With my high level of distractability, it took a bit for me to finally finish The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell.  This is a collection of essays on everything from life in American to the 2000 presidential election.  I think my favorite essays both revolved around Al Gore. 

Don’t flame me for this but I’m not a big fan of Al Gore.  He tends to get on my nerves just a tad.  Well, one of the essays in this book compares the presidential election of 2000 to the age old battle of the jocks vs. the nerds.  It is a hilarious take on why Gore puts some people off just a bit (i.e. being a "know it all") and I related to every point that Vowell made.

The other essay that fascinated me also had to do with Al Gore.  This one focused, however, on Gore’s various and assundry claims that he made throughout the campaign.  One claim that was attributed to him was that he said it was because of him that the whole Love Canal investigation ever took place, etc.  Problem is… he never said it.  The essay goes through what actually happened during a meet and greet at a New England high school, how it was reported in error and how the media didn’t want to correct its mistake.  Again, not an Al Gore fan but the essay opened my eyes a bit as to how things get out of hand in politics.

I enjoyed the book quite  a lot. I enjoyed Assassination Vacation more but mainly because I’m not an essay-reader type of person and I do love travel writing.  (Yes…. Assassination Vacation is actually a travel book!).

Next up…..Tortilla Flat.