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Sarah Vowell is somewhat of an odd duck. You may know her from her voice-pieces on This American Life. Since I tend to like those essays, I bought her 2002 book, The Partly Cloudy Patriot. (Actually I bought this as a Christmas present for Dan's dad, who also likes her on TAL).

But: in addition to having an urbane and funny sensibility toward life, she's also a history nerd, and actually a bit snooty. But she's an excellent essayist.

This book has nineteen essays about what it means, to her, to be an American patriot. From going to Washington during Bush's inauguration and tearfully singing the Star Spangled Banner on The Mall, with tens of thousands of people (some satisfied, some heartbroken), to writing to a dead Congressman with her memories of him from when she was 8 and she helped on his campaign, this is an occasionally sombre, occasionally hilarious book.

I'm considering getting a copy of my own, actually. For, say, the next time someone inappropriately compares themselves to Rosa Parks and I want to remember one of her rebuttals for that situation . ("Call me picky, but breathing second-hand smoke, unfair dairy pricing, and not being able to mime (or lap dance), though they are all tragic, tragic injustices, are not quite as bad as the systematic segregation of public transportation based on skin color.")

Four of the essays are online as audio stories in her voice. "What He Said There" (about visiting Gettysburg) and "The Nerd Voice" (about Al Gore) are pretty good.