Had to think long and hard about whether or not to read this book before the Hawaii trip. After all, sometimes knowing more about the past means I can't enjoy tacky things, like luaus.
Going into this, I knew very, very little about Hawaii's history. Vowell essentially begins with the arrival of missionaries and concludes with the barely legal annexation. Some really good stuff, though I did occasionally bog down. The funny wasn't there like it's been before. And sometimes it took a very long time for a tangent to start making sense.

The jury is still out on how reading this book will affect my trip to Hawaii.