Twelve Black Code Monkeys

Sarah Vowell is a unique voice, in more ways than one. In A Partly Cloudy Patriot, her third book, she mixes astute observations with historical facts and throws in a lot of wry humor and biographical musings that will have you laughing out loud at points. Idiologues will probably be impatient with the contradictions. Although she is unabashedly liberal, she is also unabashedly patriotic and fervent about the documents of the founding fathers. Not that these two are contradictory, but the way things play out liberals are often seen as unpatriotic because they are not flag wavers shouting “America first no matter what.”

If you’ve heard Sarah on This American Life, you know she has a very distinct-sounding voice, which I can only describe as being a little like Lisa Simpson. If you like This American Life, I would highly recommend getting The Partly Cloudy Patriot in the unabridged audiocassette or CD (I listened to it on Audible.com) as it’s a lot like listening to 5 hours of This American Life, although it’s just Sarah with a few cameos (from the likes of Conan Obrian, Paul Begala, and Norman Lear) thrown in narrating quotes from presidents and friends. Of course if you’re a They Might Be Giants fan like myself, you will also get to enjoy their little ditties they apparently created for the audiobook at the start and end of each chapter. Most of these are instrumental but there are a couple of typically helarious ones with lyrics.