whole feeling about the book.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Muswell Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

David Reynolds took the slow road across the US, from Ocean City in Maryland on the East Coast to San Francisco on the West Coast.
His roadtrip takes him through states, cities, small towns, bars, museums, national parks, and everywhere he stops, looks around, chats and chats.
Just like I imagine the journey was for Reynolds, the book is slow but pleasurable. Though it has no big unexpected twists or surprises in store and just follows the Highway 50, telling the stories of each place in geographical and chronological order, it is entertaining; relaxing.
Unusual due to its pace and lack of pointe of turning point, The Slow Road to San Francisco will have a different highlight for each reader, just like travelling is a different experience for everyone. For me, it was a little modern green town that could my attention, for someone else it may be the history.
The recurring themes (aside from the Highway 50) and US History and Trump. Somehow, in every little town, Reynolds manages to ask about Trump. And what seems like a dangerous move to most of us turns out to just be a natural chat, which is probably due to Reynolds’ friendly character which shines through in the book.

I had pretty high expectations for this one. I ended up not being able to finish it. There were a lot of useless information, stereotypes, judgement, and a lot of talking about any little thing that happened. Sadly this one didn’t live up to my expectations but thank you kindly for the arc!

As I live off of US Route 50 in one of the various Podunk towns mentioned by David Reynolds, I was keen to read a foreigners experience of small route America. That all crashed and burned within the first several chapters. This unfortunately went immediately from the travel essay I was yearning for into a rant on American politics (both historical and recent) and really weird ethnic descriptions of every person he passes. Such snap judgments and hate. If you don't like our country, why did you come over here? Stop discussing our history with any sense of authority. When I traveled the A2 in Northern Ireland, I did not diatribe about The Troubles or Brexit. I met the locals and fell in love with their identities no matter their affiliations or life choices. There was so much negativity I eventually had to put the Kindle down before I snapped it.

A critique and diary of a road trip across Trump's USA which offers some good observations but at times falls short because the author doesn't always grasp the history and nuance of American cultural artifacts and quirks. Would benefit from stricter editing; it needs some cuts, but overall I enjoyed it.

A fascinating travel memoir following route 50 across America. Beginning with a selfie photo standing in the Atlantic Ocean on the East Coast, the author David Reynolds embarks on a solo drive across America.

In David’s new travel memoir he uncovers fascinating stories and events that have shaped American history. Travelling across the country, state by state I enjoyed reading David’s views of the people he met and the ever changing landscape that he sees.

A fabulous read, thought provoking and very enlightening.

As an avid traveler, I was excited to read this book. I would recommend buying this book if you plan do to the trek across the US. As it provided lots of history and places to visit. I found it especially interesting as the book was written by an Englishman and his perspective. I often wondered throughout the narrative why he did not have a gps and kept getting lost. As someone who travels a lot and has definitive schedules, I found that a bit overwhelming. But others may find great humor in this.

Good read but a bit slow at times - really don't need to know about how long it takes to find his car!

Really enjoyed going on this road trip with the author.Especially now when we are locked in it was fun to take the trip from my armchair.I enjoyed all the characters he met on the way. His thoughts and adventure.A book I looked forward to coming back to .#netgalley#Muswellpress

While I realize that the synopsis does state that Trump will be mentioned, I felt that it was at times too much of a focus. I expected the book to be more of a travelogue from the point of view of british traveller. It was, however, it came across at times as a criticism of America not an attempt to understand its idiosyncrasies.. For example he muses about the term "good 'ol boys" but he never truly understands it and actually ends up making it into an insult instead. Throughout the book, in describing his encounters with locals, there is almost a feeling of superiority on his part. At the end of his journey when he has finally made it across America, there is no feeling that he actually enjoyed that journey either. While I agree with some of the political points made, that was not what I expected the purpose of this book to fill.

I thought when I heard about this book that I would be reading an interesting travelogue through the highways and byways of the US. it's particularly interesting to me because US Route 50 goes through my town and through the town where I went to college.

Unhappily, this is not the case. While travel is a part of the book, it is quite irritatingly more a book-length essay on why Trump is awful and plenty of other current and politically correct opinions. Reynolds seems compelled to judge every person he meets in terms of whether they are hateful Republicans or virtuous Democrats, often based just on appearance alone. He does the same thing with houses and towns.

What'salmost as bad as his constant and prejudiced judgment of people and places is the fact that he seems incapable of having a conversation with anyone without bringing up politics and how much he dislikes Trump. I don't know about you but politics is generally NOT my main topic of conversation when I meet new folks.

On top of this, he seems incapable of finding his way anyplace, constantly losing his way. it gets old before he has left Maryland (the first state in his travels).

If you are looking for a book to give you insight into the heart of America or one that celebrates this great highway, this book is not it.

I requested this title to try the audio books on netgalley. This narrator was very monotone and made me sleepy. While the book may be awesome the audio track really threw me off.

I enjoyed this book because I love travel writing. I felt like I was in the car with David. I cannot wait to do this trip myself one day.

I’ve never done a road trip. I’ve always wanted to. For now the best (cheapest and safest too) option is to hitch a ride with someone who’s doing it and take a slow road to San Francisco. Settle in, it’s going to take weeks, and most places you’ll visit along the way will be small towns often with a wealth of historical past, Your driver will be a mild mannered amicable older British gentlemen with a fondness for IPAs and chatting up strangers. Actually, the chatitng up is deliberate, as Reynolds traverses the country following US Route 50 from East Coast to the West, he talks to as many people as he can to understand the results on the 2016 election. Reynolds as a liberal, as an educated man, as a decent humanistic person, etc…is, of course, appalled. But slowly, one conversation after the next, he begins to gain perspective, which is, well basically, that people are just not that smart and are too steeped in their small worlds and prejudices. They also really don’t like when someone calls them out on it. This seems to be the main fault of the qualified candidate, the famous deplorables quote no one forgot or got over. More so than her gender even, seems it was the calling deplorables deplorables that really did the trick. Turns out honesty is so far from the best policy that a constant barrage of mendacity is still preferable. Alas, here were are now, all these years later, who’s happy? Anyway, going way from politics and you got yourself a travelogue, a pretty good travelogue of Americana, vistas and sites, past and present. From the time Reynolds swims in Ocean City Maryland until the time he dips his toes in the Pacific on a San Francisco beach. I actually really enjoyed the author’s historical insights, though American history is much too young and aggressive to be all that interesting in the global range of things, he still managed to highlight a lot of fascinating aspects and figures from it and I liked the way he framed it all within sociopolitical context of the then and now. And now is a really pivoting time in US, a time when history is quite literary being toppled down from its pedestals. Some of which is understandable and some of which is selectively much too far and I say selectively, because how much past can one really deny and try to erase in a (this is a quote from the book) country built on genocide and made wealthy on slavery. No one is out there burning $20 bills, are they. You know, the bills featuring the main who authorized the Trail of Tears. Ok, shoot, turns out it’s really difficult to write an objective unbiased review on a book featuring politics. In fact, Reynolds did a much nicer job of staying objective and unbiased in his interviews and chats, but then again the man is British and thus naturally granted a certain mild calmness. At any rate, I did enjoy his travels and this book. It seems to have represented 2018 well, it represented the middle of the US well, it was educational, it was personal in just the right way (not overpowering) and plenty entertaining. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

The book is written like a diary and it tells you with details everything the author saw and experienced during this long trip from Delaware to San Francisco. It isn't exactly what I expected because there's no photos at all and it makes it a little hard to picture the things the books is saying. It's a very long book and there are lots of good informations, tips, and thing the author went through during this trip. This trip is something my husband and I are planning on doing at some point in our lives but we will probably take the Hwy I40 instead, since we live in Raleigh. Some feelings you have during a trip like this are hard to explain and the author managed to write all the details and the book is pretty rich. I just wish they had added some photos because then this book would be perfect.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review