Welcome to the first installment of our monthly series highlighting authors in our Unwind the Mind: Popular Reading Collection. Unwind the Mind contains contemporary fiction, popular non-fiction and best sellers and is located in the John T. Richardson Library’s Haber Lounge and at the entrance of the Loop Library.
This month’s featured writer is Sarah Vowell. You may recognize Vowell’s name from This American Life or as the voice of Violet Parr from Disney’s The Incredibles but she is also the bestselling author of six humorous nonfiction books dealing with American history and culture. Her previous books include Unfamiliar Fishes and The Partly Cloudy Patriot.
Vowell calls herself a “narrative nonfiction wise guy,” and the library’s newest Unwind the Mind acquisition, Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, supports that proclamation. Vowell’s take on the days of the Revolutionary War is certainly not the history you were taught in grade school. She uses humor to present a story of our country’s not necessarily united past that is both eye-opening and engaging.
For more information, read current reviews of Lafayette in the Somewhat United States:
Rothman, Lily. “The Founding Of America? It’s All About Us.” Time 186.17 (2015): 54-55. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Jan. 2016.
Heller, Chris. “The Revolution Will Not Be Organized.” Washington Monthly (2015): 1. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Jan. 2016
Dwyer, Colin. “’Somewhat United’ Brings Lafayette Down From His Pedestal.” NPR Book Reviews, October 21, 2015. Web. 29 Jan. 2016.
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