Sarah Vowell is my favorite among the many talented and amusing regular contributors to the This American Life radio show. Her intelligent, droll, amusing essays are always a blast to read, or better yet listen to her read in her iconic voice. Unfortunately I only have this in paperback, but her voice comes through in my head as I read anyway.
Presidential assassinations is a topic in history that, beyond JFK and Lincoln, I hadn't given much thought to, but found myself very engaged as Vowell gives both a very full history of all the principal players in Lincoln's, Garfield's, and McKinley's assassinations, as well as her modern day visits to various memorials and historic sites connected to them. It sounds morbid, and it is but is also great fun. One might wonder why the JFK assassination isn't discussed, but that one has been picked over so many times I think there was no need here. Certainly I knew next to nothing of Garfield's and McKinley's demises, and the extended bios of those connected peripherally in Lincoln's death was great. While I enjoy more or less all of Vowell's essays, I think I prefer it when she writes about historical topics like this. Will check out her The Wordy Shipmates soon.
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