This year I read twenty books that earned my coveted 5-star rating. Here, in no particular order, are the ten I feel were the best of those twenty.
1. In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and The Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language: Arika Okrent [review]
2. Neither [...]

Best of Andrew Davidson, Arika Okrent, Best Books of 2009, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Joseph Campbell, Kent Nerburn, Matthew Fox, Sarah Vowell, Steve Hagen, Waziyatawin

It is difficult to write objectively about a book when the author both makes you laugh and seems to always write about things that interest you. For me, this author is Sarah Vowell and the challenge is not becoming so much of a fanboy that I cannot maintain any sort of impartiality. However, the contents [...]

Non-Fiction Essays, Sarah Vowell

2008 was a pivotal year in my life because of significant advancements I made in several areas of my life, especially in intellectual and spiritual matters. I attribute these advancements to the words and ideas found in these ten books. Of the fifty books I completed this year, these ten had the most influence.

Open Mind [...]

Best of Best Books of 2008, Fr Thomas Keating, Haruki Murakami, J.D. Salinger, Karen Armstrong, Ken Wilbur, Milan Kundera, Sarah Vowell, Vine Deloria Jr, Wayne Teasdale

In the year 2006, I road tripped to Boise, Idaho, to aid in relocating my sister-in-law. To aid me in making this journey, I borrowed two books on compact disc: Nicholas Sparks’ The Wedding and Sarah Vowell’s Assassination Vacation. I practically cut off my ears during The Wedding (it was one of several book club [...]

Non-Fiction History, Sarah Vowell

Before I get started, I just wanted to remind you all that Amy Bloom’s gonna be reading from her latest novel Away at Magers & Quinn on Tuesday, November 11th. You should check it out of if you can.
In other local readings, The Loft’s got a full slate on Saturday, November 8th (that’d be tomorrow), [...]

Book News Amy Bloom, Best Books of 2008, Joy Williams, Sarah Vowell, Tao Lin, Tod Goldberg

Only that shit was bananas. Seriously, she’s too a big a name to try and shove her reading between the art books and the escalators at the Barnes & Noble in Edina. I’m trying not to be too pouty, because Amy Bloom is coming to Magers & Quinn in November and I’m pretty sure her [...]

Lit Events Sarah Vowell

I often like to call Sarah Vowell the Gen X Doris Kearns Goodwin or Stephen Ambrose. She’s a historian for our time, and unlike the Goodwin and Ambrose books I had to study in college, Vowell generally writes really witty and engaging books about our country.
Vowell is insightful and skeptical and above all else, [...]

Non-Fiction Sarah Vowell

Yowza! Largehearted Boy found a site that’s made a Flannery O’Connor lecture and reading available. Now, you can listen to O’Connor read A Good Man is Hard to Find. I am downloading it now, and my heart is going pitter pat with anticipation of listening to her reading. Sweet!
Rolling Stone has posted an excerpt from [...]

Book News David Foster Wallace, Flannery O'Connor, Lauren Groff, Sarah Vowell

A few weeks ago over at How Was The Show, the musicgeeks were getting all hopped up about all the great music coming to Minnesota in October, I mean Rocktober.
I was just updating the Minnesota Reads calendar and noticed that booknerds can have just as much fun in Rocktober as their musicgeek brethren. Here [...]

Lit Events Author Reading, Chuck Klosterman, David Sedaris, Kate DiCamillo, Khaled Hosseini, Marilynne Robinson, Neil Gaiman, Sarah Vowell

The Strib’s new Book Editor Laurie Hertzel introduces herself to readers.
The Internet Writing Journal complies a list of the the best author blogs. {via}
This week’s New Yorker features “Awake” a story by Tobias Wolff that I haven’t read yet, however I did make the mistake of reading the Joshua Ferris one from last week [...]

Book News Cormac McCarthy, Joseph O'Neill, Joshua Furst, Sarah Vowell, Tobias Wolff