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Assassination Vacation

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Assassination Vacation

By: Sarah Vowell
Narrated by: Jon Stewart, Conan O'Brien, Stephen King, Dave Eggers
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About this listen

 New York Times bestselling author of The Wordy Shipmates and contributor to NPR’s This American Life Sarah Vowell embarks on a road trip to sites of political violence, from Washington DC to Alaska, to better understand our nation’s ever-evolving political system and history.

Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. With Assassination Vacation, she takes us on a road trip like no other—a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage.

From Buffalo to Alaska, Washington to the Dry Tortugas, Vowell visits locations immortalized and influenced by the spilling of politically important blood, reporting as she goes with her trademark blend of wisecracking humor, remarkable honesty, and thought-provoking criticism. We learn about the jinx that was Robert Todd Lincoln (present at the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley) and witness the politicking that went into the making of the Lincoln Memorial. The resulting narrative is much more than an entertaining and informative travelogue—it is the disturbing and fascinating story of how American death has been manipulated by popular culture, including literature, architecture, sculpture, and—the author’s favorite—historical tourism. Though the themes of loss and violence are explored and we make detours to see how the Republican Party became the Republican Party, there are all kinds of lighter diversions along the way into the lives of the three presidents and their assassins, including mummies, show tunes, mean-spirited totem poles, and a nineteenth-century biblical sex cult.©2005 Sarah Vowell; (P)2005 Simon & Schuster Inc. AUDIOWORKS is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster, Inc. Murder North America Politics & Activism Presidents & Heads of State Travel Writing & Commentary True Crime United States Assassin Abraham Lincoln Crime Theodore Roosevelt Witty Comedy American History
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Loved this book, Sarah is so enthusiastic and her attention to detail is flawless. a unique writer and narrator, if you need to know EXACTLY what happened after Lincoln's assasination, Sarah Vowell is the writer for you. I particularly enjoyed Owen's tiny role in the book, it is great to read about a real child.

Brilliant book.

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I was incredibly pleasantly surprised by this book! I went in expecting a somewhat dry history book, which I would have been fine with that’s kind of what I signed up for, but this book managed to blend interesting history facts with super compelling personal stories and interesting observations. I never thought a book could make me care about James A. Garfield but I found myself really liking the man and getting a better understanding of him as a person, but just a historical figure. This book made me care about these people not just as historical figures but as real people with lives and families, asking with educating me about a lot of history I wasn’t aware of. This combined with Vowell’s excellent inner monologue style of writing and incredibly good narrating made this book quickly shoot up my list of favourite books of the year, if not ever! I would (and do) recommend this book to everyone and I eagerly look forward to Vowell’s future books.

One of my favourite books of the year!

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