Take the Cannoli

Take the Cannoli

3.86 of 5 stars 3.86  ·  rating details  ·  7,481 ratings  ·  560 reviews
Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780743205405

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...more
Paperback, 219 pages
Published 2000 by Simon & Schuster
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bookczuk
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
Jason
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
Ciara
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
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
Sherry
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
Gordon
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
Deedee Butterfuss
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
Jim
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
Lauren
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
Morgan
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
Jason
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
Visha Burkart
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
jennifer
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
Anne
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
Marcelo
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
Matt Morris
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
Gerri Leen
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Jack
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
John
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
Chrissy
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
Laura McLean
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
Jonathan
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
Trina
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.
Gordon Hilgers
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
Jay
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
Melissa
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
Laura
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
Eva
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
Cornelio
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
Eli
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
Hayley
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
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genre X: May Discussion: Take the Cannoli 1 8 May 10, 2013 12:00pm  
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Take the Cannoli (Paperback)
Take the Cannoli: Stories From the New World (Paperback)
Take the Cannoli: Stories from the New World (Hardcover)
Take the Cannoli: Stories From the New World (ebook)
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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
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Assassination Vacation The Partly Cloudy Patriot The Wordy Shipmates Unfamiliar Fishes Radio On: A Listener's Diary

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“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
“I have a similar affection for the parenthesis (but I always take most of my parentheses out, so as not to call undue attention to the glaring fact that I cannot think in complete sentences, that I think only in short fragments or long, run-on thought relays that the literati call stream of consciousness but I still like to think of as disdain for the finality of the period).” 32 people liked it
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