The Glamour of Grammar by Roy Peter Clark

The Glamour of Grammar: A Guide to the Magic and Mystery of Practical English by Roy Peter Clark In case you haven't guessed by now, I'm a geek. And I love words, punctuation, grammar. One of my favorite baseball players is Aramis Ramirez, not necessarily because he's talented, but because I love the way his name sounds. I think I was the only person in my class who truly enjoyed diagramming sentences, but this book was not written just for people like me. I loved it, but I truly believe that people who have always thought grammar was dry and boring will find it to be a breathe of fresh air. Clark advocates living "inside your language," and this book is more than a list of rules, suggestions, and definitions, although it does contain those; for me, it's about appreciating how words and punctuation combine to form meaning, to express ideas, stories. In the end, The Glamour of Grammar may not be about...
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Words Are Magic

Language and magic. Where is the connection? Think about it this way: when we form letters to write words, we create something out of nothing, so that the still air or the empty space on a page fills with meaning, as if a wizard created a blizzard from a clear blue sky. (pg. 15, The Glamour of Grammar by Roy Peter Clark) I finally got to start this one, and I love the way Clark talks about language, and spelling and punctuation. It's not dry rules; it's exciting, liberating, fun. By the way, my giveaway for this one is still open. You can enter here if you're in the US or Canada. Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Play along. The rules are easy and I only cheated a little. Grab your current read, open to a random page, and give us two teaser sentences. ...
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Favorite Letters

U in the title Ulysses has the look of a sacred vessel, a Grecian urn, and James Joyce's novel begins with the phrase "Stately, plump Buck Mulligan..." Lots of U-ness there. The letter o suggests an alluring or erotic roundness, orifices waiting to be filled, hence the infamous Story of O, but two of them together (OO) look like fake boobs on an exotic dancer or two fat men fighting for a seat on the bus: zoot, moot, booze, tattoo, kangaroo. (pg. 19, The Glamour of Grammar by Roy Peter Clark) This one keeps yelling at me from the shelf, "Read me! You'll fall in love with me!" In the meantime, though, if this teaser has caught your attention, I'm giving away three copies here. Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Play along. The rules are easy and I only cheated a little. Grab your current read, open to a...
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Handwriting

The young man opened it and found inside an arabesque of words, scratched-out sentences, insertions, notes, marginal annotations; a cathedral of vowels, consonants, uppercase letters, lowercase letter, erasures, and changes, which Guérin scrutinized hungrily. He strained to decipher the irregular, brittle, jerky handwriting that filled every available space, page after page. Proust's downward-slanting script was exceedingly angular, entangled, hastily scrawled. (pg. 27, Proust's Overcoat by Lorenza Foschini, uncorrected proof) Our handwriting can say a lot about us and how we think, whether we want it to or not, unlike the print that computers show. There is definitely something more personal about seeing someone's actual writing, about the process they went through. I wonder what my handwriting says about me, even if I seldom write things out anymore. Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Play along. The rules are easy and I only cheated a little. Grab your current read, open to a...
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The Journey that Saved Curious George by Louise Borden

The Journey That Saved Curious George : The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey by Louise Borden, illustrated by Allan Drummond (Suggested reading level: Grades 3-6) I love Curious George, especially his new adventures and the PBS cartoon. We have two box sets that I'd read over and over with Amber when she was younger, but I never knew the story behind Curious George. I mentioned the other day about author's own experiences showing up in their works of fiction. I didn't realize how soon the topic would come up again, but Hans Reyersbach, who eventually changed his name to H. A. Rey, left his home in Germany in his early twenties and headed to Brazil. It was hot in Brazil—so Hans wore a broad hat, even in the shad of Rio's palm trees and cafés. When he traveled up and down the Amazon River, Hans watched the monkeys and made drawings of them. (pg. 12-13) I can certainly see where the famous...
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A teaser from my Earth Day read

The revelation of God through creation is so powerful and so obvious, Paul says that no one is excused for refusing to believe our Creator exists. The world is God's apologetic about himself. (pg. 73, Green Like God by Jonathan Merritt) I haven't started reading this one yet, but it does seem like it may fit in well with Earth Day Thursday. Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Play along. The rules are easy. Grab your current read, open to a random page, and give us two teaser sentences. Remember, no spoilers. My copy was sent by the publisher for review and the above is my honest opinion. I am an Amazon associate....
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