Pop Culture Podcast
Popspotting #85: Sarah Vowell (July 6, 2011)
It’s back to the bookshelves for Wildcard Wednesday, as Jen gives a whirlwind tour through the bibliography of Sarah Vowell, whom most know as a contributor to “This American Life” on National Public Radio (and a few know as the voice of young Violet in Pixar’s “The Incredibles”). Jen has read every single one of her books, and loves how she mixes solid history, personal anecdotes, wit, and snark.
From “The Godfather” to John Wilkes Booth to Carlsbad Caverns, Vowell’s interests, travels, and writing style fly all over the place. موقع payeer
Vowell’s most recent book is “Unfamiliar Fishes,” in which she looks into the history of Hawaii, and the overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy.
I also started reading Sarah Vowell after seeing the Incredibles and hearing her on NPR’s This American Life. I started with Assassination Vacation and then read The Partly Cloudy Patriot. But I could NOT get through The Wordy Shipmates! I couldn’t figure out why I was having such a hard time with this book, especially considering I loved her other books. It wasn’t until I read some reviews that I began to understand. It just didn’t flow very well and it seemed so dense and rambling. I have her latest but haven’t read it yet, and I am thinking I might have to go back and try it again!
I am reading Robopocalypse right now by Daniel H. Wilson. It is a very entertaining read about machines rising up to destroy humanity. One thing that makes it different than say, Terminator is that the robots (dubbed Rob by the humans fighting them) don’t want to destroy all life, they just think they can do a better job running things than people. The story is also told in flashbacks (something us Lost fans can appreciate). The movie rights have already been picked up by none other than Steven Spielberg!
I’ve downloaded a sample to my Kindle, and they have it at my library. Have you read anything by Alan Brennert?
I have not, but Googling him, I see his most recent book, “Molokai,” is about Kalaupapa here in Hawaii! Very interesting.