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Jan 19, 2012

allysther rated it:

I made the mistake of listening to this instead of reading it for myself. I enjoyed the book quite a bit, but her voice made it difficult to listen for long periods.

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 05, 2011

Kathy rated it:

Sarah Vowell makes reading and learning history the most irreverent fun you can experience in confronting the reality of what actually occurred versus what textbooks sugarcoat or ignore. The United States' acquisition of the Hawaii islands is eerily similar to the acquisition of America in its infancy when the Native Americans had to be "civilized" and "Christianized." Acquisition is, of course, a well-used euphemism for stealing. Having just visited the island of Oahu and More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 26, 2011

Jenny rated it:

Vowell has a great way of knocking the higher goals of historical figures - she cuts through the hyposcrisy really well - and at the same time elevating the intentions of these very human people.

The people populating this book are the Hawaiians (both royal and common), missionaries, military, Mormons, and politicians. Then Vowell proceeds to illustrate, in her own biting fashion, how these guys interact. Like all of Vowell's books, I was struck by the intricacy of the history...no mat More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 17, 2011

Wallace rated it:

I ADORE Sarah Vowell. I usually gobble up her books, and relish listening to the audio versions. So this, unfortunately, was a disappointment for me. I am not at all interested in Hawaii, but was sure that I would be once I heard Sarah Vowell's version of it. However, the usually incredibly witty (and often snarky) Vowell, was no where to be found. Granted, she made some fun of the missionaries coming from New England, but not much. This read much more as a history of Hawaii with very few of the More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 29, 2011

Israel rated it:

I'm such a Sarah fan and remain so today. But, this is definitely not one of my favorites. I looked forward to it so much and it was a hard realization for me about half-way through when I realized it just didn't have the same effect on me as her other work. I hate to give her anything but rave reviews and highly recommend about anything else she's done, but this one was a letdown.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 25, 2012

Rebecca rated it:

I am fascinated with the history of Hawaii and its people. The Bishop Museum in Oahu is one of my favorites in the world. It's were I learned that native Hawaiians and Maori are closer related then Maori and Aboriginals of Australia. This book is about Sarah's research on the missionary experience in Hawaii, which is also very interesting to me. Did you know that Hawaiians actually wanted to get colonized by the British and they were *thisclose* but missionaries from the East Coast of the US arr More...

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Jan 15, 2012

Phil rated it:

When my daughter gave me a signed (by the author) copy this book for Christmas, I had no idea what it would be about, whether it was fiction or non-fiction. As it turns out, the title refers to the Anglo-Americans from the United States who arrived in Hawaii either as missionaries or as sailors around 1820. This book is a biting criticism of those who proselytized, colonized, and eventually annexed Hawaii for the United States. The polemic is clear enough, yet laid out with wit and with first More...

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Dec 07, 2011

Kelli rated it:

I have a confession to make, I LOVE SARAH VOWELL. When I heard that she was going to be doing a reading and Politics and Prose, I drug not only my husband to see her, but my mother-in-law who was in town that weekend.

If I know you, and I know that you haven't ever read a Sarah Vowell book I will immediately start to offer up the books that I own (and I own all of her books - hardback, that is how committed I am) to you to start your literary journey with one of the funniest and sm More...

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Nov 14, 2011

Kata rated it:

If Sarah Vowell was my aunt, I would want to travel the world with her and have her orate every historical marker and museum we would visit; instead of putting on those nasty headsets they generally give you. But alas, I'm likely older than Ms. Vowell and also not her niece. (Okay! I looked up her age out of curiosity and she is slightly older than me.) I enjoy Sarah on NPR and I enjoy her just as much in written form. Her sarcastic humor and attention to history appeals to me. How many women do More...

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Nov 07, 2011

Ms.pegasus rated it:

UNFAMILIAR FISHES opens with a string of tourism anecdotes, leaving readers to wonder: What is the point? The point is the cataclysmic changes to Hawaii between Captain Cook's landing in 1778 and its annexation as a US territory a little over a century later. Rather than sticking to chronology, Vowell selects key events and shows how they spread, tsunami-like, across the Pacific. Thus the westward expansion into the Oregon Territory, and the California gold rush spurred the island's transit More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 13, 2011

Leonardo rated it:

Really liked the style of the book – written in a semi-rambling conversational style that I found quite engaging. Like an extended chat with the author. She did a good job of bouncing from the present to the past and back.
The book talks about the transition Hawaii underwent after western contact (Captain Cook and his death) to annexation by the USA. I am fascinated that upon contact Kamehameha unified the islands by force, using guns and cannons, but that his descendents did not mai More...

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Oct 10, 2011

Jane rated it:

What did I know about Hawaiian history before reading this book? Something about missionaries replacing hula skirts with muu muus and Father Damien's work with lepers. Neither of these things were mentioned specifically in the book. It did mention an immense white ankle-length garment given to the queen. The leper colony was mentioned, but not Father Damien.

The title and theme of the book can be summed up with a quote from missionary and educator, David Malo, who became disenchant More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 06, 2011

Cheryl added it

I listened to the audiobook version of this. I didn't listen to it right away. When I saw the title in the list of downloads, I couldn't remember what it was. My reading tastes are broad, I admit, but had I really chosen to read a book about fish? Why? Then I saw that it was by Sarah Vowell, and I didn't care what it was about. I knew it would be interesting, informative, and entertaining. Any Sarah Vowell book is one part history, one part journalism, and one part sarcasm. I enjoy history, but More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 27, 2011

Jessica rated it:

You can read my full view here: http://virtualmargin.blogspot.com/2011/04/unfamiliar-fishes-18100.html

Vowell's newest book is a brief study of the Americanization of Hawaii and the events that led to its annexation in 1898 -- the same year America also acquired Cuba, the Phillipines, Puerto Rico, and Guam, turning it into a super power overnight, in what she refers to as "an orgy of imperialism."
I came to this book not really knowing diddly about Hawaii's history, beyond More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 23, 2011

Ruben rated it:

Definitely, one of the few historical narratives that entertains while informing. Author Sarah Vowell gives an overview of the history of Hawaii by focusing on the introduction of New England missionaries to the islands, and the subsequent impact of their arrival. In this book, dates and major events take a backseat to the evolving relationships between conflicting cultures. Best, Vowell presents her narrative in a way that almost makes you feel like you are watching reality television ala Jerr More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 12, 2011

K2 rated it:

Sarah Vowell has a great sense of dry humor and a health interest in history. If you have heard her on the radio it's difficult not to hear her voice inflections as you read her books.

This book was sent to me by a friend who shares my interest in Hawaiian history who read it and was somewhat disappointed that it focused so much on the many missionaries and less on the royalty of the more ancient Hawaii. I told her that the story of the missionaries WAS the history of Hawaii in many way More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 08, 2011

Elizabeth rated it:

Sarah Vowell is always enjoyable, and sure enough, I enjoyed this book about the early contacts between Hawaiians and non-natives, the establishment of missionary activities, and other various events leading up to the U.S. annexation of Hawaii. Shortly after starting the book, as in, around the third sentence, I realized I didn't know anything about Hawaii that I hadn't learned in multiple re-readings of "Liliuokalani: Young Hawaiian Queen" in the Childhood of Famous Americans series, More...

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Sep 03, 2011

Mary rated it:

Argggh. I wrote a review, tried to find a way to format it, lost the whole thing, so bear with me. And now the Formatting Tips have mysteriously appeared to the right of this page, as if someone had read my mind too late.

I felt sad as I finished this book. I always thought the activists for an independent Hawaii must be crazy, but they have a point, a very strong point.

Sarah Vowell does an excellent job of honing in on the most important issues in the history of Hawai More...

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Aug 30, 2011

Maddsurgeon rated it:

It's good to see writers address this period in history; a lot of people don't know much about the imperialistic push of the late 19th century as it tends to get glossed in high school textbooks. Sure, they admit the U.S.S. Maine wasn't actually attacked, they suggest vaguely that we might have sent a couple of boats to Nicaragua, and they tell us how bad the poor American entrepreneurs had it living under the thumb of a Hawaiian monarch. They don't go into much detail, however, and many high sc More...

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Aug 22, 2011

David rated it:

Pretty good history of the American takeover of the Kingdom of Hawaii by the intrepid Sarah Vowell, who traces the arrival of American Protestant missionaries in the islands in 1819 to the annexation of Hawaii by the U.S. in 1898. Typically, the U.S. comes out looking pretty imperial and lousy and the dealings of the missionaries are kind of tedious, but it's startling to find out how totally disenfranchised Hawaiian people were in the process, how Hawaiian monarchs became either puppets of the More...

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Aug 20, 2011

Jason rated it:

In found myself enjoying this much more than Vowell's other recent books, the primary reason that her political invective has been calmed a little bit. What this means is that she no longer has to remind us every dozen pages or so that she is a staunch Democrat, and the book can keep talking about Hawaii.

What this comes to mean for the reader is an intense collection of knowledge. While still mingled with her personal reflections, stories and experiences, this is much more devoted to t More...

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Aug 13, 2011

Dot rated it:

This history of Hawaii is written in Sarah Vowell's usual jaunty and conversational tone. There were times when I felt she digressed a bit too much from the story, as for example when she tells the story of her Cherokee ancestors, though I do see her point that in both cases, indigenous people were being unfairly treated by the US.

It is plain that Vowell's sympathy is with the native Hawaiian population, few of whom remain on the islands. She recounts how the New England missionaries More...

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Jul 07, 2011

Ian rated it:

Among the handful of Christian missionaries to arrive in Hawaii in 1820 were Asa and Lucy Thurston. Seventy years later, their grandchild Lorrin Thurston helped to overthrow the islands’ monarch, Queen Liliuokalani and annex the territory to the United States. Unfamiliar Fishes traces the intervening years: the end of an independent Hawaii and the loss of much of her native culture.

Like Sarah Vowell’s previous couple books, Assassination Vacation and The Wordy Shipmates, it’s a ble More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 30, 2011

Alan rated it:

I've never been disappointed by a Sarah Vowell book, and this one is no exception. Although it does seem to be focused more narrowly than, say, Radio On, Vowell's breezy, discursive style still works well for Unfamiliar Fishes. The topic this time is the history of Hawai'i (though she omits the glottal stop in this name and other frequently-used terms, in the interest of clarity for her presumably mostly non-native audience), focused primarily on the islands' colonization and annexation in the l More...

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Jun 30, 2011

Susan rated it:

I used to get migraines: poker through the eyeball, nausea-inducing, joy-killing migraines. I was on disability for a couple of years because I would get a migraine almost every day. There are meds for migraines, but they don't always work, which leaves migraine sufferers looking for ways to relieve the pain, and if possible, fall into a restorative sleep.

During the time I was looking for just such a remedy, I discovered that "This American Life" had all of their shows availa More...

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Jun 13, 2011

Ciara rated it:

seems like the main complaint most reviewers have of this book is that they found it boring. i didn't find it boring at all for the first 175 pages or so. the last 50 pages were a bit of a slog. i think i was kind of over it by then. maybe you have to be in the right mood to read a very detailed history of the annexation & imperialist conquest of hawaii by the united states government, aided by puritan missionaries from new england & Big Sugar capitalist interests.

i have read all of s More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jun 04, 2011

Julie rated it:

I always like Sarah Vowell -- if textbooks were written in Sarah Vowell's style, I imagine students would be far more inclined to do assigned readings. Not that Unfamiliar Fishes felt like assigned schoolwork, but it's always nice to learn new things in an entertaining way. I generally enjoy history, but rarely read about topics with which I have no prior experience. But I knew NOTHING about the history of Hawaii, and picked this solely because I knew Vowell would give me an entertaining cultura More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 30, 2011

Liz rated it:

I've been in the middle of moving to a location 2 hours from my previous home. This has meant a lot of driving back and forth, 250 miles round trip each time. For a good bit of that drive, radio reception is poor, so no NPR. So I went looking for an audio book to make the journeys a bit less onerous.

Unfamiliar Fishes is the history of Hawaii's encounter with white, Western civilization, first in the form of explorers like James Cook and later the New England missionaries sent to Chr More...

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May 29, 2011

Scot rated it:

I found this to be one of the most readable and entertaining books on the history of Hawai'i since Cook, and I've read a lot of them. It's practically the history of Hawai'i as a beach read. In fact, I read most of it on the beach.

Vowell's writing is accessible and contemporary, and contemporary is good, because a lot has been learned about Hawai'i history in the last 30 or so years, and a whole generation of Hawaiian academics have changed the way we understand the traditional his More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 27, 2011

Patricia rated it:

I listened to Sarah Vowell read the audiobook version of this one, back-to-back with The Partly Cloudy Patriot--hence the 4 stars as opposed to 5. I suspect I would have enjoyed this more had I read it since it's not quite as conducive to the radio essay style of much of Vowell's writing. Unfamiliar Fishes is basically a history of Hawaii that focuses on the arrival of white men to the islands and the events leading up to its annexation by the US. Vowell's research, as always, is extensive and i More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)