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The New York Times suggested Sarah Vowell's latest book, The Wordy Shipmates, was "impressive and annoying". 

I wouldn't have said I was impressed, but I certainly enjoyed reading it, enough to want to read other books written by Sarah Vowell.

And I'd certainly recommend it to anyone looking for a lively examination of the Puritains who set off to settle the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630.

Comments

[lori]

i didn’t enjoy it compared to her other books, and i’m a huge s.v. fan.

for me, i noticed she took out most of the personal aspect and that turned it into a long, well-researched, well-written term paper. i still liked it. but i didn’t *love* it the way i love her other books. i have reread “partly cloudy patriot” and “assassination vacation” three or four times. high praise.

[katherine]

I've heard similar statements from others, enough that I'm now really keen to try her earlier books out. From what I'm hearing, I think I might have been more disappointed with this one if I *had* already read her earlier works. That said, there were moments where what she wrote made the material seem very fresh, which was what *did* appeal to me.

Thanks, though, for prompting me to go check if the library had the earlier works -- they do, and they're both now on hold.