Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Take the Cannoli

3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 · rating details · 7,591 ratings · 560 reviews

Take the Cannoli is a moving and wickedly funny collection of personal stories stretching across the immense landscape of the American scene. Vowell tackles subjects such as identity, politics, religion, art, and history with a biting humor. She searches the streets of Hoboken for traces of the town's favorite son, Frank Sinatra. She goes under cover of heavy makeup in an

...more

Paperback, 224 pages

Published 2003 by Penguin Books (first published April 6th 2000)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

Don't Get Too Comfortable by David Rakoff

The Daily Show Reading Club

16th out of 272 books — 125 voters

The Boy Kings of Texas by Domingo Martinez

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris

Sleepwalk With Me and Other Painfully True Stories by Mike Birbiglia

This American Life

5th out of 97 books — 25 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Mar 04, 2009 bookczuk rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookcrossing, great-title

I realized reading this that I am familiar with this author from NPR's This American Life

Some of the essays captured my imagination, some did not. All in all it was a diverting read from the all that is occupying my time around her otherwise.

FROM THE PUBLISHER
Take the Cannoli is a moving and wickedly funny collection of personal stories stretching across the immense landscape of the American scene. Vowell tackles subjects such as identity, politics, religion, art, and history with a biting humo...more

2 likes · like · see review

Dec 17, 2012 Jason added it

Shelves: read-2009

Having come off of the high of reading Assassination Vacation, I jumped headfirst into Take the Cannoli, a series of essays by Vowell that jumped from imploring television stations to not play "My Way" when Frank Sinatra would die (a plea that was prophetically ignored), to an essay exploring her separation from her father, a gun making republican to her New York loving Democrat, and the mending of that divide. Ranging from mildly annoying, in the way that performance artists are annoying in the...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 22, 2008 Ciara rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: history buffs, NPR listeners, folks in need of massachusetts dinner party repartee

Shelves: read-in-2009, autobio-memoir

i wanted to like this book better than i liked it. at the end of the day, i like sarah vowell's writing: it's funny & engaging, it's smart & self-deprecating & informative. but there's so much strangely blind patriotism in here. yeah, it comes from a liberal perspective, what with vowell being all over NPR & being really critical of the bush administration & everything, but there's so much of, "if we could just fix these huge glaring problems with the government, this country...more i wanted to like this book better than i liked it. at the end of the day, i like sarah vowell's writing: it's funny & engaging, it's smart & self-deprecating & informative. but there's so much strangely blind patriotism in here. yeah, it comes from a liberal perspective, what with vowell being all over NPR & being really critical of the bush administration & everything, but there's so much of, "if we could just fix these huge glaring problems with the government, this country would be awesome!" & i think that's really naive & short-sighted. probably the piece in here that bothered me the most was the one about andrew jackson & the trail of tears. vowell is all, "i am part native american, so i wanted to travel the trail of tears like my ancestors did." i mean, right off the bat, the whole concept was grating on me in a way i just can't quote explain. she gets into the whole history of the cherokee nation being pretty inspired by the new u.s. government & copying a lot of their ideas & starting a newspaper & a written language & all this shit that other indian tribes hadn't really thought about doing before, & how the cherokee people were supposed to be considered a sovereign nation within the boundaries of the u.s., but a lot of white settlers wanted them to move off their land so the white people could claim it for farms & such forth, & a few tribe members who felt their eviction was inevitable anyway went ahead & signed a treaty with jackson & agreed that everyone would clear out. when the tribe failed to meet the deadline set down in the treaty (because the overwhelming majority of the tribe was totally opposed to the treaty), they were forced into stockades & set out on the six-month march along the trail of tears, which vowell drove with her sister, stopping at indian- & jackson-themed landmarks along the way. the whole thing...it seemed a little bit histrionic. not that the trail of tears wasn't a barbaric thing, but i couldn't help but feel that some of vowell's rage was a little bit appropriative. it just struck a sour note with me, as does much of her "rah rah america" crap. i'm into the whole concept of exploring the seedy underbelly of american history, peeling up the carpet & seeing where the roaches run, etc, but there was something just a touch insincere about this book. i'm still working it out in my head.(less)

1 like · like · see review

Sep 19, 2011 Sherry rated it 3 of 5 stars

When I was returning The Wordy Shipmates, I saw the library had this book, so I went ahead and grabbed it. Like the first book of hers I read, I banged this out in a day.

This book is less history (which I believe is her "thing") and more personal, so unless you like the author as a person and voice, you can skip this book. This is more about her personal experiences of Americana, family, ancestry, high school, college, etc.

I liked it. Vowell is always funny. Her personal retracing of the Trail...more

like · see review

May 06, 2011 Gordon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Sarah Vowell is both smart and smart ass -- if you've seen Jon Stewart interview her on The Daily Show, you know she does more than hold her own. She's a curious amalgam: she writes for NPR and yet revels in her "white trash" background.

All in all, Take the Cannoli is a very uneven collection of stories, which comes with the territory with a writer like Vowell. To grossly oversimplify, her style is to take whatever happens to be going on in her life or her mind at the moment and then whip it in...more Sarah Vowell is both smart and smart ass -- if you've seen Jon Stewart interview her on The Daily Show, you know she does more than hold her own. She's a curious amalgam: she writes for NPR and yet revels in her "white trash" background.

All in all, Take the Cannoli is a very uneven collection of stories, which comes with the territory with a writer like Vowell. To grossly oversimplify, her style is to take whatever happens to be going on in her life or her mind at the moment and then whip it into a story. It's not quite stream of consciousness so much as stream of life. Sometimes that's interesting, sometimes not.

Some of her stories: She goes to Disney World with her gay New Yorker friend. She learns to drive (with Ira Glass). She steps out of her introvert comfort zone to go through a goth makeover to check out the club scene in San Francisco. Which leads to what may be one of her best lines in this book: "By the time they're done cinching up the corset and stabilizing my bustle, I'm in so many layers of black lace scarves and fringe and fishnet stockings that I could play strip poker for three weeks without baring my belly button". Counterbalancing stories like that are those about Frank Sinatra -- she includes TWO stories about him in this collection. Frank Sinatra???

One of the most moving of her stories is "Take the Cannoli" (from which the book also takes its title) where she talks about her guilty, compulsive watching of The Godfather in her college years, as she struggles with her loss of religious faith and sought comfort in the moral certainties of Sicilian mafia family values. (Religion can really mess you up). The line is from the Godfather, where the gunman says to a fellow mafioso after killing someone: "Leave the gun. Take the cannoli." I think that's supposed to encapsulate a philosophy of life.

In "The End is Near, Nearer, Nearest", she talks about growing up with religion, Oklahoma-style: fire and brimstone, Armageddon and sin. So, naturally, near the end of the 1990's, she just had to go to a Y2K seminar, the Apocalyptic message of which was all too familiar to her from her fundamentalist upbringing. The difference was that by now she was no longer a child and could actually consciously reject that nonsense and understand why she was doing so. In that story is my favorite passage of the whole book:
"Heaven such as it is, is right here on earth. Behold: my revelation: I stand at the door in the morning, and lo, there is a newspaper, in sight like unto an emerald. And holy, holy, holy is the coffee, which was, and is, and is to come. And hark, I hear the voice of an angel round about the radio, saying, "Since my baby left me I found a new place to dwell." And lo, after this I beheld a great multitude, which no man could number, of shoes. And after these things I will hasten unto a taxicab and to a theater, where a ticket will be given unto me, and lo, it will be a matinee, and a film that doeth great wonders. And when it is finished, the heavens will open, and out will cometh a rain fragrant as myrrh, and yea, I have an umbrella".

As long as you skip the Sinatra stories and anything else that doesn't grab you in the first couple of pages, you'll enjoy this book. It's kind of narcissistic, but if you like the author's point of view, that's OK.
(less)

like · see review

Feb 23, 2010 Deedee Butterfuss rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Take the Cannoli by Sarah Vowell was a rather funny book for the first few stories. They were funny and easy to read, but as the book progressed the stories were becoming mundane and harder to read. The middle of the book was definitely the hardest part to read. I struggled getting through the chapters. The genre of the book is non-fiction, short stories. I chose to read this book because the back of the book made it sound funny and it looked like it might be a good book. Take the cannoli is a n...more

like · see review

Jul 19, 2009 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, humorous, non-fiction

I enjoyed this, but this isn't my favorite Sarah Vowell book. Most of it was readable and witty, but overall I was glad that this was not my introduction to her work. I would recommend that the reader go on to any of her other books.

Still, some of the essays in this book were excellent, especially "Michigan and Wacker" and "What I See When I Look at the Face on the $20 Bill." In the former, Vowell takes in the sweep of American history as seen from a spot near the Chicago river.

In the latter, s...more

like · see review

Jan 14, 2009 Lauren rated it 2 of 5 stars

I have heard wonderful things about Sarah Vowell, and I thought she would be great because she was funny on Gigantic, that documentary about They Might Be Giants. I’ve never heard her on This American Life, but Ira Glass and This American Life are great, so I bet she is, too. But I didn’t like her book. I must admit, toward the end I left huge chunks unread. I’d, like, get to a boring chapter and think “aw, hell no. Next!” and I’d start reading the next one and pretty much be equally disappointe...more I have heard wonderful things about Sarah Vowell, and I thought she would be great because she was funny on Gigantic, that documentary about They Might Be Giants. I’ve never heard her on This American Life, but Ira Glass and This American Life are great, so I bet she is, too. But I didn’t like her book. I must admit, toward the end I left huge chunks unread. I’d, like, get to a boring chapter and think “aw, hell no. Next!” and I’d start reading the next one and pretty much be equally disappointed.

I was excited for about ten seconds when I saw the chapter that started “I am standing on Disney World’s Main Street, U.S.A…” but ended up just getting pissed. Of course, she must explain how it’s a TOTAL ACCIDENT that she ended up there (because she is actually above Disney World), makes fun of pretty much everything (like, the fact that the waiters dressed in Revolutionary War-Era clothes have to wear black sneakers? Who gives a shit?) Honestly, I have witnessed it all. There is plenty to make fun of in Disney World, but Vowell instead seemed appalled by the least controversial things. She also claims that on Tom Sawyer’s Island someone scrawled “Fuck Off Nazis” on one of the walls and I feel like flying there right now to prove her wrong. They unleash an army of janitors the moment the park closes every night to unstick discarded gum, and scrub and pick up trash from every square inch of the park. There is absolutely no way there is graffiti of any kind. I have never seen it. She ends by taking a trip to Celebration, Florida and making fun of that. Too easy. Who goes to Celebration for fun, anyway? (Despite its name, it is not a party town and everyone who is there knows it’s not trying to be entertaining. It’s basically a retirement community.)

All I could think of is “thank God I don’t have to go to Disney world with you, or anywhere for that matter.” In fact, Vowell came off as pretty pretentious and un-fun throughout the entire book. She is predictably nerdy – it is almost painful how stereotypical it all is. I read a lot of reviews that praised the book after I gave up reading it, so I picked it up and said “okay, Lauren, let’s try again!” But honestly, it was too excruciating and I thought why am I doing this and I started reading a new book, that I am really actually enjoying.

Maybe I should have tried harder, and maybe, as a Disney nerd, I was farrrrrrr too offended about the unjustifiable Disney stabs. That might have ruined the entire book for me. So please, someone who has read it that is NOT a Disney nerd: is she right, is this book okay? Did the Disney stuff (and all the other stuff) entertain you?
(less)

1 like · like · see review

Apr 03, 2013 Morgan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013-reads

Not my favorite of her books, and at this point I've pretty much read them all. I enjoy her most when she's talking about other people's history I think (like the Puritans or Hawaii) instead of her own. Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy the collection, just that her writing has obviously matured and grown since this book was published.

Unfortunately, she comes off as a bit of a drip in quite a few stories in this collection as well. I mean I guess it's possible not everyone would love Disney Worl...more

like · see review

Jul 10, 2009 Jason rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

I'm glad this wasn't the first Sarah Vowell book that I read. Her essays in this early collection are sometimes entertaining, sometimes downright boring. I had to trudge through her tributes to Frank Sinatra and the Chelsea Hotel. Her essay on the Trail of Tears seemed all over the place: she's angry her ancestors suffered this unjustice, yet she's still proud to be an American. And, oh, one of her distant Indian relatives was still fighting in the Civil War after it was officially over. She sho...more

like · see review

Feb 18, 2009 Visha Burkart rated it 4 of 5 stars

Sarah Vowell’s second collection was a must buy for me since I’ve been on a Vowell kick and apparently no one else has her early stuff. You can see her style emerging strongly in this collection, particularly in the stronger essays such as “Species on Species Abuse” (about Disneyland) and “What I See When I Look at the Face on the $20 Bill” (about the Trail of Tears). While the collection as a whole is not as strong as her follow up, 2002’s The Partly Cloudy Patriot, I still found myself laughin...more

like · see review

Jul 09, 2011 jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

55. Take the Cannoli by Sarah Vowell. A collection of essays on history, travel and personal experiences from the NPR contributor. I have two favorites- "Species-On-Species Abuse" is about a trip to Disney World with her gay friend, and "American Goth", where Vowell hires a group of Goths to make her up and see if she could pass in a San Francisco nightclub. And "Shooting Dad" was a big surprise for me, as I also have a gunsmith in the family who has also expressed the ghoulish desire to have hi...more

like · see review

Jun 09, 2009 Anne rated it 1 of 5 stars

Sarah Vowell is a regular contributor to NPR's "This American Life." Her collection of personal essays, in the tradition of David Sedaris and Dave Eggers, has received monumental praise. Her voice is hailed as "moving" and "wickedly funny." But, like so much in this genre, I think it takes just the right sense of humor to really click with a given writer. I just could not make the connection. I did like Vowell's writing - it was not pretentious or overly flowery - but rather straight-forward and...more

like · see review

Feb 09, 2011 Marcelo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I guess I would call this a formative work - it's a bit patchy at the beginning and it jumps around different personal stories, without hitting one cohesive theme, trying I guess for a more mosaic-like view of the American experience. But then she hits the jackpot on a longer essay about a trip following the Trail of Tears ("What I see when I look at the face on the $20 bill") and she's back in "Assassination Vacation" form - focused and funny and sad and insightful, often all in the same phrase...more

like · see review

Jul 31, 2009 Matt Morris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Sarah Vowell is awesome, as you know if you've heard her on This American Life. This collection of essays published in 2000 is really entertaining and a quick read. Some of the topical references that permeate the book are starting to seem a little bit dated, but the occasional reference to the first Bush presidency or the Clinton years also forces some reflection on everything that has happened since. As the subject of many of the essays is reflection on American history, there's almost a weird...more

like · see review

Jul 24, 2010 Gerri Leen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

like · see review

Jul 22, 2009 Jack rated it 3 of 5 stars

overall, I prefer it when there's more of a unifying theme in Vowell, like there is in "Assassination Vacation." One of the really endearing traits of her writing style is how passionately and unapologetically geeky she gets on certain topics - it's not like NPR listeners are in any position to judge her - and that just comes across better in a more monographical format. That said, her strengths do definitely come across here. Her trip down the cherokee trail or her famous essay on music from "t...more

like · see review

May 10, 2013 John rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, genrex, essays, criticism

I am a fan of Sarah Vowell, but this was probably my least favorite of her books. That's partly because I had already heard several of the pieces on This American Life; it might also be partly because I like the books that have more of a consistent through-line, where she can explore ideas in more depth. I also think, though, that much of the work here is just less mature and fully realized than her later stuff; the piece on following the Trail of Tears, for instance, has a lot in common with wh...more

like · see review

Mar 02, 2010 Chrissy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sarah Vowell takes you with her on a series of adventures, challenges and bizarre dares. She is a modern day Huck Finn with a glass of scotch in her right hand and a biography of Andrew Jackson in the left. From shooting off cannons, learning to make a non sentimental mix tapes, to the bizarre not so wonderful world of Disney, learning to drive with Ira Glass, to going Goth for a night, to her obsession with The Godfather, she doesn't hold back and I love her for it.
The chapter "What I See When...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 09, 2012 Laura McLean rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love Sarah Vowell and I loved this book. It's just what you want a collection of essays to be: funny, moving, with a strong voice and something to say. Evidently quite a bit of the content was recycled from This American Life, but it's early material (published in 2000) and I was only familiar with the first essay, "Shooting Dad." The music writing was wonderful--on par with one of my other favorite essayists, Rob Sheffield, although sadly brief--but what bumped this up from a pleasurable but...more

like · see review

Mar 19, 2009 Jonathan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Reading Sarah Vowell for the first time was like finding a long lost friend that I never met before. There was an immediate familiarity - the sense of deja'vu: as though we shared these conversations at the cafe about the awkward teenage years, sibling rivalry, quirky family relationships and more.

I immediately recognized something of myself in her writing, as well as something inspirational. I can't gush too much: there's a few pieces in here that are dry. However, I think you have to be a lit...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 23, 2008 Trina rated it 5 of 5 stars

Sarah Vowell is very funny, but she's also a great critic of popular culture, and specifically popular political history. She's always IN these essays, too, though -- I admire her courage to make it clear that she really cares about these issues.

1 like · like · see review

May 08, 2013 Gordon Hilgers rated it 4 of 5 stars

Readers familiar with the voice of Sarah Vowell on NPR's "This American Life" will be pleased as punch with this short collection of essays. Vowell has a cowgirl punk sense of humor, something which sometimes crosses her as her childhood's Oklahoma family values collide with her New York state of mind. The mix is enchanting and always funny. What's most attractive is Vowell's wickedly sharp perception, something that brings-out what we thought we knew into unforeseen dimensions, no matter how di...more

like · see review

Aug 01, 2009 Jay rated it 4 of 5 stars

Not as good as The Partly Cloudy Patriot or Assassination Vacation, but fans of Sarah from The Daily Show or This American Life will not be disappointed. Still has her dry, self-deprecating wit (and for those of us who know her voice, you can't help but picture her reading it to you). Her observations are always cute and hilarious, but don't be fooled by the light delivery...her essays are always thoroughly researched and well thought out.

I've never been a fan of history, but Sarah's passion fo...more

like · see review

Apr 29, 2013 Melissa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Enjoyed it. Essays on being an American, and all the contradictions that entails. Most difficult was the essay about doing "Heritage Tourism" along the Trail of Tears -- her struggles with what happened to the Cherokees along the Trail conflict with her knowledge that the tribe were slave-holders ... an extended meditation on the inherent contradictions of being American.

In other books, she has a theme running through -- this one is more a collection of essays written at various times, many for...more

1 like · like · see review

Apr 30, 2011 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

Sarah's observations are always wry, funny and I love to look at America through her eyes. While I don't always agree with her politics and think she can be a little too intellectual, I really get a kick out of her and love to live vicariously through her historic travels. A great light book for anyone who loves history or life in America.

Unlike some of her other books, this one is a little less focused in the sense that she doesn't examine one issue or period - she's all over the place, taking...more

like · see review

Mar 18, 2010 Eva rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: humour, non-fiction, short-stories

Again, a wonderful example of Vowell's literary and comic genius. I love her. All the stories were really different and interesting and funny and terrific. I loved the one about the Trail of Tears especially. The sadness and the conflict were just heartbreaking. How can you love a country that did that to the Cherokee, but how can you hate a country had Abraham Lincoln? It's a tough question. Her love/hate relationship with America in the story is moving and it's one with which I empathize. I of...more

like · see review

Aug 23, 2009 Cornelio rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Nothing like the sound caused by laughing ice coffee through your nose.

That's what Sarah Vowell will make me do, trying to read her book anonymously in a café. As well as make me nod my head to agree or shake my head to sympathetically lament when Vowell is going off on another witty and wise cultural observation riff. This is my third Vowell book, and like the first two, her thoughts on things as disparate as goth culture and the Trail of Tears are the kind I always hoped a gabfest centered aro...more

like · see review

Feb 18, 2010 Eli rated it 5 of 5 stars

As a Child Sarah Vowell was a loner that questioned everything around her. She death with problems that confused her daily like her fathers gun obsessions, her sister “the loneliest twin ever” and if her and everyone else’s world would be ended by the Cold War. “The older I get, the more im interested in becoming a better daughter. First I need to figure out this whole gun thing. Take the Cannoli by Sarah Vowell is a hilarious story that is a collection of personal stories crossed with American...more

like · see review

Mar 19, 2012 Hayley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

Just funny enough and just thoughtful enough to catch me attention and make me think.
I liked the essay "Drive Through, Please" because it was kind of shocking--Vowell seems like such an irreverent, confident person in most of the essays, and it was hilarious and surprising to see her complaining like a child, driving around in a cemetery. (Interestingly, I was much less shocked that David Sedaris didn't drive when I read When You Are Engulfed In Flames last week. Not sure what that means.)
Best e...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
genre X: May Discussion: Take the Cannoli	1	12	May 10, 2013 12:00pm
Unrealistic part of Shooting Dad	5	14	Jan 02, 2013 02:26pm

combine
Other Editions (4)

Genres

Non Fiction

232 users

Humor

164 users

Writing > Essays

147 users

Autobiography > Memoir

64 users

History

50 users

Short Stories

31 users

Humor > Funny

14 users

Biography

14 users

Politics

9 users

Adult

6 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

Fraud: Essays
by David Rakoff
The New Kings of Nonfiction
by Ira Glass (Editor)
Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence
by Paul Feig
State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America
by Matt Weiland (Editor)
David Sedaris - 14 CD Boxed Set
by David Sedaris

About Sarah Vowell

Sarah Jane Vowell is an American author, journalist, humorist, and commentator. Often referred to as a "social observer," Vowell has authored several books and is a regular contributor to the radio program This American Life on Public Radio International. She was also the voice of Violet in the animated film The Incredibles and a short documentary, VOWELLET - An Essay by SARAH VOWELL in the "Behin...more

More about Sarah Vowell...

Books by Sarah Vowell

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Take the Cannoli

1 trivia question

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from Take the Cannoli

“We are flawed creatures, all of us. Some of us think that means we should fix our flaws. But get rid of my flaws and there would be no one left.” — 34 people liked it

“When I think about my relationship with America, I feel like a battered wife: Yeah, he knocks me around a lot, but boy, he sure can dance.” — 32 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Take the Cannoli
avg rating	preview: Take the Cannoli Goodreads rating: 3.86 (7591 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12357.Take_the_Cannoli?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1166501351l/12357.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12357.Take_the_Cannoli?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Take the Cannoli by Sarah Vowell[/url]

Take the Cannoli

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website