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August 03, 2005
no pain, no hurt, we'll go dreaming...
I'm going to go on the record and recommend you read Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. And not only because the first word of the title has "ass" in it twice.
Vowell is funny. What's funnier that her is her snippet bio on the inside-back flap of the dust jacket (tangent: someone explained to me the names of each of the four pages of a dust jacket, but I can't remember them. If you know them, please e-mail me at jkh@ashersky.org). Mentioning that Vowell was the voice of Violet in The Incredibles definitely makes me think she's a great writer. Definitely.
Shameless promotion aside (and The Incredibles is a great flick, by the way), Vowell takes a novel idea and writes a readable, fun book. She takes one of my favorite staples, the roadtrip, and makes it educational and political, traveling to various sites tied to the assassinations of three U.S. presidents. Her insights and humor are right on, and the book is a fun read.
I noticed a joke she in the Garfield section regarding the Oneida community where I think she missed a big Bible reference and wanted to e-mail her about it. So I went online, thinking I'd go to her website and send an e-mail to something like SarahVowell@SarahVowell.com. Except she doesn't have a website like that. Or an e-mail address. Which just struck me as odd.
It is true she's somewhat political, so there could be those on the side opposite her that would want to write back things at her, but still. I love that most writers love to hear from readers. Interaction, even on a superficial e-mail level, is enjoyable. I've made friends that way. And then it isn't so superficial anymore.
At any rate, go read the book. And when you finish that, you can always e-mail me for more suggestions.
Posted by ashersky at August 3, 2005 07:15 PM
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