Take the Cannoli Stories From the New World [Paperback]

A wickedly funny collection of personal essays from popular NPR personality Sarah Vowell.

Hailed byNewsweekas a cranky stylist with talent to burn, Vowell has an irresistible voice -- caustic and sympathetic, insightful and double-edged -- that has attracted a loyal following for her magazine writing and radio monologues onThis American Life.

While tackling subjects such as identity, politics, religion, art, and history, these autobiographical tales are written with a biting humor, placing Vowell solidly in the tradition of Mark Twain and Dorothy Parker. Vowell searches the streets of Hoboken for traces of the town's favorite son, Frank Sinatra. She goes under cover of heavy makeup in an investigation of goth culture, blasts cannonballs into a hillside on a father-daughter outing, and maps her family's haunted history on a road trip down the Trail of Tears.

Take the Cannoliis an eclectic tour of the New World, a collection of alternately hilarious and heartbreaking essays and autobiographical yarns.Susan Salter ReynoldsLos Angeles Times Book ReviewSarah Vowell is a madonna of Americana.PeopleWise, witty and refreshingly warm-hearted, Vowell's essays on American history, pop culture and her own family reveal the bonds holding together a great, if occasionally weird, nation.Melanie RehakHarper's BazaarSarah Vowell's canny brand of humor, complaint, and cultural acuity will no doubt be heard for some time to come.Joanna Smith RakoffSan Francisco ChronicleVowell is and will continue to be one of the more important voices of her generation.