Buy a Vowell

Sarah Vowell is an American treasure. Her voice is distinctive—in print, on the radio (as contributing editor for This American Life for a number of years), and in person (I was at a reading of hers at a local university five-plus years ago). I’ve read all of her recent books, and now I’m getting around to reading her earlier ones. Assassination Vacation, in which she travels around the country with her sister and nephew to research the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, and William McKinley, ranks in my top five of all-time favorite books. In fact, I read it to Olivia before bedtimes a couple years ago when she was beginning her Lincoln scholarship.

Take the Cannoli: Stories from the New World, is a collection of Vowell’s essays that constitute her second book. I admire Vowell’s ability to infuse wit, even humor, into discussions of the unjust and unfortunate moments of our nation’s history. Her essay retracing her ancestors’ journey on the Trail of Tears is both heart-wrenching and -warming, and that distinctive style is the same one she employs throughout her three most recent books. I look forward to becoming completely Vowell literate later this year—all I have left of her works is Radio On: A Listener’s Diary.