Let's face it, there are times when you just can't travel -- or don't want to. Vicarious web travel can be a great supplement to boots-on-the-ground journeys, and we should know, right? However, our wise elders keep talking about these things called "books", so we decided to check out these paper dinosaurs a bit, and guess what, they aren't all a waste of time. Some of them are quite good.
Armchair history buffs rejoice: Sarah Vowell has gone forth and done, so that ye may stay at home and relax. A radio storyteller and fact fanatic, Vowell's peculiar--some might say morbid--fascination with the deaths of presidents led her on a road trip to visit places associated with our nation's first three assassinations: those of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley. Sure, Ford's Theatre was on the list, but so are Florida's Tortuga Islands, the hamlet of Mentor, Ohio and Buffalo, New York.
Vowell freely admits her sense of humor is darker than Lincoln's stovepipe hat, but it's what keeps Assassination Vacation from being a dry trudge through forgotten dead guys. Ms. Sarah may not be the person you'd like to take on a road trip--her siblings and friends gamely seek out costumed docents and long neglected memorials with her, often doing all the driving--but she ends up repaying them, and us, with the mordant jokes she wrings out of her travels. And in case you'd like to take this book on a vacation of your own, the audio book is just as good, featuring actors and comedians like Jon Stewart, Daniel "Lemony Snicket" Handler and Catherine Keener. (You can hear an excerpt, including Vowell calling Garfield a "Loser McBookworm," here.)
Related Stories:
·Jaunted Recommended Travel Books [Jaunted]
[Photo: 1heckofaguy.com]
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