Book Review: The Little Book of Lost Words by Joe Gillard

The Little Book of Lost Words: Collywobbles, Smollygosters, and Other Surprising Terms Worth Resurrecting
by Joe Gillard (428.1 Gil)

This is a delightful little book for anyone who enjoys language and archaic words that are little known in today’s society. Each term is coupled with a lovely painting by the Old Masters as well as an example of usage of the word being described. Witty and concise, this book is a quick read.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Transitive Vampire, by Karen Gordon.]

[ official Joe Gillard web site ]

 

Recommended by Kim J.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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Arrival (on DVD)

Arrival
[DVD Arrival] 

Louise Banks is a linguistics professor (played by Amy Adams). One morning most of her students were missing from class and the ones that showed up asked her to turn on the news. Alien spacecrafts had mysteriously appeared in 12 different places across the globe. Banks is visited by a colonel in the military (played by Forest Whitaker) who recruits her to come to Montana where a ship has arrived in the US. There she works with physicist Ian Donnelly (played by Jeremy Renner) to try to communicate with the aliens to see if they are here as friends or foe. They communicate using a markerboard with the two aliens they have dubbed Abbott and Costello. The situation becomes a race against the clock when the Chinese government decide to pursue military action against the ship located on their land instead of working with the aliens. Banks and Donnelly must find a way to understand the alien language and communicate with them before war could break out.

I really enjoyed this movie. We saw it in the theater and I checked it out just to see it again. I highly recommend it. There is a definite twist in the end.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Passengers, Interstellar or Edge of Tomorrow] [Based on the novella “The Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang, which is available in traditional print format.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official Arrival web site ]

Recommended by Carrie K.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

Rome Wasn't Burned in a Day

Rome Wasn't Burned in a Day
by Leo Rosten [427.08 Ros]

Although this book was published in 1972, the language boo boos and bloopers remain timeless. A few samples: "The most important thing in acting is honesty. Once you learn to fake that, you're in." "Their father is some kind of civil serpent." "Flying saucers are just an optical conclusion." "The cotton crop was ruined by bold weasels." If you revel in malaprops and other language botches, this book will keep you laughing. [For more books of this nature, check our catalog under the subject heading "English Language -- Humor."] -- recommended by Rianne S. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[ Wikipedia page for Leo Rosten ]

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.

Anguished English

Anguished English
by Richard Lederer [427.08 Led]

I first stumbled across this humorous little volume in the late 1980s (it was published in 1987), and it hasn't lost any of its humor since then. Lederer has gathered together a hilarious collection of misuses of the English language. The book is divided into sections -- Schoolishness, The Blunderful World of Bloopers, Inspired Gibberish, and Grammar Gaffes. The first deals with young students' mangling of words in school papers. The second features the kinds of errors or misuses that were popular on the talk shows with Jay Leno and David Letterman, where goof-ups from newspapers would be highlighted. The third section deals with misunderstand phrases or sayings, and seques into the bizarre kinds of misguided statements made by famed malapropters Samuel Goldwyn and Yogi Berra. The final section deals with common misspellings or incorrect definitions, and/or badly placed modifiers. Fans of books like Eats, Shoots and Leaves will enjoy this one, too! Lederer has come out with a whole series of language-inspired humor books, but most of those are very focused in nature. It was not until The Bride of Anguished English in 2000 that he returned to this more general format. Fun for any student of language or for anyone who is "whorrified" and the mis-use of the English language in today's publications and on the internet. -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[A sequel, The Bride of Anguished English is also available in the library's collection.][ official Richard Lederer web site ]

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.