A collection of autobiographical essays about eulogizing Frank Sinatra, following the Trail of Tears, The Godfather, insomnia, the art of making mix tapes, and loads more besides. It's very much about life as an American but with neither the fawning grandiosity nor the abject scorn so common in other essays of this type. I'm a tad jealous of her opportunities to travel to interesting places, but I am (mostly) content to visit them vicariously. There were a few times when I wondered how an essay would have gone had it been written today (specifically post-9/11, but in other ways too). I enjoy Vowell's style of writing and will have to pick up her other books at some point. ( )

Sarah Vowell would have been my favorite American history teacher. She connects the dots in history making history meaningful.

Her researched her own family history for the Trail of Tears. I remember a paragraph in middle school and a maybe a question on a follow up quiz about it .... She really gives a lot more love (in the research) to a heinous chapter in America's history.

Especially because he was before my time, I loved her musings on Sinatra.

This book is a collection of her works. Some with history (see above) ... Some more just of her personal life (insomnia and her family). I found the personal stuff passable reading and the American history phenomenal reading.

I do enjoy her work and will continue looking for her books .... veering to her writings on history. ( )

A collection of Vowell's essays culled from several magazine/newspaper columns and This American Life, this is one of those books that is difficult for me to rate.

On the one hand, I found her dry humour entertaining, but on the other, I'm not a fan of cynicism in general, and Vowell's weaponised form often taxed my patience.

She and I are the same age, but our childhoods did not share much in the way of common experiences, and we definitely don't share a common political view. I was, in fact, incredulous that she referred to perjury on the part of a president as a "fib". But we do share a deep, abiding love for our country even when it disappoints and horrifies us.

The essays I connected with, or enjoyed most were the ones where she was able to put her disaffected persona to the side (or at least mute it) and talk about those experiences common to most everybody: battles with insomnia, her experiences at the rock and roll camp, learning to drive. There's an essay about Chicago that is brilliant and even though I think she let herself get in her own way, her piece on the Trail of Tears was devastating and moving.

So even though I can't say I loved this work, it's only because I was unable to find enough common ground to do so. But I do think Vowell is an excellent writer and I'd happily read more of her work; she has a book on famous assassinations I've had my eye on for some time now that I'm definitely going to hunt down.

I read this book for my final Free Friday read; it was 209 pages. ( )

Solid essay collection with the candor & snark I love from Vowell. Seems I just prefer her longer form books on singular themes/topics over the grab-bag. ( )

This collection of stories is a memoir of not only the author but of America. Vowell's writing is insightful, funny, and elegant. The only drawback for me was that I couldn't really find a through-line to the stories. No clear theme to tie them all together. As a representative of the conflicting natures of people and America, it certainly succeeds but it also made for a bit of a disjointed read. ( )