Author Guide · Narrative nonfiction
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For Assassination Vacation Sarah Vowell went to the places where Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley were shot and where they died, to the monuments and the obscure museums, and to the guns themselves, with her long-suffering family in tow. She had learned to tell a story out loud first, as a contributing editor of This American Life from 1996 to 2008. Between 1997 and 2015 she wrote seven books about how the United States explains itself to itself. There has not been an eighth yet.
By Lisanne Swart · 7 books · Non-fiction · Female authors · 1997–2015 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Sarah Vowell has written seven books, from Radio On (1997) to Lafayette in the Somewhat United States (2015), all of them nonfiction about American history and culture. She has not published a book since, though she still writes essays. Below: all seven in order, which one to start with, and what she has written since 2015.
Where to Start with Sarah Vowell
If you have never read her
→ Assassination Vacation. The clearest example of her method, and the funniest.
If you want shorter pieces first
→ The Partly Cloudy Patriot. Essay-length and easy to sample; then Take the Cannoli.
If you want her most serious history
→ The Wordy Shipmates. Puritan New England, or Unfamiliar Fishes for the annexation of Hawaii.
If you want the Revolution
→ Lafayette in the Somewhat United States. Also her most recent book.
If you like her on audio
→ Assassination Vacation. She narrates her own audiobooks, and this one is better read aloud by her than by you.
All 7 Sarah Vowell Books, in Order
Radio On
Vowell spent 1995 keeping a diary of what she heard on American radio — talk shows, call-in hosts, Rush Limbaugh, the O.J. Simpson coverage, music, static — and turned it into a book-length meditation on what the dial says about the country listening to it. Less a memoir than a year-long act of close listening.
This is the book that got her noticed and led to This American Life, which shaped the voice she used in everything after. Worth reading as an origin story rather than as a favourite.
— LisanneTake the Cannoli
Her first essay collection, ranging from the FBI Academy’s shooting range to Disneyland to growing up between Oklahoma and Montana. The subjects are scattered on purpose — this is Vowell working out in public what her voice can do.
Looser and rougher than the later books, but the caustic-and-sympathetic tone that defines her shows up here fully formed. Good if you want the range before she narrowed in on history.
— LisanneThe Partly Cloudy Patriot
Essays on the Gettysburg Address, presidential libraries, the Salem witch trials, and what it means to love a country while being furious with it — written in the strange window between the 2000 election and the years just after September 11. The title is the whole project: patriotism with the reservations left in.
The book where the history-nerd-with-a-grudge persona locks into place. If Take the Cannoli was her finding the voice, this is her using it on purpose.
— LisanneAssassination Vacation
Start hereVowell takes a road trip — sometimes with her long-suffering family in tow — to the sites tied to the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley: deathbeds, monuments, obscure museums, the actual guns. Along the way she builds a real argument about what political violence reveals about a national character, without ever dropping the deadpan.
Her most famous book, and the clearest distillation of the whole method: travelogue, grief, dark comedy and genuine archival research, held together by a properly odd hobby. If you read one Vowell book, read this one.
— LisanneThe Wordy Shipmates
A close, argumentative history of the Puritans who settled New England, built around John Winthrop’s “city upon a hill” sermon — the phrase every American president since Reagan has quoted without necessarily reading the rest of it. Vowell traces how a 1630 sermon about humility and mutual obligation got flattened into a slogan about exceptionalism.
Denser and more argument-driven than the earlier books, and less immediately funny. But watching one phrase get hollowed out across four centuries is her sharpest piece of cultural criticism.
— LisanneUnfamiliar Fishes
How Hawaii went from an independent kingdom to the fiftieth state in a little over a century, told through missionaries, whalers, sugar barons, an overthrown queen and Teddy Roosevelt. One of the clearer accounts of American imperialism written for a general reader.
Structurally her most ambitious book to that point — no chapter breaks, just one long digressive argument — which some reviewers found exhausting and others found exactly right. Best if you want her history writing at its most serious.
— LisanneLafayette in the Somewhat United States
NewestThe Marquis de Lafayette was a teenage French aristocrat who volunteered for Washington’s army, became one of the Revolution’s most trusted officers, and returned decades later as a living reminder of what the founders had actually promised. Vowell uses him as a thread through the Revolutionary War and its factional aftermath.
Her most recent book, and still her latest more than a decade on. It brings the founders down off their pedestals without cynicism, which is her real speciality: taking reverence apart without losing affection for the subject.
— LisanneIn What Order to Read Sarah Vowell
Start with Assassination Vacation (2005). It is the best version of everything she does — the road trip, the research, the grief, the jokes — and it is the book most people mean when they recommend her.
Then pick your subject. Unlike a novelist, Vowell has no continuity between books. After the first one, read whichever period interests you: Puritan New England (The Wordy Shipmates), the annexation of Hawaii (Unfamiliar Fishes), or the Revolution (Lafayette).
Save the essay collections for when you want her in small doses. The Partly Cloudy Patriot and Take the Cannoli are the easiest to dip into and the easiest to put down.
Read Radio On last, if at all. It is the least like the rest and mostly interesting once you already care how she got here.
Everything Else She Has Done
Vowell has not published a book since 2015, but she has not stopped writing:
- Essays — “The Equalizer”, on the National Archives and the people who keep its records, ran in The Washington Post on 8 October 2024 and was collected in Michael Lewis’s anthology Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service (2025).
- Radio — Contributing editor for NPR’s This American Life from 1996 to 2008, the training ground for the digressive, first-person structure of every book above.
- Voice acting — Violet Parr in Pixar’s The Incredibles (2004) and Incredibles 2 (2018).
- A new book — None announced as of October 2026.
The years · 1969–2015
Quick facts about Sarah Vowell
- Known for
- American history written from the road, in the first person, with the research and the jokes in the same sentence
- 1969
- Born in Muskogee, Oklahoma
- 1996
- Joins This American Life
- 2015
- Lafayette, her latest book
- Grew up
- Bozeman, Montana, from the age of eleven, with her twin sister, Amy
- Education
- BA, Montana State University, 1993; MA in art history, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Also known as
- The voice of Violet Parr in Pixar’s The Incredibles (2004) and Incredibles 2 (2018)
- Most recent writing
- “The Equalizer”, on the National Archives, Washington Post, 2024
The shaded stretch is her twelve years at This American Life, where she found the voice of every book.
How Sarah Vowell Writes
The defining move is the interruption. Vowell will be four sentences into a genuinely careful account of the Garfield assassination when she stops to tell you about her sister, or the parking, or the gift shop. It reads like digression and it is not: the interruptions are the argument. She is showing you that the past is something a specific person encounters from a specific place, rather than a settled story handed down whole.
She is a researcher first, which is easy to miss because of the jokes. The books rest on primary sources — sermons, letters, presidential papers, the physical sites themselves — and she is careful about what the record does and does not support. The comedy is never a substitute for the history; it is what makes the history bearable when the subject is political violence, forced conversion or annexation.
She writes as an ambivalent patriot. That is a harder position to hold than either cheerleading or contempt. The Partly Cloudy Patriot names it outright and the later books keep testing it: she loves the documents, distrusts the mythology, and refuses to resolve the tension. That refusal is why the books have aged well.
Watch
Sarah Vowell on Lafayette, Washington’s French teenager
Vowell on CONAN in December 2015, the season Lafayette in the Somewhat United States came out, on the rich French teenager who became one of Washington’s most trusted officers. A quick way to hear the voice she reads her own audiobooks in.
Frequently asked questions about Sarah Vowell’s books
How many books has Sarah Vowell written?
Seven: Radio On (1997), Take the Cannoli (2000), The Partly Cloudy Patriot (2002), Assassination Vacation (2005), The Wordy Shipmates (2008), Unfamiliar Fishes (2011) and Lafayette in the Somewhat United States (2015). All seven are narrative nonfiction about American history and culture.
Who is Sarah Vowell?
Sarah Vowell is an American author and journalist, born 27 December 1969 in Muskogee, Oklahoma and raised in Bozeman, Montana. She was a contributing editor for NPR’s This American Life from 1996 to 2008 and has written seven nonfiction books on American history, known for a personal, wry, heavily researched style. She also voiced Violet Parr in Pixar’s The Incredibles (2004) and Incredibles 2 (2018).
Is Sarah Vowell writing a new book?
No new book has been announced. Her most recent, Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, was published in 2015. She is still writing: her essay “The Equalizer”, about the National Archives, ran in The Washington Post on 8 October 2024 and was collected in Michael Lewis’s anthology Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service in 2025.
What should I read first by Sarah Vowell?
Assassination Vacation (2005). It is the most commonly recommended starting point because it best represents her method: a road trip to the sites of the Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley assassinations, combining travelogue, presidential history and deadpan comedy. Readers who prefer shorter pieces often start with The Partly Cloudy Patriot instead.
What is Sarah Vowell’s best book?
Assassination Vacation is generally considered her best and is certainly her best known. The Wordy Shipmates and Unfamiliar Fishes are more highly regarded by readers who want depth over comedy — they are denser, more argument-driven histories of Puritan New England and the annexation of Hawaii respectively.
What are Sarah Vowell’s books about?
All seven are about the United States — how it tells stories about itself, and what those stories leave out. Specific subjects include American radio (Radio On), presidential assassinations (Assassination Vacation), the Puritan settlement of New England (The Wordy Shipmates), the annexation of Hawaii (Unfamiliar Fishes) and the Revolutionary War (Lafayette in the Somewhat United States).
Does Sarah Vowell narrate her own audiobooks?
Yes. Vowell narrates her own audiobooks, and her distinctive voice — familiar to listeners of This American Life and to anyone who has seen The Incredibles — is a large part of why readers recommend hearing her books rather than reading them. Guest narrators have appeared on some titles alongside her.
Is Sarah Vowell the voice of Violet in The Incredibles?
Yes. Vowell voiced Violet Parr in Pixar’s The Incredibles (2004) and returned for Incredibles 2 (2018). It remains the thing most people know her for who have never read one of her books.
In what order should I read Sarah Vowell’s books?
There is no continuity between them, so no order is required. Chronologically they run: Radio On (1997), Take the Cannoli (2000), The Partly Cloudy Patriot (2002), Assassination Vacation (2005), The Wordy Shipmates (2008), Unfamiliar Fishes (2011), Lafayette in the Somewhat United States (2015). Most readers are better served starting with Assassination Vacation and then choosing by subject.
Footnotes
- Sarah Vowell — Wikipedia
- Assassination Vacation — Simon & Schuster
- Assassination Vacation — Wikipedia
- Sarah Vowell’s essay “The Equalizer” in Who Is Government? — WAMC
- Sarah Vowell on CONAN, 10 December 2015 — TVmaze
- Sarah Vowell on Lafayette — CONAN on TBS, Team Coco
Bibliography last verified 7 October 2026.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all hers.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Like Lincoln, I would like to believe the ballot is stronger than the bullet.”
— Sarah Vowell, Assassination Vacation (2005)
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