Random Word
Lily Tomlin: "Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain."
Nonplussed - non PLUSST/noun/1582. A state of utter perplexity in which one is unable to act further. Roget's Thesaurus of Words for Writers and Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
Synonyms: bewildered, perplexed, flummoxed, dazed, confounded. Roget's Super Thesaurus
>>He looked through the front windshield, then once more to make sure what he saw was really there, and sat back nonplussed. "You know," he said thoughtfully, "I don't think I've ever been this close to a live moose before." from Winter at the Door by Sarah Graves<<
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Saturday, June 24, 2017
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Hot Summer Reading
"Summertime, and the reading is easy...well, maybe not easy, exactly, but July and August are hardly the months to start working your way through the works of Germanic philosophers." Michael Dirda, Washington Post book critic
Just in time for summer reading lists, two new books landed on my desk.
If you're looking for book ideas from an engaging well-read St. Louis, MO librarian, buy Check These Out: One Librarian's Catalog of the 200 Coolest, Best and Most Important Books You'll Ever Read by Gina Sheridan. This is not a typical readers' advisory book, Sheridan said. There are no lists of "if you like that author, you'll like this author." Instead, her own favorite books are categorized, e.g. Ch. 8 - Reel Good Books (books made into movies) Chocolat by Joanne Harris, The Children of Men by P.D. James, The Godfather by Mario Puzo and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Or, if you want to wade into the sad pool, look at the books suggested in Tales of Woe: The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein; Bee Season by Myla Goldberg; and Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer.
My summer reading list, thanks to Sheridan, is filling up largely from Chapter 11 - Too Cool for School. I'll read The Awakening by Kate Chopin, a classic that has been on my to-read list for too long, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, and Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo. Her description of Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl and William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night sparked both interest and a question: will summer be long enough for my growing list?
The second book filled with ideas is My Life with BOB: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues" by Pamela Paul, editor of the New York Times Book Review. If her house caught on fire, forget passports or family letters, Paul would save BOB. BOB is a record of "everything I've read or didn't quite finish since the summer of 1988," Paul said. She added that BOB is better than a journal because it "contains things I wanted to remember: what I was reading when all that happened. If there's any book that tells my own story it's this one."
I felt right at home reading Paul's explanation that "my life is engulfed in books." She writes that in her house, books are on the floor, on shelves, on tables and in tote bags. Cheers to you and your book-filled totes, Pamela Paul! I have also kept a book list for years, withholding only the occasional title that I was embarrassed to admit I'd read. In my mind, I jump ahead to a hopefully far-off day a sister, niece or cousin discovers my notebook and after skimming the list exclaims, "She read THAT?!" Usually the titles are thrillers that weren't or cheesy ghost- written Hollywood memoirs, or much too light on the plot fiction.
Let's make our own BOBs and Pamela Paul proud. This summer, read Franz Kafka's The Trial, Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot, Joseph Heller's Catch-22, Susan Faludi's Stiffed, Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.
If we're lucky, summer reading will be celebrated with a cool breeze and a chair on a porch.
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Monday, June 5, 2017
Robusted
"Personally I think that grammar is a way to attain beauty." >>Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog
If you ever meet David Knopf, a Kansas City Star columnist, please use the word robust correctly. Knopf may not correct you, but he will almost certainly be inwardly cringing. The columnist, writing about overused expressions, recently took a stand against misusing the word robust.
Knopf has developed what he calls Acute Language Hypersensitivity. "With ALH at my disposal, I've become a lightning rod for words and phrases that we mainstream Americans adopt and repeat and repeat, all with an astounding lack of self-awareness," he wrote.
His belief is that robust is fine to use when describing marinara sauce, but not a suburban Philadelphia police department's robust plan to promote better relationships between officers and residents. Knopf's hypersensitivity doesn't stop with robust. He also takes issue with "reaching out" being used instead of asking for a favor. Knopf suggests we just say support or join forces with instead of overusing "having your back" or "standing with."
Joining robust on making Knopf crazy are "gaining traction," "on the ground," and "at the end of the day." Defending his irritability, he wrote, "I never said I was a nice person."
One of my own pet peeves is the cutesy use of the letter "k." I've driven past a preschool named Kids Kollege and a restaurant called Kountry Kitchen. Equally frustrating is the ongoing debate between plural and possessive. It's most definitely not Horse's for Sale. A friend of mine who is a retired high school English teacher maintains a polite demeanor while quietly squirming over the misuse of ironic, literally and nonplussed.
I remember two things from fourth grade. First, the entire class wept while listening to Mrs. Maupin read Lassie Come Home. Second, Mrs. Maupin's own pet peeve was the repetitious, "my brother, he went to the store" rather than "my brother went to the store." We were taught in no uncertain terms that the addition of "he" was incorrect, unnecessary, and maddening.
I wonder if David Knopf had Mrs. Maupin as a teacher??
If any of these examples of misspelled words, incorrectly used words/phrases or optional punctuation make you shudder, you're not alone. And that led me to buy Word by Word by Kory Stamper. If I had a career do-over, I'd want Stamper, a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster, as my mentor. Stamper takes readers along for an engaging examination of evolving language, the Internet, verbal fatigue, and whether she is a professional lumper or splitter. (Look it up!)
If you're looking for new fiction this month, watch for:
Seven Stones to Stand or Fall - Diana Gabaldon
Camino Island - John Grisham
Dangerous Minds - Janet Evanovich
The Silent Corner - Dean Koontz
The Child - Fiona Barton
The Force - Don Winslow
Ministry of Utmost Happiness - Arundhati Roy
Beven and Luthien - JRR Tolkien & Christopher Tolkien
Love Story - Karen Kingsbury
Do Not Become Alarmed - Maile Meloy
Once and For All - Sarah Dressen
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. - Neal Stephenson
Before We Were Yours - Lisa Wingate
The Switch - Joseph Finder
Get a head start with summer reading:
The Identicals - Elin Hilderbrand
Beach House for Rent - Mary Alice Monroe
Sunshine Sisters - Jane Green
New memoirs:
Roxane Gay - Hunger
John Prine - Beyond Words
Kevin Hart - I Can't Make This Up
Nina Riggs - The Bright Hour
New Nonfiction:
The World is Your Burger - David Michaels
Hue 1968 - Mark Bowden
If I Understood You... - Alan Alda
And for toddlers - Little Excavator by Anna Dewdney
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June is National Iced Tea Month, National Zoo & Aquarium Month, and Audiobook Appreciation Month.
June
3 - BookCon in New York City
4 - 100th anniversary of Pulitzer Prize
8 - George Orwell's 1984 published in 1949
16 - Birth of Katherine Graham, Washington Post, 1917
21 - First Day of Summer (Reading!)
23 - 1868...Luther Sholes patented his typewriter
26 - 1974...first bar code swiped. Trivia: where and what?
Answer: A pack of Wrigley's gum in Troy, Ohio
* * * * *
If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to Read With Enthusiasm. It's easy. Look for follow by email at the top right corner of the blog. Submit your email address. You'll receive a follow-up email to activate your subscription. Thank you!
"Personally I think that grammar is a way to attain beauty." >>Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog
If you ever meet David Knopf, a Kansas City Star columnist, please use the word robust correctly. Knopf may not correct you, but he will almost certainly be inwardly cringing. The columnist, writing about overused expressions, recently took a stand against misusing the word robust.
Knopf has developed what he calls Acute Language Hypersensitivity. "With ALH at my disposal, I've become a lightning rod for words and phrases that we mainstream Americans adopt and repeat and repeat, all with an astounding lack of self-awareness," he wrote.
His belief is that robust is fine to use when describing marinara sauce, but not a suburban Philadelphia police department's robust plan to promote better relationships between officers and residents. Knopf's hypersensitivity doesn't stop with robust. He also takes issue with "reaching out" being used instead of asking for a favor. Knopf suggests we just say support or join forces with instead of overusing "having your back" or "standing with."
Joining robust on making Knopf crazy are "gaining traction," "on the ground," and "at the end of the day." Defending his irritability, he wrote, "I never said I was a nice person."
One of my own pet peeves is the cutesy use of the letter "k." I've driven past a preschool named Kids Kollege and a restaurant called Kountry Kitchen. Equally frustrating is the ongoing debate between plural and possessive. It's most definitely not Horse's for Sale. A friend of mine who is a retired high school English teacher maintains a polite demeanor while quietly squirming over the misuse of ironic, literally and nonplussed.
I remember two things from fourth grade. First, the entire class wept while listening to Mrs. Maupin read Lassie Come Home. Second, Mrs. Maupin's own pet peeve was the repetitious, "my brother, he went to the store" rather than "my brother went to the store." We were taught in no uncertain terms that the addition of "he" was incorrect, unnecessary, and maddening.
I wonder if David Knopf had Mrs. Maupin as a teacher??
If any of these examples of misspelled words, incorrectly used words/phrases or optional punctuation make you shudder, you're not alone. And that led me to buy Word by Word by Kory Stamper. If I had a career do-over, I'd want Stamper, a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster, as my mentor. Stamper takes readers along for an engaging examination of evolving language, the Internet, verbal fatigue, and whether she is a professional lumper or splitter. (Look it up!)
If you're looking for new fiction this month, watch for:
Seven Stones to Stand or Fall - Diana Gabaldon
Camino Island - John Grisham
Dangerous Minds - Janet Evanovich
The Silent Corner - Dean Koontz
The Child - Fiona Barton
The Force - Don Winslow
Ministry of Utmost Happiness - Arundhati Roy
Beven and Luthien - JRR Tolkien & Christopher Tolkien
Love Story - Karen Kingsbury
Do Not Become Alarmed - Maile Meloy
Once and For All - Sarah Dressen
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. - Neal Stephenson
Before We Were Yours - Lisa Wingate
The Switch - Joseph Finder
Get a head start with summer reading:
The Identicals - Elin Hilderbrand
Beach House for Rent - Mary Alice Monroe
Sunshine Sisters - Jane Green
New memoirs:
Roxane Gay - Hunger
John Prine - Beyond Words
Kevin Hart - I Can't Make This Up
Nina Riggs - The Bright Hour
New Nonfiction:
The World is Your Burger - David Michaels
Hue 1968 - Mark Bowden
If I Understood You... - Alan Alda
And for toddlers - Little Excavator by Anna Dewdney
* * * * *
June is National Iced Tea Month, National Zoo & Aquarium Month, and Audiobook Appreciation Month.
June
3 - BookCon in New York City
4 - 100th anniversary of Pulitzer Prize
8 - George Orwell's 1984 published in 1949
16 - Birth of Katherine Graham, Washington Post, 1917
21 - First Day of Summer (Reading!)
23 - 1868...Luther Sholes patented his typewriter
26 - 1974...first bar code swiped. Trivia: where and what?
Answer: A pack of Wrigley's gum in Troy, Ohio
* * * * *
If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to Read With Enthusiasm. It's easy. Look for follow by email at the top right corner of the blog. Submit your email address. You'll receive a follow-up email to activate your subscription. Thank you!
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