Book #59: The Partly Cloudy Patriot

Title: The Partly Cloudy Patriot
Author: Sarah Vowell

Sarah Vowell's The Partly Cloudy Patriot was my third foray into listening to audiobooks. So far, I've chosen to listen to books that are essays or memoirs, read by the author. After reading Partly Cloudy, I think I'm going to take a break from these kinds of books for a while and delve into fiction. I like the act of listening to audiobooks a lot more than I thought I would. My mom has been a big audiobook listener for years, and I've always had a snotty attitude about them, that "listening" to a book wasn't the same thing as "reading" a book and that anyone who could read a book should read instead of listening, just as a matter of principle. As with many things, I'll grant to my mom that she's right, at least where audiobooks are concerned, and now that I have an Audible account, I'm pretty sure that I'll keep on listening. It makes folding laundry and driving to and from school and running on the days of the week after I've blown through my podcasts much more enjoyable. I don't even hate ironing anymore (I can now see the correlation between my mom's love of ironing and her love of audibooks). If I could just figure out how to download books from the library (my library does limited-time audiobook downloads, but I haven't invested the time in figuring them out yet), I would be a very happy girl. Oh, and if I could find something to carry around my iPhone while I run or walk around the house (I always seem to be without pockets) that would make me even happier. The only downside is that the concha of my ears have been sore lately from my headphones getting caught on door handles and ripped forcefully from my ears.

Anyway, enough of that. I probably would have liked The Partly Cloudy Patriot a lot if I'd read it in 2003 when it came out. Even in 2005, it may have seemed relevant. When I ordered The Partly Cloudy Patriot, I thought I was ordering Vowell's new book, The Wordy Shipmates. But I messed up. Partly Cloudy is a bunch of essays related to Vowell's self-identification as a Patriot, and what patriotism means to her. There are amusing essays about Bill Clinton and Al Gore and a road trip to North Dakota and traveling to cry hot, silent tears of rage at the first inauguration of George W. Bush. The stories were interesting and well-told, but they seemed really out of date. It's funny, because the book was published only seven years ago, but the world moves fast these days, and it felt like a story from a generation ago. I'd recommend it more as a piece of history than as a piece of current events.