Sunday, April 14, 2013

Sunday Salon ~ nerds, words, and books

Am I the only one who know what an Oxford comma is?  If you know, please tell me in the comments.  Here's where I found Nerd Quirks.

WORDS

Calvin and Hobbes are among my favorite philosophers, along with Linus and his blanket.  It makes perfectly good sense that we toast with toast.  (Click the cartoon to enlarge it, if it's too small to read.)  Do you remember any words from your childhood that you didn't quite understand?

BOOKS

Mom and Me and Mom ~ by Maya Angelou, 2013, memoir
The story of Maya Angelou’s extraordinary life has been chronicled in her multiple bestselling autobiographies.  But now, at last, the legendary author shares the deepest personal story of her life:  her relationship with her mother.  For the first time, Angelou reveals the triumphs and struggles of being the daughter of Vivian Baxter, an indomitable spirit whose petite size belied her larger-than-life presence — a presence absent during much of Angelou’s early life.  When her marriage began to crumble, Vivian famously sent three-year-old Maya and her older brother away from their California home to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas.  The subsequent feelings of abandonment stayed with Angelou for years, but their reunion, a decade later, began a story that has never before been told.   In this memoir, Angelou dramatizes her years reconciling with the mother she preferred to simply call “Lady,” revealing the profound moments that shifted the balance of love and respect between them.  Delving into one of her life’s most rich, rewarding, and fraught relationships, this book explores the healing and love that evolved between the two women over the course of their lives, the love that fostered Maya Angelou’s rise from immeasurable depths to reach impossible heights.
This is my most recent library request.  I read and loved some of Maya Angelou’s books, so I'm really looking forward to this newest one.  Here are some of my favorites:
  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings ~ by Maya Angelou, 1969
  • The Heart of a Woman ~ by Maya Angelou, 1981
  • All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes ~ by Maya Angelou, 1986
  • Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now ~ by Maya Angelou, 1993
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4 comments:

Helen's Book Blog said...

I have no idea what an Oxford comma is, but I am going to ask my dad. He went to Oxford, :-), and is a bit of a grammar fanatic!

Wendy said...

Oxford Comma: the comma before the "and" in a list of three or more items, as in your post title. It's helpful for clarity of meaning, and I'm a little obsessive, annoying, and obnoxious about it.

Bonnie Jacobs said...

Helen, I hope you'll come back and tell us what you dad's response was.

Wendy, you are definitely my kind of people! Not only did you define it correctly, but I also love the example you picked — even if I did not think of it as I wrote out my post title. I do it automatically, having long since chosen it as my default punctuation for lists. The Oxford comma is never wrong, and it often keeps readers from the confusion of trying to sort out the words in order to understand the writer.

Ginnie said...

It's completely new to me ! I don't think I've ever even heard of Oxford commas. You guys are way beyond me !