by Sarah Vowell
1.5 starsI have traditionally enjoyed Vowell's novels as they mix two of my favorite things: history and humor. However, I felt the humor was almost entirely missing from Unfamiliar Fishes, which is one of the two major issues I have with the book. The other issue I have involves missionaries. Holy ...
2.5 stars. Great in bursts but overall very disappointing.
After a third of the way through I gave it up. Maybe it was the migraine, but I found it too depressing. I think my reading of this also suffered from coming so close on the heels of reading Packing for Mars. By contrast, Vowell's writing seems terribly disjointed and choppy. I normally enjoy he...
The way Sarah Vowell sees it, the year 1898 may have been one of the most significant turning points in American history. In that one year the United States annexed Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Guam and invaded Cuba and the Philippines, hurtling itself onto the path of becoming a militaristic "meddling" ...
Unfamiliar Fishes is a lovely title, but the book itself feels jumbled. The names and events would be easier to follow if they were presented less as discrete events and the connections between them were more direct. The author jumps back and forth between the historical events and her research of t...
I may have been tougher to please this time, because I'm not entirely sure what it is that this book needed to get full marks. The subject is interesting and Vowell, as usual, inserts herself and her wit into the history in just the right amounts. It could be that the 'characters' were not as vividl...
Back in January I read and enjoyed The Wordy Shipmates by this author. I looked forward to reading another by Vowell and was excited to read her newest because I was very much lacking in knowledge of Hawaiian history. In fact I hate to admit too much of what Vowell talks about in this book was new t...
A pretty solid Sarah Vowell audiobook about the history of Puritans marching all over the world, in this case to Hawai'i, and interactions with people there. For someone who doesn't have a lot of background in the history of the Hawaiian Islands, this is a good place to start, but otherwise it recou...
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