Reading time: Less than 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: festschrift… I have mostly neutral feelings towards the work of American novelist Philip Roth. I’m not a huge fan, nor am I […]
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: blunderbuss… I’ve never been a huge fan of Stephen King’s writing. Well, apart from his wonderfully thoughtful and sensitive book called On
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: skirling… I love onomatopoeia — words imitating the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to. Examples? Buzz. Sizzle. Cuckoo. And when I recently encountered the word skirling, I assumed
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: lambency… I encountered the word lambency while reading Elizabeth Strout’s remarkable novel Anything is Possible. If you’re looking for a good book
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: reticule…. Even though I am moderately well read, my reading history has huge lacunae or gaps. For example, I’ve never made it
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: weltschmerz… Eleanor Oliphant — great name, isn’t it? — was my favourite literary character in 2017 and her book Eleanor Oliphant Is
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: omerta…. Remember the tale of Harvey Weinstein? I must confess, I’ve lost track about where his latest trial stands. Last I heard
Reading time: Less than 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: flummery…. When a friend recommended the book Conclave to me, I thought I was looking for a non-fiction work exploring the selection
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: doodad…. Of course, I know that a doodad is an ornamental attachment or decoration or a small article whose common name is unknown
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Reading time: Less than 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: bricolage…. I like to read the New Yorker not just for the very fine writing but also because it engages me in
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