Like most lines we feed children, the schoolroom-poster slogan that promises reading will transport them to other worlds requires qualification when they’re old enough to know what “qualify” means.  When people read, they remain solidly in the parts of the world they inhabit, in their same bodies, clothes, debt, and neuroses.  If their realities change [...]

Sarah Vowell Wednesday, October 28, 2009, BPL Photo courtesy of BPL website In The Wordy Shipmates, Vowell focuses on the Puritans who set sail for the New World on the Arbella in 1630, as opposed to the more famous Mayflower Pilgrims of the previous decade. Vowell intends to rehabilitate the image of the less celebrated group.