My final saturation book was The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell. It is a collection of short stories written around 2000. The first thing that struck me was much more big picture. I had never read a collection of essays, and the format was pleasant for me. I felt more engaged in the topics and felt mentally stimulated while reading about everything from a letter the President Clinton to having family over to thanksgiving. The next big thing was intellect shown in the writing. “Lincoln the politician needed the win at Gettysburg and, on the cusp of election year, he wanted to remind the people explicitly that if they just held on, while implicitly reminding them to use their next presidential ballot to write their commander in chief a thank-you note.” (5) She comes off in this book as incredibly well researched, making the essay both extremely entertaining and thought provoking. Of course, I wouldn’t be reading a book if the author didn’t have a little humor in their writing. This is where Vowell keeps the book entertaining by adding not only her funny thoughts, but also very smart humor. She often references history to A) get her point across and B) make her reader laugh while doing so. “A California dairy farmer protesting the government’s milk pricing system poured milk down a drain in front of TV cameras, claiming that he had to take a stand, “just like Rosa Parks had to take a stand….though they are all tragic, tragic injustices, are not quite as bad as the systematic segregation of public transportation based on your skin color.” (120) In other instances she jokes about topics that take a certain level of being informed to understand, a level I sometimes didn’t have. Maybe if I work for NPR I will achieve that level, but until them I will laugh along blindly.
It is a collection of short stories written around 2000.
The first thing that struck me was much more big picture. I had never read a collection of essays, and the format was pleasant for me. I felt more engaged in the topics and felt mentally stimulated while reading about everything from a letter the President Clinton to having family over to thanksgiving.
The next big thing was intellect shown in the writing. “Lincoln the politician needed the win at Gettysburg and, on the cusp of election year, he wanted to remind the people explicitly that if they just held on, while implicitly reminding them to use their next presidential ballot to write their commander in chief a thank-you note.” (5) She comes off in this book as incredibly well researched, making the essay both extremely entertaining and thought provoking.
Of course, I wouldn’t be reading a book if the author didn’t have a little humor in their writing. This is where Vowell keeps the book entertaining by adding not only her funny thoughts, but also very smart humor. She often references history to A) get her point across and B) make her reader laugh while doing so. “A California dairy farmer protesting the government’s milk pricing system poured milk down a drain in front of TV cameras, claiming that he had to take a stand, “just like Rosa Parks had to take a stand….though they are all tragic, tragic injustices, are not quite as bad as the systematic segregation of public transportation based on your skin color.” (120) In other instances she jokes about topics that take a certain level of being informed to understand, a level I sometimes didn’t have. Maybe if I work for NPR I will achieve that level, but until them I will laugh along blindly.