Did anyone find sarah vowells unfamiliar fishes a little heavy? Admittedly I have just started it and history has always been something that I have enjoyed discovering and reading about so perhaps I need to give it some time?
This is something we discussed at our meeting.
Personally, I think it’s her heavy attitude that comes through in her writing and her frequent tangents. It’s hard to appreciate what she’s talking about when she mentions things like going to Hawaii because it was attacked in a way that seems a little ‘mightier-then-thou’ and in the same breath talk about something completely different. I find no sense of time line in this book, too. Which is frustrating :/
I also had trouble differentiating the different Hawaiian names that come up frequently. I had to go through and give all of the names numerical values just to follow the irregular timeline.
However, try to get through the book. Not just to learn some amazing history about America but to feel the sense of accomplishment of finishing a book (Admittedly, I didn’t finish the book… 2 people did in the whole book club. Anastasia and Mandy are honest troopers)
That’s just my opinion though,
Erin
