Sarah Vowell
I love nonfiction books where an author sets out to learn about a subject and makes the story of their investigation part of the book. Sarah Vowell did this well. She wrote books that looked at slices of American history including the annexation of Hawaii, political assassinations, Puritanism, and the effect of Lafayette on the United States.
Unfamiliar Fishes is my favorite. I listened to it prior to going to Hawaii. It gave me a lot of insight into the history of U.S. involvement on the islands.
I really liked her books and she hasn’t written any for a while. So I looked her up to see why. It turns out that this might be a good story. Her day job when she was writing these books was as a reporter on This American Life on NPR. That got her the job as the voice of Violet in The Incredibles. Yep, she got Pixar money. I hope she is off living her best life somewhere. I wish she was still writing books because I loved them but good for her.
I have found that journalist write some of the best history type non-fiction. The couple that I’ve read by historians are usually a bit dry and boring. So I always check to see who the author is before reading history nonfiction.
Even if I got a boatload of money, I’d still write 🙂
Ronel visiting for V: My Languishing TBR: V
Cyclops