A review by sandrinepal
The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell

challenging funny informative lighthearted medium-paced

3.75

Picture if you will a Venn diagram. One side is studying the history of Puritanism in English from 1559 to 1642 in excruciating detail for an exam. This side is replete with obscure concepts like sermon-gadding, double-predestination and even more obscure people like all the archbishops of Canterbury and their underlings. So it's fair to say that this side of the diagram is pretty much the Death Star of Puritanism. On the other side of the diagram sits Sarah Vowell and all the life-affirming associations of listening to This American Life in the early 2000s. It's the era of David Rakoff, John Hodgman and David Sedaris, Ira Glass leading the NPR Jedis. Well, this book is the intersection of the diagram. It's fun and boring, it's erudite and tongue-in-cheek, it's earnest and... well, unapologetically into its less-than-sexy topic. It was also a very American-centric perspective, a welcome chaser to my all-English curriculum last year.