Diary of a Word Nerd

Vocab from Small Great Things: Specious

Posted on April 5, 2017 by Julia Tomiak / 9 Comments

My book club is reading Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult this month, and so far, it’s a fantastic read. Ruth, a black nurse working in a labor and delivery ward, is assigned to care for a baby whose parents are white supremacists. When the baby’s parents complain, Ruth’s supervisor tells Ruth not to care for or even touch the baby. However, during a hectic shift, when all the other nurses are busy, the baby boy goes into cardiac arrest.

Tragedy strikes, followed closely by litigation. Picoult does a great job of presenting the back story for each character and how their experiences shape their views. She handles the complicated and sensitive issue of race relations with beautiful language and thoughtful insights. I’m looking forward to spending more time with this book. (Which I must, as I’m supposed to have it read by next Tuesday! I might have to indulge in something called “Reading during the day”. What a treat!)

Last night, I came across a new word in an exchange of dialogue between one of the lead characters, a public defender, and her mother.

You know when you say things like that it makes me want to get a prescription for Xanax,” my mother sighs. “I thought that you were going to start looking for a real job when Violet went to school.”

“A, I do have a real job, and B, you’re already taking Xanax, so that’s a specious threat.”

I had to take a trip to Merriam Webster to learn what specious means.

Specious \ˈspē-shəs\ adjective from Latin speciosus, meaning “beautiful” or “plausible,” and Middle English “visually pleasing”; around the 17th century, specious began to suggest a superficial or deceptive attractiveness

having deceptive attraction or allure
having a false look of truth or genuineness

Word Nerd Workout

Don’t forget to visit Kathy at Bermuda Onion for the WWW meme!

You could use specious to describe a sketchy argument or reasoning that does not stand up to questioning. Can you think of a synonym for specious? Mine is “misleading”.

If you like learning about new words, visit Bermuda Onion’s Wondrous Words Wednesday meme.

Thanks for getting nerdy with me!

Book reviews/Favorite Authors

What I Liked, and Didn’t, About Truly, Madly, Guilty

Posted on March 31, 2017 by Julia Tomiak / 9 Comments

Ever since I listened to Big Little Lies last year, I’ve been a huge Liane Moriarty fan. Her books are an appealing mix of humor and reality that touch on every day challenges but also have an intriguing element of mystery. Her latest release, Truly, Madly, Guilty, has gotten mixed reviews. In fact, I know some people who refuse to read it because their friends have hated it. My book club buddy Caroline found the first half of the novel so frustrating, she removed it from our 2017 reading list.

So of course, I had to check it out.

Premise

Truly, Madly, Guilty tells the story of an innocent backyard barbecue gone terribly wrong. Moriarty gives us a main cast of three quirky couples and explores how the events of one Sunday afternoon forces them to reconsider their marriages, their identities, and their parenting skills.

What I liked

As always, Moriarty gives readers well-developed, multidimensional characters. They are obsessive, charismatic, and interesting, and she provides back story for their idiosyncrasies and empathy for their weaknesses. Also, her “reveals” – one big one in the middle and a few smaller ones near the end – were satisfying and surprising. At the end, she does a nice job of tying up seemingly unrelated plot threads. Moriarty has a knack for capturing essential truths about life, like the strain between dysfunctional parents and their adult children, with stunning clarity. I always find a few key lines in her books that make me nod and say, “Exactly!” Truly, Madly, Guilty was no exception.

What I didn’t like

Caroline was right; the first half of Truly, Madly, Guilty is extremely frustrating. The characters keep lamenting the “barbecue in that ridiculous back yard”, but it takes a couple hundred pages (or, for the listener, a couple of hours) to finally learn what happened that was so terrible. Although I appreciate the need to build suspense, Moriarty indulges in lengthy scenes that spend too much time on unnecessary details.

In the January 2017 issue of Writers Digest, Moriarty explains that she structured the book as she did so that readers wouldn’t judge the reactions of the characters. She said, “…some readers did get impatient, and some admitted to me that they flipped ahead… This was a particularly tricky book in terms of structure, and who knows if I got it right.” I think the structure could have worked if she trimmed down her excessive descriptions of everyday life and painted her characters and their relationships more succinctly. For example, the first half of the novel has a long, painful scene about a young family trying to find a lost shoe. The tedious dialogue is punctuated by a child repeatedly asking for a cracker. Instead of piquing my interest in the characters and the dynamics between them, the scene annoyed me as if it were a whiny child itself.

Recommendation

Although I don’t think this is Moriarty’s best book, and I did find the first half trying, in the end, I’m glad I finished it. I laughed, I cried, and I thought seriously about my relationship with my husband and children. To me, that makes a good story.

Word Nerd Notes

I listened to the audio book version, narrated by Caroline Lee, who always does a great job with Moriarty’s books. But perhaps reading the hard copy would be good for this one, since you can skim through some of the slower parts.

Have you read Truly, Madly, Guilty? Why or why isn’t it worth the read? Help my readers decide if they should try it.

Happy reading!

Improving grammar

When to Use I or Me

Posted on March 24, 2017 by Julia Tomiak / 3 Comments

Whew! Sorry it’s been a while since I posted on the blog. Little things like taxes and late night soccer games have interfered with my schedule and sleeping pattern, with some frustrating results. But I’m back today to share another Word Nerdy tip inspired by my last post, How to Use the Pronoun Myself.

Not only are a lot of people confused about when to use “myself”, they are also uncertain about when to use “I” or “me”, especially if there is more than one person/noun/subject in the sentence. For example,

Dad gave Percy and I some money.

That sounds right, doesn’t it? But actually, it’s not correct grammar. Let me explain.

Personal Pronouns

Pronouns take the place of a noun, and personal pronouns come in two forms, subjective and objective.

Subjective pronouns (I, we) represent the subject of the sentence- the thing that is doing something. The two we use for first person are I for one or we for multiple people. For example,

I washed the car. (I is the subject of the sentence.)
We went to the movie. (We is the subject.)

Objective pronouns (me, us) represent something acted upon by the subject of the sentence, and for first person they are me and us.

Dad gave us money. (Dad (subject) is giving us(object) something.)
The bee stung me. (The bee (subject) hurt me (object).)

We get confused when a sentence has two or more subjects. For example, should we say “Tammy and I went to the mall” or “Tammy and me went to the mall”?

It’s also easy to get confused when there are two objects, as in “Dad gave Percy and I some money”. This sounds right, and often people choose to use “I” because it sounds more formal. But Percy and I are the objects of this sentence; Dad is the subject. (He’s the one giving out money.) Therefore, we should use the objective pronoun, or me/us.

The trick for choosing I or Me

Now that we’ve established the cause for confusion, how do we fix it? I like to substitute we or us and see what sounds right. For example:

Tammy and I went to the mall OR Me and Tammy went to the mall.
Substitute-> We went to the mall OR Us went to the mall.

We is clearly the right choice, and since it’s the subjective form of the pronoun, I know I need to use I.

Dad gave me and Percy some money OR Dad gave Percy and I some money.
Substitute -> Dad gave us some money OR Dad gave we some money.

Us sounds better, so I know that I should use “me and Percy” in the sentence, as they are the objects of the sentence.

I hope this little trick helps! Thanks to Grammatically Correct by Anne Stilman for reference info.

Word Nerd Workout

Tell me if each sentence is grammatically correct and why or why not. Try the we/us substitution trick if you’re not sure.

Sherlock gave Watson and I two minutes to search the room.
Preston and I went to Dairy Queen for ice cream.
Donald told me and Carson to choose a seat at the table.

What other grammar issues confuse you? I’m happy to help.

Improving grammar

How to Use the Pronoun “Myself”

Posted on March 10, 2017 by Julia Tomiak / 14 Comments

Someone in my house, I won’t give away names, likes to use the pronoun “myself” as a subject. For example, if I ask, “Who was at the meeting?”, he’ll say “Henry, Patrick, and myself.”

This reply always makes me twitch. Although I suspect he’s using myself this way because it’s sounds formal or proper, my Word Nerd intuition tells me it’s grammatically incorrect. I’ve finally done the research to figure it out.

Some tips on reflexive pronouns

Reflexive pronouns end with -self (e.g. myself, yourself, itself). There are, according to my reference manual Grammatically Correct by Anne Stilman, only three situations when we should use reflexive pronouns:

1) When the subject and the object of a sentence are the same and reflect each other:

You take yourself too seriously. (subject = you, object of the verb take = yourself)
He spoke critically of himself (subject = he; object = himself)
The radio turned itself off. (subject = radio; object of turned = itself)

2) When you need to clarify that the subject did something alone or without help:

She did all the laundry herself.
I can’t line the fields by myself.
Can’t you talk to him yourself?

3) When the pronoun emphasizes another word. (Then it has the fancy title of “intensive pronoun”)

I myself would never do that at work.
Patrick himself has no idea where he left his phone.
I insist on speaking to the doctor himself.

So, when I ask, “Who was at the meeting?”, the proper answer would be, “Henry, Patrick, and I.”

Word Nerd Workout

Choose the correct word for each sentence below:

Stacey and (I/myself) went to the movies on Saturday.
The doctor spoke directly to Bill and (me/myself).
People tell me I take (me/myself) too seriously.

Thanks for getting nerdy with me.

Who I Am

Why You Shouldn’t Fear Birthdays

Posted on February 28, 2017 by Julia Tomiak / 6 Comments

Today is my 46th birthday. I won’t lie, the occasion strikes a bit of concern, especially as my vision has grown noticeably worse just in the past two weeks. Even with multi-focal contact lenses, I must squint and strain to read labels in the grocery store, and yesterday I finally caved and set the text on my iPhone to a larger size. And then there’s the fact that it has taken me over a year to recover from a hamstring strain. 🙁

Conversations with my friends these days often revolve around health issues, like how I can expect my metabolism to slow to a near halt as I approach 50 and how arthritis might pop up in my hand joints. However, as I discuss knee replacements and shoulder surgery with my contemporaries, I realize I have quite a bit to be thankful for.

We had a very serious scare last fall: a close family member near my age suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm and spent two frightening weeks in the ICU. She has had a truly miraculous recovery, but it’s caused big changes in her life and a sobering realization for me: there are no guarantees. Every day, including every birthday, should be spent not mourning what I’ve lost but celebrating what I still have.

In the powerful novel Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein, one of the main characters is a spy who is captured and tortured by Germans during WWII. As she approaches her eminent execution, she says something I think all people who traditionally mourn birthdays after 30 should hear.

I am no longer afraid of getting old. Indeed I can’t believe I ever said anything so stupid. So childish. So offensive and arrogant.
But mainly, so very, very stupid. I desperately want to grow old.

Growing old, my friends, beats the alternative.

The birthday cake my daughter made for me.

I love working with teens, and in the past I’ve had a habit of saying to them, “Don’t get old, it stinks.” But the right advice, the thing I will say from now on, is, “Love yourself and take care of your body, because hopefully you will need it for a long time.”

I’m 46, firmly planted in middle age, with wrinkles spreading around my eyes and hands that look more like my mom’s than my own. But that’s okay. Because I’m here, with good health, a wonderful family, and dear friends. With the right habits and God’s blessing, I will be for many more years.

If you’re one who usually sees birthdays as a cause for dismay, will you please join me in celebrating the gift that each day, and each year, brings, even if wrinkles come along for the ride?

Thanks for stopping by!

Book reviews

What I Liked (and Didn’t) About The Nightingale

Posted on February 22, 2017 by Julia Tomiak / 9 Comments

I know, you’ve read enough WWII novels, but The Nightingale takes an approach I haven’t seen before, showing how women resisted the Nazis in occupied France. It’s a good “girl power” story. 😉

Premise

Sisters Vianne and Isabelle approach life differently. When their mother dies, their father, emotionally devastated by WWI, abandons them to the care of a cheerless woman in the French countryside. Vianne falls in love and marries young, embracing a quiet rural life, while reckless Isabelle gets herself thrown out of multiple schools, always rebellious and desperate to find the love she didn’t get from her family. As WWII escalates and Nazis take over France, the sisters resist the evil growing around them in ways that fit best with their opposing personalities. The Nightingale is a story of family bonds, broken and reformed, and strength in the face of terrible loss.

What I liked

The narrative alternates between the two sisters, and I liked the juxtaposition of their stories and the different ways they fought against the horrors of the war. Once the story takes off, this alternating narration adds pace and suspense. I also enjoyed reading about the courageous things women did, like leading groups of Allied pilots out of France over the Pyrenees mountains.

I’ve never read a novel about a country occupied by Germany, and it was interesting to learn about what life was like for the French living with German soldiers in their midst. Hannah shows how Nazis manipulated and bullied innocent people into their master plan. For example, French citizens were asked to name their Jewish countrymen before they knew why that would be dangerous. It made me thankful to live in a time when our omniscient social media would make it nearly impossible for hundreds of people to be bused out of Paris to an undisclosed location for unknown reasons.

German soldiers billet in Vianne’s house, one of them a sympathetic character and one of them a monster. I liked how the first one, despite his status as a Nazi officer, displays compassion and concern for Vianne and her family. It is a nice multidimensional depiction of a character in complicated circumstances.

What I didn’t like

The opening chapters, which lay the groundwork for Vianne and Isabelle’s personalities and family dynamic, felt slow. (My fellow book club members suggest getting that early section done in one sitting). Also, as to be expected with a war novel, it was very sad, and things get increasingly worse for a long time before there is a flicker of hope at the end. Hannah’s writing style seems heavy on description and felt slow compared to the quirky and sparse voice of the last novel I read, A Man Called Ove.

Recommendation

For lovers of historical fiction and war stories, The Nightingale is a good pick. However, I prefer All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr for a WWII read. I liked the characters better, there is a more equal depiction of both sides of the war, and All the Light did a great job of detailing the brainwashing and bullying that went on in the Nazi regime. Also, All the Light culminates with riveting chapters from multiple perspectives that made it impossible for me to put the novel down.

Another favorite WWII novel of mine is The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. It has an unusual style and narrator (Death) which I enjoyed but puts some readers off. I adore the overriding theme of The Book Thief: the power of words and books to bring hope and (literally) save lives.

Notes on content

Hannah does a good job of depicting the horrors of the war without getting too graphic.

If you have you read The Nightingale, what did you think? What are some other books about WWII or war that you would recommend?

Happy reading!