Sarah Vowell

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Louisiana

New York Times bestselling author of The Wordy Shipmates and contributor to NPR’s "This American Life" Sarah Vowell embarks on a road trip to sites of political violence, from Washington DC to Alaska, to better understand our nation’s ever-evolving political system and history. 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 American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage. From Buffalo to Alaska, Washington to the Dry Tortugas, Vowell visits locations immortalized and influenced by the spilling of politically important blood, reporting as she goes with her trademark blend of wisecracking humor, remarkable honesty, and thought-provoking criticism. We learn about the jinx that was Robert Todd Lincoln (present at the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley) and witness the politicking that went into the making of the Lincoln Memorial. The resulting narrative is much more than an entertaining and informative travelogue -- it is the disturbing and fascinating story of how American death has been manipulated by popular culture, including literature, architecture, sculpture, and -- the author's favorite -- historical tourism. Though the themes of loss and violence are explored and we make detours to see how the Republican Party became the Republican Party, there are all kinds of lighter diversions along the way into the lives of the three presidents and their assassins, including mummies, show tunes, mean-spirited totem poles, and a nineteenth-century biblical sex cult.

Assassination Vacation

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Connecticut

Stories from the New World

A collection of essays and autobiographical stories in which the author offers her humorous take on identity, politics, religion, art, history, and other topics.

Take the Cannoli *signed*

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Vermont

In this New York Times bestseller, the author of Lafayette in the Somewhat United States "brings the [Puritan] era wickedly to life" (Washington Post). To this day, America views itself as a Puritan nation, but Sarah Vowell investigates what that means-and what it should mean. What she discovers is something far different from what their uptight shoebuckles- and-corn reputation might suggest-a highly literate, deeply principled, and surprisingly feisty people, whose story is filled with pamphlet feuds, witty courtroom dramas, and bloody vengeance. Vowell takes us from the modern-day reenactment of an Indian massacre to the Mohegan Sun casino, from old-timey Puritan poetry, where "righteousness" is rhymed with "wilderness," to a Mayflower-themed waterslide. Throughout, The Wordy Shipmates is rich in historical fact, humorous insight, and social commentary by one of America's most celebrated voices.

The Wordy Shipmates

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Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Washington

From the bestselling author of Assassination Vacation and Unfamiliar Fishes, a humorous and insightful account of the Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette--the one Frenchman we could all agree on--and an insightful portrait of a nation's idealism and its reality. On August 16, 1824, an elderly French gentlemen sailed into New York Harbor and giddy Americans were there to welcome him. Or, rather, to welcome him back. It had been thirty years since the Revolutionary War hero the Marquis de Lafayette had last set foot in the United States, and he was so beloved that 80,000 people showed up to cheer for him. The entire population of New York at the time was 120,000. Lafayette's arrival in 1824 coincided with one of the most contentious presidential elections in American history, Congress had just fought its first epic battle over slavery, and the threat of a Civil War loomed. But Lafayette, belonging to neither North nor South, to no political party or faction, was a walking, talking reminder of the sacrifices and bravery of the revolutionary generation and what they wanted this country to be. His return was not just a reunion with his beloved Americans, it was a reunion for Americans with their own astonishing singular past. Lafayette in the Somewhat United States is a humorous and insightful portrait of the famed Frenchman, the impact he had on our young country, and his ongoing relationship with some of the instrumental Americans of the time, including George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and many more.

Lafayette in the Somewhat United States

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From the author of Lafayette in the Somewhat United States comes an examination of Hawaii, the place where Manifest Destiny got a sunburn. 


 

Of all the countries the United States invaded or colonized in 1898, Sarah Vowell considers the story of the Americanization of Hawaii to be the most intriguing. From the arrival of the New England missionaries in 1820, who came to Christianize the local heathens, to the coup d'état led by the missionaries' sons in 1893, overthrowing the Hawaiian queen, the events leading up to American annexation feature a cast of beguiling, if often appalling or tragic, characters. Whalers who fire cannons at the Bible-thumpers denying them their god-given right to whores; an incestuous princess pulled between her new god and her brother-husb∧ sugar barons, con men, Theodore Roosevelt, and the last Hawaiian queen, a songwriter whose sentimental ode "Aloha 'Oe" serenaded the first Hawaiian-born president of the United States during his 2009 inaugural parade.

With her trademark wry insights and reporting, Vowell sets out to discover the odd, emblematic, and exceptional history of the fiftieth state. In examining the place where Manifest Destiny got a sunburn, she finds America again, warts and all.

Unfamiliar Fishes

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Illinois

"Take the Cannoli" is a moving and wickedly funny collection of personal stories stretching across the immense landscape of the American scene. Hailed by "Newsweek" as a "cranky stylist with talent to burn," Vowell has an irresistible voice -- caustic and sympathetic, insightful and double-edged -- that has attracted a loyal following for her magazine writing and radio monologues on This American Life.

While tackling subjects such as identity, politics, religion, art, and history, these autobiographical tales are written with a biting humor, placing Vowell solidly in the tradition of Mark Twain and Dorothy Parker. Vowell searches the streets of Hoboken for traces of the town's favorite son, Frank Sinatra. She goes under cover of heavy makeup in an investigation of goth culture, blasts cannonballs into a hillside on a father-daughter outing, and maps her family's haunted history on a road trip down the Trail of Tears.

"Take the Cannoli" is an eclectic tour of the New World, a collection of alternately hilarious and heartbreaking essays and autobiographical yarns.

Take the Cannoli

Oklahoma

From the bestselling author of Assassination Vacation and Unfamiliar Fishes, a humorous and insightful account of the Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette - the one Frenchman America could all agree on - and an insightful portrait of a nation's idealism and its reality. A fascinating alternative US civil war story, from a writer who specialises in obscure political history.

New York

A Listener's Diary

There are approximately 502 million radios in America. For this savvy, far-reaching diary, celebrated journalist and author Sarah Vowell turned hers on and listened--closely, critically, creatively--for an entire year.

As a series of impressions and reflections regarding contemporary American culture, and as an extended meditation on both our media and our society, this keenly focused book is as insightful as it is refreshing.

Throughout Radio On, "Vowell's touch is about as delicate as Teddy Kennedy's after a pitcher of martinis" (Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times).

Radio On

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Lemony Snicket

Jon Scieszka

Terry Gross

Libba Bray

Ira Glass

Sophie Blackall

Jon Klassen

Chris Kluwe

Holly Black

Sook-Yin Lee

Rachel Maddow

Stephin Merritt

Wesley Stace

Lemony Snicket File Under: 13 Suspicious Insidents CD Audiobook (3 Discs) Young Adult

- 3 hours 
- read by various artists 

Condition: Withdrawn Library CD Audiobook with common library stickers and markings, wear on box from handling and shelf sitting, insert has a tear or two, discs in great shape. 

Before the Baudelaires became orphans, before he encountered A Series of Unfortunate Events, even before the invention of Netflix, Lemony Snicket was a boy discovering the mysteries of the world. 

Match wits with Lemony Snicket to solve thirteen mini-mysteries.

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Kansas

CD Audiobook: File under: 13 Suspicious Incidents

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Michigan

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

From the author who Nick Hornby calls smart, funny, soulful, and even educational--a smart, funny, soulful, and even educational collection of first-person experiences about life in America. Vowell captures the hilarious and moving things that happen when she confronts history.

The Partly Cloudy Patriot

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Oregon

A cultural profile of Puritan life covers a wide range of topics, from their covenant communities and deep-rooted ideologies to their beliefs about church and state and their perspectives on other faiths, in an account that also evaluates their legacy in today's world. 125,000 first printing.

This book is a clean copy with a good spine and binding. The contents and Graphics are in good condition. There is minimal wear inside. There is slight wear on the paperback cover. Will ship within hours after your order is received. Thanks for stopping by and please stay safe.

Texas

Florida

Drawn to the patriots' war out of a lust for glory, Enlightenment ideas, and the French hatred for the British, teenaged French aristocrat the Marquis de Lafayette crossed the Atlantic expecting to join forces with an undivided people. Instead he encountered fault lines between the Continental Congress and the Continental Army, rebel and loyalist inhabitants, and a conspiracy to fire George Washington, the one man holding together the rickety, seemingly doomed patriot cause. Riding shotgun with Lafayette, Vowell swerves from the high-minded debates of Independence Hall to the frozen wasteland of Valley Forge, from bloody battlefields to the Palace of Versailles.

Rhode Island

Nevada

Georgia

Author dives into the past for clarification on personal issues 

The author shares her perspective on such topics as the 2000 election, present-day civil rights activists, and the relationship between the United States and Canada.

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Sarah Vowell

Assassination Vacation

Sarah Vowell

Take the Cannoli *signed*

Sarah Vowell

The Wordy Shipmates

Sarah Vowell

Lafayette in the Somewhat United States

Sarah Vowell

Unfamiliar Fishes

Sarah Vowell

Take the Cannoli

Sarah Vowell

Lafayette in the Somewhat United States

Sarah Vowell

Radio On

Sarah Vowell

Assassination Vacation

Lemony Snicket; Jon Scieszka; Terry Gross; Sarah Vowell; Libba Bray; Ira Glass; Sophie Blackall; Jon Klassen; Chris Kluwe; Holly Black; Sook-Yin Lee; Rachel Maddow; Stephin Merritt; Wesley Stace

CD Audiobook: File under: 13 Suspicious Incidents

Sarah Vowell

Lafayette in the Somewhat United States

Sarah Vowell

The Partly Cloudy Patriot

Sarah Vowell

The Wordy Shipmates

Sarah Vowell

Unfamiliar Fishes

Sarah Vowell

The Wordy Shipmates

Sarah Vowell

Take the Cannoli

Sarah Vowell

Lafayette in the Somewhat United States

Sarah Vowell

Take the Cannoli

Sarah Vowell

Assassination Vacation

Sarah Vowell

The Wordy Shipmates

Sarah Vowell

The Wordy Shipmates

Sarah Vowell

Take the Cannoli

Sarah Vowell

Assassination Vacation

Sarah Vowell

The Partly Cloudy Patriot

Take the Cannoli signed