Vowel's smart, engaging, funny book [b:Assassination Vacation|422664|Assassination Vacation|Sarah Vowell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174601492s/422664.jpg|824686](audio) made the miles melt away as I drove to grad classes. I chose this title as a birthday gift when my sister-in-law said a) she loves words and b) history interests her. Seems a perfect match. I'm reading it first just to be sure of what I'm giving. ( )

Sarah Vowell seems like the kind of author who would be good for the buddy read project for my dad and me -- the trick was finding a book hers neither of us had read already. And since better understanding the legacy of the Civil War and how it still haunts America today was the original motivation for our read-alongs, going back further to investigate our Puritan origins seemed like right on theme.

This was a good pick, and fascinating, especially along "it was ever thus" lines -- just that it seems to be built in to the human condition to argue about doctrine and splinter and faction -- or is that just the legacy we've inherited here in the U.S. from the Puritans and we THINK it is universal?

We spent a lot of our time really trying to wrap our heads around Calvinism and what the motivation is for doing ANYTHING if your salvation/damnation is already predetermined and there is nothing you can do about it?

The back-and-forth shifting in time as various threads of the story are followed and then backtracking to another was a little more bewildering/frustrating in this book than in some of Vowell's others -- where many readers could be expected to have SOME grasp of the timeline to begin with.

Overall a very worthwhile read. ( )

I bought this book because I was heading to New England and New York for a month and I thought it would be good to get a sense of the history of the place. Of course I didn't find time to read the book until six months after that trip, but I was glad that I had been there and had some idea of the geography. It did exactly what I hoped it would - provided one quirky perspective on the first days of one of the early settlements of America by Europeans. I'm always suspicious of the stories countries tell themselves about how their culture evolved, and this did tend to make a few overly bold leaps at times, but it has value as much for its ability to reveal how a certain type of US American views their culture today. The writing is light and breezy and occasionally draws a laugh or touches the heart. ( )

This is a very different book than lighthearted Assassination Vacation. In some ways much more opinionated. I should probably say right away that Sarah Vowell tells you she is an atheist in the book. That didn't bother me, but it might bother some people. I would say she is a searching Atheist. She is trying to understand the motives behind why the early settlers (very religious) did what they did, and I think she does an amazing job of revealing the personalities of the people she researches. She doesn't mock religion, but she does point out hypocrisy (in herself, as well). Through her wit and wisdom, these people really came alive for me. She does inject some of her political opinion, and while I didn't always agree, I enjoyed the book. It has left me thinking about my decisions and opinions as a Christian. I learned a lot about the leaders who settled and taught in the Massachusetts and Rhode Island areas. ( )

Liked the book a lot - felt like I got a much better understanding of early Massachusetts and Rhode Island colonial history. Winthrop, Cotton, Roger Williams, Ann Hutchinson, etc. I felt a little uneasy trusting Vowell since she’s not a “real” historian, and there isn’t the usual trappings of footnotes etc. I hope what I read was more or less accurate. It was a really fun read in any event. ( )