Musing about a couple of words

Someone left this comment on one of my posts recently:

"That first line grab my attrition.  The summary of the book has me intrigue."

My first thought was that the person is not a native English speaker (no past tense for either verb).  My second thought was that "attrition" and "intrigue" are interesting word choices that would NOT be used by someone who knows very little English.  Later, I also wondered if AI (artificial intelligence) had something to do with the comment.  Here are those two words defined:

attrition / əˈtriSHən / noun = Attrition is the gradual reduction or wearing away of something, commonly referring to workforce reduction (by employees leaving or being fired), loss of participants in research, or weakening of an enemy through constant pressure in warfare (war of attrition).  It happens due to various factors like retirement, poor management, lack of advancement (in business), or simply friction and erosion (in nature).

  

intrigue / verb / inˈtriɡ = As a verb, intrigue means to arouse someone's curiosity or interest in something, to captivate someone's attention or make them want to know more.

*Note:  I'm sure the person who commented meant "attention" for the first word I listed above, as in this second definition, so the first line had grabbed his or her attention.

Another week flew by

Sophie's Choice ~ by William Styron, 1976, literary fiction, 576 pages

An online comment says that "despite the title, the Polish refugee Sophie is not the principal character.  This honor is given to the narrator, a 22-year-old writer from the South, nicknamed Stingo but clearly the author himself, come up to try his luck in the big city."

Three stories are told here:  (1) a young Southerner wants to become a writer; (2) a turbulent love-hate affair between a brilliant Jew and a beautiful Polish woman; and (3) an awful wound in that woman's past — one that impels both Sophie and Nathan toward destruction.

I've never read this book, partly because of the length (576 pages).  If you've read it, tell me whether you think it's worth the time for this heavy book that has been donated to our small Crown Center library.

• On Monday, I mused about finding lost things, HERE.
• TWOsday's subject was monkeys on the loose in St. Louis, HERE.
• On Wednesday, my subject was library loot, HERE.
• Friday's Book Beginnings was from a book about a half orphan, HERE.
• On Saturday, I wrote about visiting the Mauhaus Cat Cafe, HERE.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Mauhaus Cat Cafe

My neighbor Larry took me to Mauhaus Cat Cafe on Thursday, and this black cat seemed to be the one who was most willing to approach us to be petted.

Here's Larry taking a close-up photo of the same cat.  I simply zoomed in on any who didn't want to be close to me, but he is still using a flip phone without that feature.  This cat made a big leap onto a high walkway near the ceiling.  Do you think maybe it was showing off, hoping to go home with us?  It got our attention.

Beginning ~ with a half orphan

Beginning

Sometimes I wonder:  What does it mean to be a half orphan?

The First True Lie ~ by Marina Mander, translated by Stephen Twilley, 2013, fiction (Italy), 144 pages

This a novel about a young boy named Luca who, after his mother dies, hides her body in their apartment to avoid being sent to an orphanage, pretending she is still alive while navigating his grief and loneliness with his cat, Blue, and his love for words.  This book is a heartbreaking coming-of-age story told from Luca's unique, often foul-mouthed, perspective as he struggles with the trauma and isolation of his situation.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

My latest library loot ~ have you read this book?

The Bridge of San Luis Rey ~ by Thornton Wilder, 1927, historical fiction (Peru), 133 pages

In eighteenth-century Peru, the collapse of a fabled bridge sets in motion a profound exploration of fate, love, and the interconnectedness of human lives.  The story centers around Brother Juniper, a devout Franciscan monk who witnesses the accident and becomes obsessed with understanding the workings of divine providence.  Motivated by his belief that the bridge's collapse was not a random event, he embarks on a quest to investigate the lives of the five victims who perished in the tragedy.  Through meticulous research and interviews, Brother Juniper uncovers the fascinating and often intertwined backstories of the victims:  

1. the Marquesa de Montemayor;
2. her companion Pepita, a young orphan;
3. Esteban, a scribe involved in a complicated love story;
4. Uncle Pio, the devoted valet of actress Camila Perichole;
5. and Jaime, her son.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey was Thornton Wilder's second novel, published when he was just thirty, and it won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1928.  He poses profound questions about the nature of existence, the role of chance, and whether an elusive hand of destiny shapes our lives.

Wilder sets the action in Lima, Peru, in 1714, where a Franciscan monk witnesses the collapse of a bridge that has stood for over a century, killing the five people on it.  The priest becomes determined to develop a scientific method for calculating what personality characteristics the five might have shared that would make God ready to call them to him.  In the novel, Brother Juniper spends years compiling data about each victim in order to draw his conclusions.

Almost since its first publication, The Bridge of San Luis Rey has been recognized as a literary masterpiece.  Its unique mixture of the spiritual with the humane has given readers throughout the decades a point of reference when considering the apparent horrors that can occur in a world that is explained increasingly through cold scientific eyes.  In his memorial tribute to the victims of the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, British prime minister Tony Blair quoted from the book, and since then it has become even more popular, as the world has struggled to reconcile faith with catastrophe.

Monkeys on the loose in St. Louis

1.  Monkeys?

Well, actually, monkeys are loose in NORTH St. Louis.  I didn't read about it until Monday morning, but apparently Animal Control announced it on Friday afternoon.  Then I learned that exotic animals are prohibited in the city of St. Louis.  I never knew that, either, but then why should I?  I've never considered getting a pet monkey.  You can read about it HERE, where the news specifies exactly where those monkeys are:

"Missouri’s Department of Health confirmed that the primates are in or around O’Fallon Park."  (See the park in the photo above.)

Owning exotic animals in St. Louis is banned by city ordinance.  For the record, I'm not technically in the city of St. Louis.  I live in a suburb, so those monkeys are nowhere near me.  Miles away, unless they somehow hitched a ride; but it's about a 20 minutes drive to get to my part of town from there.

2.  Residents

What is my second of today's TWOsday subjects?  Hmmm.  Oh, yeah, meeting people (not monkeys).  Yesterday, I met a new man who had just moved here (he silently counted on his fingers) "nine days ago."  He lives in the other building, but it's connected to my building by a link that allows us to look left and right, to the front parking lot and the back patio where we have trees and planters and lots of places to sit (when it's warm enough) while we talk or enjoy the air and the birds who come to our feeder.  In this photo, all the windows on the left, leading to the main entrance, are part of the link between our buildings.  The windows line both sides of the link, with these looking out over the parking lot.

What I'm musing about today

Most of my musing is about what is in the books I'm reading, but sometimes I muse about the strange or unusual things people say and do.  Today, I'm thinking about a phrase I'm sure we have all heard, about finding what you are searching for in "the last place you think to look."  Of course, it's in the last place, because once you find that lost item you quit looking.

Which dictionary do you prefer? Here is mine:

Webster's All-In-One Dictionary & Thesaurus, Second Edition ~ created by the Editors of Merriam-Webster, 2013, dictionary-thesaurus, 776 pages

It is easier than ever to find the right words! This fully integrated dictionary and thesaurus features dictionary entries with part of speech and word meanings as well as pronunciation and usage guidance. Thesaurus entries include synonym and antonym lists.  This is the one I use when playing Bananagrams or Scrabble.

• On Monday, I wrote about motivation, HERE.
• On Wednesday, my subject was how my WAY of writing has changed over the years, HERE.  My Wednesday Word was "change."
• Friday's Book Beginnings was from a book by Ursula LeGuin, HERE.  She's an excellent writer.
• On Saturday, I wrote that we'd had good weather, HERE.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

We've had good weather this week

The sun will shine in my windows later,

and I'm trying to decide what to read next.

Beginning ~ on the island of Gont

Beginning

The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the storm-racked Northeast Sea, is a land famous for wizards.

A Wizard of Earthsea (Book 1 of 6 of the Earthsea Cycle) ~ by Ursula K. Le Guin, 2012, YA fantasy, 299 pages

Ged was the greatest sorcerer in Earthsea, but in his youth he was the reckless Sparrowhawk.  In his hunger for power and knowledge, he tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world.

This is the tumultuous tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.

With stories as perennial and universally beloved as The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings — but also unlike anything but themselves — Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea novels are some of the most acclaimed and awarded works in literature.  They have received accolades such as the National Book Award, a Newbery Honor, the Nebula Award, and many more honors, commemorating their enduring place in the hearts and minds of readers and the literary world.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Once upon a time . . .

Once upon a time, I used a pencil to put words on a page with a rubber

eraser on the top of that pencil to correct mistakes or to change the wording.

I took a typing class in junior high school and was faster at producing words.  I also remember having to erase mistakes while hoping not to ruin the whole page and have to start over completely on that sheet of paper rolled into the clickety-clack old typewriter.  It was NOT electric.  It sometimes meant crumpling up the whole page and throwing it away whether I used pencil, pen, or typewriter.

Now I use a laptop to write, skipping all that mess.  With a laptop I edit before the words ever appear on paper.  Much more efficient.  Yes, articles I've written appeared in my local newspaper back in the last century.  I have also had things I've written published in Baby Talk magazine and other places.  What I write on this blog goes all over the world, but I don't blog to get paid.  I blog to share books with friends, most of whom I've never met, but have gotten to know over the years as we read each other's posts.  It is definitely a different world now than the one I was born into in 1940.  My Wednesday Word today is "change."

What motivates you today?

What motivated you to get up this morning, to get up and get going?

That M in my Monday Motivation illustration looks daunting, doesn't it?

Does reading the next chapter of your book make you want to get up, maybe to eat breakfast with a book in one hand?  Also, what are you reading?

An attitude of gratitude today

Since I've started doing the Action for Happiness prompts in this new year (see HERE), I looked to see what I should be doing today and it says I should write a list of things I feel grateful for and why.  So today I'll try to remember to think about gratitude and make a list.  For starters, I'm grateful that it has gotten warmer today and is much too warm for snow.  A cloudy day with sunshine.

• On Monday, I mused about "one more thing," HERE.
• Wednesday Words were the words of the year from Oxford, Dictionary.com, and Merriam-Webster, HERE.
• My Thursday Thoughts were about the New Year, HERE.
• Friday's Book Beginnings, HERE, was from Endangered Words.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Beginning ~ with the Preface

Beginning

The seed for this book was planted four years ago.  I was reading Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue and among its countless treasures I discovered a word (which you will learn in due course) whose unfashionably flaccid meaning quite transfixed me:  "a mild desire, a wish or urge too slight to lead to action."

Endangered Words: A Collection of Rare Gems for Word Lovers ~ by Simon Hertnon, 2009, vocabulary, 224 pages

When a word perfectly captures a human truth, humans respond to it in the same way that they respond to a beautiful melody.  They smile.  They nod their heads.  They tell others of their discovery.  So says Simon Hertnon in his introduction to Endangered Words.  He provides one hundred hand-selected rarities and breathes life into them with his lucid descriptions of their meaning and engaging examples of their usage.

Thanks to this book, you won't have to be at a loss for words or reach for the clichéd and commonplace.  The English language is brimming with alternatives, and this book offers the cream of the crop.  Filled with words to be treasured for their elegant precision, this is the perfect handbook for writers and an fun read for anyone with an appetite for the very brightest gems of the English language.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Doing Action for Happiness again ~ Happier January

Click to enlarge the calendar so you can see each day's idea.  Today's says, "Find three things to look forward to this year."  Okay, I'm thinking and putting them here for my Thursday Thoughts.  What do I look forward to?

    1.  I look forward to warm weather again.

    2.  I look forward to making new friends.

    3.  I look forward to making life better for someone.

Thoughts for the New Year

Well, this is the day I start reading a page a day of quotes selected by Andy Cohen that I told you about recently, HERE.  Glitter Every Day is filled with quotes that inspired the author.

On the very first day, he quotes his own mother!  I think she was probably happy her son actually paid attention to what she said, and now I wonder if my own children remember things I said to them when they were young.