About this title: Quirky essayist Sarah Vowell, known both for her pieces on NPR's "This American Life" and her star turn voicing teen superhero Violet in the animated Pixar blockbuster THE INCREDIBLES, waxes both witty and rhapsodic in this monumentally obsessive travelogue chronicling her so-called pilgrimage to various places related to the first three ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780743260046ISBN:074326004X
Description: Good. Used item may show library stamps, stickers and marks. Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780743260039ISBN:0743260031
Description: Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dustcover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "from the library of" labels. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. 074326004X Book could have shelf wear, or a bump, or sunfade to edges. These are new unread books from the publisher with one of these conditions. See are feedback as customers are satisfied in how we grade our books. Has remainder mark. Fast shipping and customer service is our number 1 priority! read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780743260046ISBN:074326004X
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Binding tight; very minor exterior shelf wear. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 258 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: First Thus
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Riverside, New Jersey, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780743260046ISBN:074326004X
Description: Very Good. Number row is complete. Cover and all 258 pages are clean. "New York Times Bestseller" is printed on the cover. Very entertaining and informative details about the sites associated with President Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley. Vowell has a tremendous eye for quirky details, as her story of visiting as many historic sites associated with these three presidents as possible. read more
Edition: Third Printing
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, New York
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780743260046ISBN:074326004X
Description: Very Good. No Jacket. Biography. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. This book takes us on a road trip like no other. We visit the areas where President Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley were assassinated. We learn about their assassins, the politics of the day, and the politics of today. What a wonderful way for an obsessive compulsive person to earn a living! This book is in great shape and appears unread. The spine is not creased. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date Published: 2006
Description: Very Good. Inscribed and SIGNED by Author on sticker affixed inside front cover. "[Vowell's] gift is one of cosmic inclusion-allowing the natural collision of intellect and personality, rigorous research, and generational quirks. "-Joan Anderman, The Boston Globe. SARAH VOWELL exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. With Assassination Vacation, she takes us on a road trip like no other-a journey to the pit stops of ... read more
"It is difficult to defend against a single lunatic.
After Lincoln got shot, almost every presidential assassination attempt, successful or failed, was carried out by a loner with dubious motives.
The reasoning, at least to me, is that it's easier to form information leaks among a group, and a group draws more attention to itseld, it generates communication, and communication is always susceptible to interception.
I studied this idea on Wikipedia recently, mulling it over out of a weird fear during Obama's first day on the job. It was weird when I later picked up the audiobook for Sarah Vowell's "Assassination Vacation" and discovered her addressing the exact thing I wanted to know more about.
This is the book I wanted when I grabbed "The Wordy Shipmate", this is the experience her radio segments bring in smaller doses.
"Assassination Vacation" exists at a cross section of Vowell interests that make her approach and her passion all collide to excellent effect. Her morbid fascinations, her love of history, her deft ability to meld personal biography with her research, it's all here.
Vowell makes me like history because Vowell shows me the past through her own whimsical world. The structure of the book, where she visited sites associated with the assassinations works well, giving a fun narrative structure almost like a road trip. Vowell's quirky delivery and humor in the audio form helps the whole thing flow effortlessly and I ran out of content wishing she could have just segwayed unto other topics and kept going.
The only ding, and it's a small one would be some of the political commentary about the Bush administration. It broke the narrative a few times and just came off as a little more hostile than the topic warranted, and this is coming from a guy who agreed with all her points.
Otherwise, this is a must read (or must listen I suppose) for anyone with an interest in history."
"Vowell is like a female, liberal democrat version of P.J. O'Rourke, and if that alone doesn't make you want to read this book, then let me add that in Assassination Vacation she manages to craft an informative and hilarious book out of her research into three historic presidential assassinations.
Vowell recounts the stories behind the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley while traveling about to various locales that have a link to the assassinations, no matter how tenuous. Part travel-logue, part history, part memoir, Assassination Vacation also manages to draw several links between America's history and more recent historical events concerning the presidency of George W. Bush and the Iraq War."
"This is a book my wife and I listened to as we drive to doctor appointments, visited children, etc., so it took us a while to get through it completely. That is not to denigrate the book, which is wonderfully entertaining and educational. Ben (GR) and I have exchanged emails recently about whether listening to an audiobook can be considered "reading." This is a case where I think the book is actually better listened to since it's read by the author who has such a gravely and droll way of reading. It's delightful.
Vowell's description of staying in a bed and breakfast is priceless. It mirrors a stay my wife and I had where the other couple at breakfast bragged about the shooting club and contests at her son's school. Good liberals that we are, my wife asked who paid for all of that? "Why, the NRA, of course," was the reply. We couldn't wait to stuff down the sausages and get the hell out of there. Next bed and breakfast we go to I intend to get a certified letter attesting to the political affiliation of all the guests. Then, of course, there's always Super-8 as an alternative.
Lots of fascinating detail. I had no idea that the Virginia motto, sic semper tyrannis was yelled by John Wilkes Booth as he leeaped on to the stage after shooting Lincoln and that motto was worn on T-shirts by supporters of Timothy McVeigh along with assorted Confederate flags and symbols.
One learns a great deal too. For example, Dr. Samuel Mudd (a distant relative of Roger Mudd, the broadcaster) was convicted of being one of the conspirators who assassinated Lincoln. Vowell delves deeply and fascinatingly into the sequence of events, remarks on his heroic behavior during the malaria epidemic at the Fort (one of the largest ever built, we learn, after a hysterical, stomach-heaving boat journey) on the Dry Tortugas including efforts by his grandson to completely clear his name. I cannot recommend this book enough - but listen to it."
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