Female characters

Gender Across Borders posted this fantastic flowchart that shows the usual stereotypes of female characters.  (You should be able to enlarge the image by clicking on it.)  The original focus was on film and television characters, but I'm curious about books.  See if you can trace a particular female character from a novel you've read across this chart, and then tell me about it.

Two more library books

The History of Love ~ by Nicole Krauss, 2005

Synopsis:  A long-lost book reappears, mysteriously connecting an old man searching for his son and a girl seeking a cure for her widowed mother's loneliness.

I like books about books.  I'm thinking about People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, a 2008 book I read with my online Book Buddies discussion group.

The Classic Guide to Better Writing: Step-by-Step Techniques and Exercises to Write Simply, Clearly and Correctly ~ by Rudolf Flesch and A. H. Lass, 1996

This is the most recent incarnation of the book published in 1947.  The titles have changed, but this 50th anniversary edition is basically the same as the small 1963 paperback I've had for decades, with one small addition:  a three-page chapter on "Bias-Free Language."  The cost has risen, though.

The Way to Write (1947), the original title, cost $3.95 in hardback.
A New Guide to Better Writing (1963), a small paperback version, cost 75 cents.
The Classic Guide to Better Writing (1996), the 50th anniversary paperback, cost $9.95 then, and $13.95 now.

Write It Right ~ peaked, peeked, piqued

Three times in as many days, I've run across a word I haven't seen (or maybe haven't noticed) in years.  Two of the three times it was misspelled.

• "His curiosity was peaked by the mysterious lady."
• "That peeked my interest."
• "I was both piqued and relieved to find that my little peccadillo had caused my siblings so much mirth."

A peak is the pointed top of something, like Mount Fuji (above).  It's the high point, as in a machine running at peak performance. To peek at something is to take a quick look, as when we play peek-a-boo with a baby or peek from behind a newspaper.


The word the writers of the first two examples above wanted was "piqued."  To pique can mean to excite, as in arousing curiosity, interest, or resentment.  These children have definitely become curious about the ... whatever it is.

If I've piqued your interest, click this link to read a clever post about these three words.  You may also want to peek here to see a photo of President Barack Obama playing peek-a-boo with a baby.

This Write It Right post is part of my new series about words and writing.

Kiki's day! (I mean, Caturday!)

Bonnie kept the computer busy last week during the 24-Hour Readathon, so I did my Caturday thing within her long-long-long post.  My thing was posing for this awesome picture of me reading my Dewey book.

Today, instead of telling you more about Dewey, I want to share a wonderful idea.  I found that picture (above) in something Susan Gregg Gilmore wrote about her visit to Malaprop's Bookstore in Asheville, North Carolina (wherever that is).  I don't know what espresso is, but isn't it a great idea to give kittens to children?  That's so nice!  I hope the owner gives kittens only to well-behaved children who will love them and take care of them.  That reminds me ... I need to go find Bonnie and let her know I really, really need some treats after all my hard work posting this for you, my adoring readers.

Kiki Cat, signing off

Exhausted

Not even being tired can slow down my interest in playing with words.  (I'm thinking about yesterday, when I was so exhausted I fell asleep.)  I love that somebody came up with a whole sentence in the word EXHAUSTED:  "Haste has exhausted us."

Two library books this week ~ and trees in Brooklyn

I ran over to the library to return two books and pick up two others I'd put on hold:  Rain Is Not My Indian Name by Cynthia Leitich Smith (2001) and The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher (2005).  But I'm most likely to start reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (1943), which I need to read so I can provide questions for my online Book Buddies.  I did manage to finish -- and review! -- the other two books I had out (Sophomore Switch and Dream When You're Feeling Blue), and now with a long weekend because of Fall Break at Chattanooga State, I hope to catch up on both reading and sleep.  It's time.

First, an update on A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.  I taught my two writing classes at Chattanooga State this morning, came home tired, ate lunch, and stretched out to start reading.  The book was published in 1943, but Anna Quindlen's Foreword was copyrighted in 2001.  I flipped the pages, deciding I could read Quindlen's five pages plus the six short chapters of Book One, a mere 54 pages, but I fell asleep before finishing the first page, which has only two paragraphs!  Must be tired, huh?  I'd say so, since I napped a solid six hours.  I made supper and read all the way to the second page of the Foreword, where I found Quindlen's remarks about the tree, the one that grows in Brooklyn:

"All of this takes place in the life of Francie Nolan, who is eleven years old when her story opens in the summer of 1912, in a third-floor walk-up apartment in the shadow of the hardy urban ailanthus tree..." (page viii).

I stopped to get online and look it up.  The ailanthus tree, also known as the Tree of Heaven, is "native to Asia and northern Australia.  It was introduced into England from China in the mid-18th century as an ornamental, migrating to the United States in 1874."  I found pictures of the tree and decided to get online to share them with everybuddy (especially my Book Buddies).  So here I am at almost 8:00 in the evening, and I've managed to read a whole three-and-a-half paragraphs of the book.  The Foreword, actually.  I haven't even gotten to Francie yet.  With just under 500 pages to go, I'd better finish this post and start reading!

What about the two library books?  Never mind them.  I'll tell you about those when I start reading them.  Maybe I'll tell you after reading only a paragraph or two.

Dream When You're Feeling Blue ~ by Elizabeth Berg, 2007

I've read several books by Elizabeth Berg, though only one other since I've been reviewing books here on my blog:  The Pull of the Moon (1996).  My favorite of Berg's books is still Talk Before Sleep (1994). 

Dream When You're Feeling Blue (2007) is not one of my favorites, though it did help me understand what it was like to have a loved one fighting in World War Two.  The overall mood seemed to be boredom, which is also the feeling I had while reading over and over and over that the three sisters -- Kitty and Louise and Tish -- sat down every night to write to their men.

Before I'd read twenty pages, I was reminded of two other books.  This quote (from page 10) made me think of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (1943):

"Louise needed to stop thinking about herself.  She could think about her job as teacher's aide, or her friends, or their three little brothers, only eight, eleven, and thirteen but out almost every day with their wagon, collecting for the metal drive.  They got a penny a pound, and they'd raised more money for war bonds than any other kids in their Chicago neighborhood -- they'd even had their pictures in the newspaper."

Edward R. Murrow

The children in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn also collected scrap metal.  This quote (from page 19) reminded me of Frankie Bard, a character in The Postmistress by Sarah Blake (2010), who worked with Murrow:

"She [Margaret] went into the parlor to sit with her husband and listen to the radio.  Edward R. Murrow was a must for both of them."

I finished the book, so I guess I'll rate it 6/10, above average.