A delightfully informative book about letters, their meanings, and the words and meanings we derive from them.
A poet, writer of children’s books and host of BBC Radio 4’s Word of Mouth tells the history of each letter in our alphabet.
Rosen (Fighters for Life: Selected Poems, 2007, etc.) shows a capacious curiosity and imagination in a work that, in lesser hands, would glaze the eyes of all but the most nerdy language freaks. He proceeds alphabetically (duh) but also in a sort of defiantly digressive way. For each letter, the author provides—in sort of dictionary fashion—some of its history, evolution, pronunciation(s) and, for many, some “sound play” involving the letter. Regarding N, for instance, Rosen mentions “ninny,” “no-no” and “nanny” (among others). These initial pages for each letter are informative and good for reference, but the remainder of each section is even better. For example, for C, he discusses ciphers, the Enigma code and even Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I’s spymaster. For K, he spends some time with Korean and with the recent YouTube phenomenon of “Gangnam Style.” S takes us into signs and symbols, from Morse code to the International Phonetic Alphabet. And Z? ZIP codes. Along the way, we learn about Beowulf, e.e. cummings, George Bernard Shaw’s disdain for the apostrophe, our fondness for initials, a bit about that old song “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini,” the history of okay, the history of shorthand, why rhyme has an h, Noah Webster and the Urban Dictionary. Rosen also is mellow about “correctness” in usage and punctuation (“Our personal histories and feelings are wrapped up in what the letters and their means of transmission mean to each of us”) and shows little sorrow for the disappearance of handwriting in schools; in fact, he thinks our current emphasis on it doesn’t make much sense.
A delightfully informative book about letters, their meanings, and the words and meanings we derive from them.Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-1619024830
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Counterpoint
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
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Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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