Assassination Vacation

I recommended this to David on WSIRN Episode 204. This book has been called a beach read for history geeks. Sarah Vowell is a NPR commentator who is a little bit cultural historian, a little bit comedian. The setup here is that she decides that she's interested in history. So what she decides to do is take a road trip to visit the sites that are in any way relevant to presidential assassinations that actually succeeded. And then some that didn't. She goes to the big locations, of course, like the theatre where Lincoln was shot, but she also goes to museums, statues, libraries, fields that are believed to have artifacts or connections to the assassination, historic sites, anything that has anything to do with the assassination. She's writing about a serious part of history, obviously tragedies in American history. And yet the way she relates the story, her adventures and her interactions with people helping her, some willing, some just happen to be manning the desk at the museum are just so funny. This is the kind of book that you didn't know you wanted to read until you pick it up and start reading it and realize this is what my reading life has been missing.