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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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
Description: Very Good. VERY GOOD with minimal wear to cover and pages. Binding fully intact. We offer a no-hassle guarantee on all our items. Orders generally ship by the next business day. Default Text. 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
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date Published: 1/31/2006
ISBN-13:9780743260046ISBN:074326004X
Description: Fine. 074326004X little crease on Within 24 Hours. Excellent Customer Service. Upto 15 Days 100% Money Back Gurantee. Try Our Fast! ! ! ! Shipping With Tracking Number. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780743260046ISBN:074326004X
Description: Good. Book is in very good condition DH Goodwillnyonline carries a wide range of quality new and used items at competitive prices. Goodwillnyonline is operated by Goodwill Industries of Greater New York & Northern New Jersey. A major provider of services for people with disabilities and other barriers to employment. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780743260046ISBN:074326004X
Description: VG+/NONE. 074326004x. 0.8 x 8.3 x 5.5 Inches; 272 pages; 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 ... read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date Published: 2006-01-31
ISBN-13:9780743260046ISBN:074326004X
Description: Very Good. Very clean from cover to cover. No highlighter, pen or pencil markings on the text. Binding is tight. Cover has minimal shelf wear. -Free Delivery Confirmation for Domestic orders- 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
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date Published: 2006-01-31
ISBN-13:9780743260046ISBN:074326004X
Description: Very Good. Softcover in very good condition. Some visible signs of wear from previous ownership, but still a very good looking copy. May have remainder mark, or a small amount of writing on the inside. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date Published: 1/31/2006
ISBN-13:9780743260046ISBN:074326004X
Description: Fine. 074326004X Minor edge wear on the spine. Ships Within 24 Hours. Excellent Customer Service. Upto 15 Days 100% Money Back Gurantee. Try Our Fast! ! ! ! Shipping With Tracking Number. 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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