Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

You might recongnize Sarah Vowell's name from The Incredibles or from hearing her on This American Life. She is frequently described as witty and irreverent and I can't come up with better descriptors.

She combines her morbid fascination with death and love of American history to tour around the country on a pilgrimage viewing artifacts and seeing the sights of presidential assassinations. The book is in three main sections for Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, and William McKinley. It is interesting and just plain weird to hear about all of the bizarre artifacts of assassination that are kept (part of John Wilkes Booth brain?).

I like bizarre factoids and I'm sure that is part of the reason I liked this book. But Vowell's quirks that work their way into her writing make it darn funny.

[Liz2254]

I love Sarah Vowell... a friend first gave me The Partly Cloudy Patriot and I've been reading her books ever since. She has such a take on life events and really makes history relevant to our present-day lives.

Still trying to get to Assaaaination Vacation (there's a pile of books waiting for me but every time I sit down I fall asleep), but if it's anything like her other books I can't wait.

I plan to look for it ... but may go with the audio version. Apparently Jon Stewart does James Garfield.

Just read it and found it absolutely hillarious! I'm no history buff (yeah - a fan of factoids though) - but it is truly Vowell's asides and anecdotes that made me plow through this in less than 4 days. I even ended up reading some of the funnier parts of this outloud to dh who was giggling like a school-girl.

I really reccomend it.