{"product_id":"dont-make-me-pull-over-9781501188756","title":"Dont Make Me Pull Over","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The season’s most playful (and best titled) entry . . . [Ratay] vividly captures that relatively brief – but iconic – time before cheap air travel and Wi-Fi, when ‘six people locked up together in a tiny padded room,’ hurtling down the highway without seatbelts, was something not simply to be enjoyed but survived. Under Ratay’s confident and relaxed spell, anyone of a certain age will be instantly transported back to those more innocent times when Fuzzbusters and eight-track players were the order of the day . . . Deceptively informative, this high-spirited romp down the byways of America is part social history, part memoir, and a loving salute to that brief time when the wood-paneled family station wagon was king of the open road.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—Andrew McCarthy, New York Times Book Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eDon’t Make Me Pull Over!\u003c\/i\u003e is nostalgia-glazed…charming…[and] poignant.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“With smartphones and rear-seat entertainment systems, the family road-trip experience has changed dramatically, writes Ratay in this enjoyable reminiscence on what they used to be . . . [His] informative, often hilarious family narrative perfectly captures the love-hate relationship many have with road trips.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—Publishers Weekly\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Richard Ratay’s long-distance childhood adventures in his family’s giant land cruisers are at the center of \u003ci\u003eDon’t Make Me Pull Over!,\u003c\/i\u003e a breezy and warm-hearted ‘informal history’ of the great American family road trip…It all goes down like a cold lemonade on a hot summer’s day. Mr. Ratay is a charming raconteur who always seems to know just when it’s time to get us all back into the car with his big, quintessentially middle-class family.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“As someone who missed the golden age of the family road trip, I found \u003ci\u003eDon’t Make Me Pull Over!\u003c\/i\u003e a wonderful revelation, filled with unexpected—and frequently amusing—insights into how so much of our culture was built.”\u003cbr\u003e —\u003cb\u003eRob Erwin, author of \u003ci\u003eLost with Directions: Ambling Around America\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“If only this book were available to Clark Griswold, he and his family might well have stayed home.  \u003ci\u003eDon’t Make Me Pull Over!\u003c\/i\u003e is an encyclopedia of road trip adventures.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—Chevy Chase, star of \u003ci\u003eNational Lampoon’s Vacation\u003c\/i\u003e and “Saturday Night Live”\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A book with a title as good as \u003ci\u003eDon’t Make Me Pull Over! \u003c\/i\u003ehas a lot to live up to, and somehow Richard Ratay manages to deliver. It’s a memoir, a work of popular history, and a love letter all in one. Books this wise are seldom so funny; books this funny are rarely so wise.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—Andrew Ferguson, author of \u003ci\u003eLand of Lincoln \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eCrazy U\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“\u003c\/i\u003eCaptures all the adventure, bonding, desperate conflict, and existential self-interrogation that is only made possible by hours (and hours) on the road with your family. Read it, but probably don’t read it while also driving your family around.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—John Hodgman, author of \u003ci\u003eMore Information than You Require \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eVacationland\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Ratay's impressively researched book isn't just a road trip across America—it's a trip back in time. Suddenly I was eight years old again and bouncing around seatbelt-free in the back of a Ford Country Squire station wagon.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—Ken Jennings, record-breaking \"Jeopardy!\" champion, and author of \u003ci\u003eMaphead\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Ratay has perfectly captured the essence of what it was like to embark on a road trip in the golden days of family vacations. Combining spot-on history and a great sense of humor \u003ci\u003eDon't Make Me Pull Over!\u003c\/i\u003e feels so authentic I got carsick reading it.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—Jane Stern, co-author of \u003ci\u003eRoadfood\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I was laughing the whole way.\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eAs an expert on the 1970’s (I was there) I encourage you to climb in, wait for that sweet Toronado engine to purr, and let Rich Ratay take you on his wonderful ride through the great American pastime known as the family road trip.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—Tom Shillue, author of \u003ci\u003eMean Dads for a Better America\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Entertaining social history spiced with funny family memories. The characters include the first man to drive a car around the world, in 1906 (before fast food!).  And America's first highway czar, who served under seven presidents until Eisenhower fired him. And then there's Ratay himself, as a 10-year-old, on the CB radio: ‘Blue Thunder here, gobbling up the zipper dashes like PacMan rollin' for a power pill.’ Great stuff.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—Paul Ingrassia, author of \u003ci\u003eEngines of Change\u003c\/i\u003e   \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Takes us back to the once popular family road trips of vacationing Americans in the 1970's. Stuffed into a station wagon filled with luggage and provisions, backseat-bound Rich typically set off on adventures that possessed all the idiosyncratic melodrama of family life but played out in a confined space.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—Anthony Sammarco, author of \u003ci\u003eLost Boston \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe History of Howard Johnson’s\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Smooth prose that entertains and enlightens . . . For anyone who has ever been on a road trip, or is planning to take one, this book is a \u003ci\u003emust read\u003c\/i\u003e.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—Michael Wallis,\u003ci\u003e Route 66: The Mother Road\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Lincoln Highway: Coast to Coast from Times Square to the Golden Gate\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Simon \u0026 Schuster","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49531370176855,"sku":"9781501188756","price":16.15,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781501188756.jpg?v=1731882840","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/dont-make-me-pull-over-9781501188756","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}