Take the Cannoli is a moving and wickedly funny collection of personal stories stretching across the immense landscape of the American sc... read full description
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Mar 04, 2009
bookczuk
rated it: 
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 More...
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 More...
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Dec 22, 2008
Ciara
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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 aweso
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Sep 20, 2011
Sherry
rated it:
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 More...
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 More...
May 06, 2011
Gordon
rated it: 
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 More...
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 More...
Feb 23, 2010
Deedee
rated it: 
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
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Jul 19, 2009
Jim
rated it:
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 More...
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 More...
Jan 14, 2009
Lauren
rated it: 
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
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Jul 10, 2009
Jason
rated it:
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
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Feb 18, 2009
Visha
rated it:
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 laughi
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Jul 09, 2011
jennifer
rated it:
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
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Jun 09, 2009
Anne
rated it:
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 - b
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Feb 09, 2011
Marcelo
rated it:
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 al
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Jul 31, 2009
Matt
rated it:
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
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Jul 24, 2010
Gerri
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Jun 11, 2009
Jason
rated it:
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 annoy
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Jul 22, 2009
Jack
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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
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Mar 02, 2010
Chrissy
rated it:
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 More...
The chapter "What More...
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Mar 19, 2009
Jonathan
rated it:
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 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 More...
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Jun 23, 2008
Trina
rated it: 
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.
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Aug 01, 2009
Jay
rated it:
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 More...
I've never been a fan of history, but Sarah More...
Apr 30, 2011
Laura
rated it:
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 More...
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 More...
Mar 18, 2010
Eva
rated it:
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 empathiz
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Aug 23, 2009
Cornelio
rated it:
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 More...
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 More...
Feb 18, 2010
Eli
rated it:
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
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May 20, 2010
Courtney
rated it:
I really enjoyed this collection of eclectic essays. I was especially impressed by the way Vowell successfully integrates autobiographical anecdotes and historical information without coming across as solipsistic or self-indulgent. Her narrative about New York's Chelsea Hotel ("Chelsea Girl"), for example, is structured around an organic blend of her insights and observations and the larger cultural/historical context with which the Chelsea is associated. If you are after a sample of
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Jul 10, 2011
Jason
rated it:
Another reviewer said that they wanted to like the book more than they did; I echo that sentiment. After reading several of Vowell's other books, I know what she is capable of, so this seems a disappointment. Check out The Wordy Shipmates if you want to see her at her best.
As for this one, the essays are hit or miss, but, for me, more miss than hit. Others might read them differently. Unlike in The Partly Cloudy Patriot, no overarching theme or metanarrative emerges as one reads More...
As for this one, the essays are hit or miss, but, for me, more miss than hit. Others might read them differently. Unlike in The Partly Cloudy Patriot, no overarching theme or metanarrative emerges as one reads More...
Jan 08, 2011
Adam
rated it:
Vowell is a true American wit. The fact that she was my age when this collection was released truly humbles me as a writer. She has a gift. The essays run the gamut, and rarely does she take anything too seriously, save for the longest piece, "What I See When I Look at the Face on the $20 Bill". And I believe her point is justified. Nevertheless, her politics and sense of liberal white guilt color her writing, making it depressing regardless of her intent. My rating is based pure
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Nov 16, 2011
Ruben
rated it:
A fun look at America through the eyes of the articulate and sarcastic Sarah Vowell. While the stories are an assortment of previous works, the book does NOT read like a compilation. Rather, it was edited in such a way to give it the feel that each story was prepared specifically for this book. Plus, there is a unifying quality to the stories; some distinct combination of “only in America” and “could only be told by Sarah Vowell.” There is no overriding plot or purpose to the book, but you c
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Jun 21, 2011
Jess
rated it:
I'm a big fan of Sarah Vowell, first from This American Life and, later, from her history books. Now I finally see what got all that attention in the first place. This collection of essays gives real insight into the delightfully morbid, "always find a dark cloud in that silver lining" perfectionist we've all come to know and love. In fact, it's downright prescient to see incipient interests that would later blossom into full-fledged projects like Assassination Vacation and The Wordy S
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Jan 10, 2009
Pamela
rated it:
Hmm. After reading "Assassination Vacation" I was aglow and thought perhaps Vowell was my new non-fiction BFF. So with all her remaining books sitting on my to-be-read shelf, I pulled down this prior book and ya know, I think I might need to break up with Sarah for awhile. She's still exemplary compared to most non-fiction writers, and of course, with links to NPR and The Daily Show, and Ira Glass as her boss (at the time of driving essay publication) she’s superior to pretty much ever
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