Our mothership, Gothamist, interviewed author Sarah Vowell this week. In that interview, Vowell revealed the topic of her new book – the Puritans! She's been hunting in our own backyard for information about Puritan history in the 17th century.

Given how the Puritan mentality still shapes our fair city, we're looking forward to what Vowell will uncover about them. Usually, the thought of the Puritans prompt natural responses of fear (Exhibit A: Salem Witch Trials) and bafflement (Exhibit B: Everything else puritanical), but Vowell finds them endearing.

The book will be called The Wordy Shipmates, and here's why Vowell loves the Puritans so:

They have this incredible communitarian ethos that was both really idealistic and incredibly strangling, probably. And they were just so obsessed with words, especially the Bible, but they were incredibly literate. Words and other people were two of their biggest concerns. I have all these ideals about community but I’m a really individualist loner type person and so I’m fascinated by other people and also completely repelled by other people. That all may sound incredibly high-minded but I also have things in the book like the Mayflower waterslide and a trip to the Mohegan Sun [casino].

Gothamist spent a long time chatting with Vowell, and she talks about the 826 writing center/fun zone, life in New York, and who she's voting for in the upcoming presidential election. You'll have to go to the interview itself to get the answer to that.

Image of Sarah Vowell by Bennett Miller, originally posted on Gothamist.