Confessions of a Bibliophile

Much like my initial read of The Wordy Shipmates, this is a book that has an interesting idea and history to it, but takes a while to really grab me and start being interesting. While the missionaries' background and the history of the islands did give some new insight of how the missionary expedition in the early 19th century worked, it wasn't until the discussion of how the native Hawaiians reacted and changed to their presence that I started to get interested in the book's topic. Overall, I like Sarah Vowell as a historical commentator/"tourist", but lengthy research passages in this and The Wordy Shipmates (although not in Assassination Vacation) tend to drag and bring my enjoyment of them down.