Sarah Vowell has a new book!
If you’ve never read Sarah Vowell, you have to go read Assassination Vacation right now. Now! Why are you still reading this? Go!
If you HAVE read Sarah Vowell, you’re probably already excited by the prospect of her new book, The Wordy Shipmates, which tackles the settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and how their brand of puritanism has deeply affected modern American Culture. (Boy, has it.) Less remembered but more influential than the pilgrims who landed on Plymouth Rock, this bunch of verbose mariners are the founding fathers of America’s most deeply held ideals (the ones that conservatives want to return to and liberals call puritanical). In other words, they’re worth knowing about. Mayor John Winthrop’s vision of creating a “city on a hill” has been used in so many political speeches, most people have all but forgotten where it came from. (Just this past Thursday, a certain VP candidate mentioned the phrase in the context of Ronald Reagan’s speeches.) By looking back at what Winthrop actually meant and how he tried go about creating his vision, we can learn a lot about our country, and you couldn’t ask for a better teacher than Sarah Vowell.
This book is more of a serious history lesson than her previous efforts, but every historical point is paralleled with the snarky asides and touching anecdotes that make Vowell such a compelling essayist. Working her usual magic, she turns history into relevant social and political commentary, making it fascinating and, because it’s Sarah Vowell, witty and hilarious, too. Part love letter to America, part criticism of where we might have gone astray, The Wordy Shipmates is a must-read for this election season and will provide you with some background the next time you hear McCain or Obama mumble something about Ronald Reagan or JFK and a city on a hill. (And believe me, they will.)
And when I tell you that she will be here at BookPeople on October 28th at 7pm, you should be jumping for joy. (Yay!)
Posted by alaubach
BookPeople 
Nice! I just saw her on the Daily Show, she was quite entertaining. I’ll have to pick this up.