Hilda Tovar Tovar itibaren Bolshoy Sanchur, Vladimirskaya oblast', Rusya, 602135 itibaren Bolshoy Sanchur, Vladimirskaya oblast', Rusya, 602135

Caused me to think a lot about my interactions with animals, no matter the species. Very well thought out.

I've been to Hawaii five times, and somehow knew next to nothing about its history. Coincidentally, the last time I was in Hawaii was the first time I read Sarah Vowell. I brought a new copy of "Assassination Vacation" that I'd gotten for Christmas and read it while basking in the sun and the warm tropical breeze. I found it funny that her latest book was about Hawaii, and knew I had to give it a read. "Unfamiliar Fishes" is no "Assassination Vacation", unfortunately. I suppose part of what made the latter so amusing was the fact that so much of it was about her traveling to these places and mixing in history, whereas Vowell's personal life and commentary really takes a back seat here to the facts. I learned a lot about the depressing history of Hawaii being Christianized and taken over by the US, lots of neat facts that I probably wouldn't have picked up otherwise. For instance, found it really fascinating that until the missionaries got there and insisted that one's soul could not be saved until they READ the bible, the Hawaiian language had not been a written language, and the missionaries basically took care of that for them. So, they brought a little good along with a lot of imperialistic goals. However... this will sound really lame but I don't really like reading straight-up history books, and I read this strictly because it was written by Vowell. I was expecting a lot more of her trademark sass. How she could quite integrate that in with the subject matter is a different matter- but often I found my eyes glazing over.

This is such a wonderful idea for a couple of assasins to play with. They did a great job with the film also.