Rating: 
Summary: wonderful/insightful/hysterical...
Review: ...need i say more? hmmmm...let's see...what else CAN i say...?i love this book. sarah vowell is a brilliant young writer, with a biting sense of humor. this collection echoes (i suspect) the sentiments of many disillusioned americans (make that *millions*) who still wonder how in the wild, wild world of sports dubbya became president. beyond that, however, is a sweet and funny look into the heart of this talented woman as she takes us though some darn interesting moments in her coventional-yet-not-really-coventional upbringing. she's funny. she's smart. she's ... funny and smart. hers is a voice that stands out in a sea of mediocre essayists. trust me, agree or disagree with her politics, you'll still enjoy her sense of history as it relates to our world today! : )
Rating:
Summary: She makes me proud to be American again
Review: After I finished this collection of essays, all I could think to myself was how much it made me want to be a better person. A better American. And not in that Pro-Bush, "I'm gonna put a flag in my yard to show my loyalty", "let's kick some [insert foreign country with whom we're disagreeing this week] [...]!" kind of way. It makes me want to go back and do some of the reading I haven't done since junior high so that I can once again appreciate what America was meant to be instead of what so often we fear it's becoming. Because Sarah Vowell loves America, and her love of our country is an old love. A love that dates back to the days of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. A love that wishes Abraham Lincoln could have been president forever out of admiration for his determination to keep America uncompromisingly whole. I've called her an "optimist-in-cynic's-clothing", and I still stand by that. Like in her earlier collection, Take the Cannoli, she's unabashedly opinionated, but time and history have mellowed her somewhat. Where before she crtitcized America's misdeeds of the past, now she has hope for what we can do in the future. And her hope is infectious. I'm not a very political person, but I love The Partly Cloudy Patriot as much for the politically tinged essays as for the more generically themed reflections. My favorites? "The Nerd Voice", a wonderful essay defending Al Gore, one of America's most famous (and misunderstood) modern nerds, and "State of the Union", a collection of completely random musings that smack of the inspiration that comes only with insomnia. And just in case you're fearing being preached at, don't. You'll laugh your head off, and if you're like me, when you're done reading, you'll want to give Sarah Vowell a big hug of thanks and appreciation.
Rating: 
Summary: NERDS KNOW OSWALD WAS FRAMED
Review: As I was driving by a 19th-century rural graveyard near the site of George and Libby Custer's honeymoon in upstate New York one Friday afternoon, Sarah Vowell's voice came sighing out of my Pontiac's speakers as she was interviewed over National Public Radio, where she works. At first that hint of nepotism rankled, until the lady explained how post-Sept. 11 American "patriotism" rankled her. In both spoken and written word, Vowell uses low-key humor to sketch out important Truths, quietly achieving a goal which eludes most modern writers: heightening the existences of his/her readers.
Anyhow, Vowell's succintly written accounts of life in the Big City, interfamilial conflicts, political disappointments and -- best yet -- her obsessive travels to sites of bloody battles and assassinations are simultaneously entertaining and edifying.
One thing disturbs me: In briefly recounting her visit to Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Vowell intimates that President Kennedy was in fact shot to death by one of her fellow nerds, the hapless (and notably late) Lee Harvey Oswald. She should read Peter Dale Scott's "Deep Politics and the Death of JFK" or Mark North's
"Act of Treason" or David Scheim's "Contract on America" or any number of other unofficial histories that could set her straight on that sad misunderstanding.
Those of us nearing our personal half-century marks became partly cloudy patriots on Nov. 22, 1963. In retrospect, Sept. 11 and the hollow nationalism it produced is like a carnival mirror image of the uneasy blend of pride and shame that all exploded that awful weekend 39 years ago in the Big D. ...
Rating:
Summary: correction
Review: As someone who just finally got my hands on this book after weeks of looking forward to it, I couldn't let what seemed like an injustice to this book go--the customer reviewer who liked it the least said "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" doesn't appear in this book despite being advertised on the jacket. Um, did he/she even READ the book?! It's in there--not glaring in the title, but really, not that hard to find. Why write a hateful review if he/she hasn't even read the book?
Rating:
Summary: Funny, Intelligent And Damn Reassuring
Review: I came to Sarah Vowell a virgin. Before I purchased her book I had never heard her on radio or read her anywhere but after thumbing through a portion of her explaining why she visits gruesome places in history, as someone who has himself thought seriously of staying overnight in the home Lizzie Borden killed her parents, I knew I had a deep kinship with this delightful person. The Partly Cloudy Patriot did not disappoint in any way. These short essays are very funny, often thoughtful, personal and impassioned. Whether describing Thanksgiving with her parents or her reaction to the presidential victory of Mr. Bush (a highlight of the volume is this essay and its skillful presentation of Gore as a nerd, in a very positive way). After this past election, this volume is a wonderful way to overcome a little and laugh a lot. A much needed writer in these terrible times.
Rating:
Summary: me love sarah
Review: i could sit here and prclaim me reverence for this book all night long, but im just going to simply state "i love this book." you should definitely purchase.
Rating:
Summary: Kind of ho-hum...
Review: I don't know; maybe it's because I'm a Canadian, but I really don't get what people see in Vowell. Maybe it's the appeal of the "young-smart history-nerd combo," like somebody thinks that's a rare thing. Probably all of the above plus a dash of great writing and a sprinkling of apple pie spice for Old Glory. Personally, though, I couldn't find in this book the howlingly funny curmudgeon that reviews here had led me to expect. Some insight, perhaps, though I felt myself wishing she was writing from a little more experience. Maybe it's like that thing with airline pilots, imagining them with salt-and-pepper hair and, though their hands are steady, just a trace of crows' feet around the eyes. Deep down, maybe I prefer my historians and history buffs to be way older than me. Vowell is probably a great way for younger audiences to get into political issues, but -- and maybe it loses something, not hearing it read aloud in her own voice! -- I personally found it hard to get excited about her causes, and harder to empathize with her odd American passions.
Rating:
Summary: Partly Sunny
Review: I first came to Sarah Vowell not through NPR, but rather through an essay she wrote about Mel Gibson's "The Patriot", for a now-defunct webzine called Open Letters. Some months later she wrote a fascinating Election Day rumination on David Letterman and American voting habits for the same site. Both these essays -- one intact, one substantially altered for the post-9/11 world -- appear in "The Partly-Cloudy Patriot", which was an easy purchase once I saw Vowell's name on the cover. I confess, even though I hear a lot os in the former Confederacy, and walked hurriedly through the Book Depository museum at Dealey Plaza so I could get back to a hotel room in Arlington and watch the "American Idol" finale. I think Vowell would approve of my choice (Ruben over Clay, that is). The most timely topic in the collection is also one of the shortest articles: "Rosa Parks, C'est Moi". There's a universal truth here. In American politics, once someone compares themselves to Thomas Jefferson, they've already lost the debate. When a triumphant athlete quotes Lou Gehrig's "luckiest man on the face of the Earth", you know he has well and truly lost the plot. And when some cf NPR while driving cross-country for work, I've still never heard Vowell on the air. I did see her on one of the first post-9/11 editions of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien", but mostly I'm here as a fan of her written work, especialy her last collection, "Take the Cannoli". Like "Cannoli", "Patriot" is a grab-bag of short features that mix Vowell's family life with her thoughts on American cultural heritage. There's really not a bad article in the bunch, though I feel (as I did with the last book) that many of them end too abruptly, as if she were warming up to her theme and then suddenly moved on to the next topic. She talks about the history of mapmaking, and then switches gears to eulogize that great evangelist, Tom Landry. She never lingers on the subject long enough to beat it into the ground, and intentionally leaves a lot unsaid. The book's centerpiece is "The Nerd Voice", a proud article about the place of the nerd in American society, told in two parts -- first from the inauguration of George W. Bush, and then in an interview with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" writer Doug Petrie. A later chapter in the same vein cover's Vowell's fascination with America's most famous bookworm warrior, Teddy Roosevelt, who famously read "Anna Karenina" while on a cattle drive. That fascinates me too. I carried a "Doctor Who" novel through the battlefield at Shiloh. No Teddy Roosevelt, I. Along the way, Vowell schleps to Gettysburg, the Salem witch museums, an underground cafeteria at Carlsbad Caverns, and a local arcade where she plays penny basketball. I really admire this lifestyle. In the past year I have traipsed through two Civil War battlefieldheap dime-store iconoclast professes to be the next Rosa Parks, it's time to ask for the check. Sarah Vowell probably could have gotten a whole book just out of this alone.. but settled for less than five pages. Ideally, the next Sarah Vowell collection will feature a return to the Richard Nixon presidential libraries... in the midst of a mini-review of "The Big Lebowski".
Rating:
Summary: Just the liberal voice we need!
Review: I first saw Sarah Vowell on C-Span, answering questions after a book reading. She looks like a baby Bette Davis with a stringy bob and she talks with her hands. Someone asked her who her favorite comedian was and she said, "Don Rickles. He'd kill you people in the front row in the sweaters. He'd just kill you."
When the session was over, I wanted more so I bought THE PARTLY-CLOUDY PATRIOT.
The book reads more like a journal than a collection of essays. Perhaps the best one is about Al Gore. Sarah Vowell sees herself as a nerd and although she's a staunch democrat she most readily identifies with other nerds. Al Gore wrote a book on the environment, among other nerdish things, so he qualifies. This essay resonated with me because I've often wondered why we don't have more stringent requirements for the job of president.
Another sample of her caustic wit was her essay on Teddy Roosevelt, who was part nerd and part adventurer. Her father used to tell her about Teddy's problems with asthma. He could do nothing except stay in bed and read. "Ew," said her sister. "Sigh," said Sarah. Staying in bed all day was a lifelong ambition for her.
I have to admit that I was expecting THE PARTLY-CLOUDY PATRIOT to be a real slam session, but that's not the case. Sarah attends George W. Bush's inauguration, bending over backwards to be fair. Although she cries when W. takes the oath, she chastises a friend who boos Staff Sergeant Alec T. Maly when he sings "My Country 'Tis of Thee."
Sarah Vowell is a commentator on National Public Radio's THIS AMERICAN LIFE. I'd like to see her on national television crossing swords with the conservative blowhards.
Rating:
Summary: Cute as Her Voice
Review: I had to get this book after hearing Vowell's interview on NPR. The Tom Landry story sold it to me ;) This is a perfect quick-read that like-minded Democrates will especially enjoy. She isn't malicious when criticizing and her sincerity will make you smile all the way through.
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