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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
I thought the subject was interesting but I had a hard time getting through the book. The way it’s told feels very disjointed with an unclear throughline, which is fine, but made it feel like I should be doing a Great Courses history of Hawaii rather than a popular nonfiction book. It became a bit of a slog, which is a shame because it’s such a rich story.
Not as good as some of her other books. An excess of lackluster political editorializing diminished the otherwise interesting accounts of cultural melding.
I love getting my historical facts in Vowell's casual writing style, especially while swallowing the big depressing pill that is Hawaii's colonial history.
I'm glad I returned to this. Even with all this new information, there's still so much I don't know about the history of Hawaii. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of Vowell's books.
This is Vowell's best book yet. This is a wonderfully complete account of the devastating events that led up to the cowardly annexation of Hawaii by the United States.
Short, breezy, accessible pop history of the American influence on and annexation of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Very enjoyable, though lightweight.
I thought that after a year of grad school I would never want to voluntarily read nonfiction again. But it turned out I wanted to voluntarily read nonfiction nearly immediately, because I'd had this waiting patiently on my Kindle the entire year. I was so excited about this because I've loved her other books, and the topic of this one seemed far more outwardly interesting to me. Unfortunately I didn't like it quite as much as her others. I can't tell if the problem was me -- I think I really wanted far more about modern day Hawaii and/or cultural stuff, when of course it's loads of history -- or if it was just a bit less funny than the last few.
The overwhelming takeaway is how incredibly shitty American settlers were to Hawaii, methodically and shamelessly stealing sovereignty through legal reform and then just taking over. I had no idea just how blatant it was (or that Grover Cleveland tried to stop its annexation; wtg Groves?). Poor Hawaii. Ugh, white people.
The overwhelming takeaway is how incredibly shitty American settlers were to Hawaii, methodically and shamelessly stealing sovereignty through legal reform and then just taking over. I had no idea just how blatant it was (or that Grover Cleveland tried to stop its annexation; wtg Groves?). Poor Hawaii. Ugh, white people.
In "Unfamiliar Fishes," Sarah Vowell continues in the themes of her previous book, "The Wordy Shipmates," exploring, in her witty, acerbic style, the complex intersections of religion, freedom, and greed in American culture, focusing on the unique state of Hawaii. Like in "The Wordy Shipmates," Vowell focuses more on the fascinating history of what forces brought a kingdom into the United States of America rather than her own persoanl experiences, though her Vowell's interactions and insights visiting various historical sights and people are still my favorite part of the work. The culture clashes between the native Hawaiians, (nobility and common people), the haole, (missionaries and American capitalists) led to many complex and odd alliances that made for gripping listening, in particular the aside on whaling and Melville. Having not studied Hawaii in depth in the past, I am now really interested in visiting (of course, listening to Vowell's lush descriptions of the islands in the depth of a Minnesota winter does not help!)
The Secretary of the Navy during the Spanish-American War was George Dewey. Of his annihilation of the enemy's ships in the Philippines, Vowell writes, "Dewey decimated the navy." I cackled. So there, I admit it, even though I'm sure the destruction was more than 10%, I laughed like a monkey.