I am unsure why this spelling error is so difficult, but it is one of the most common that I have seen.
I wish I had a quick cheat to remember which one is which (Maybe you do?) but I really don’t.
Desert is a noun, and a verb. You can desert someone (verb), or you can leave a person in the desert (noun).
Dessert is just something sweet that we all wish we could eat in excess and never pay the consequences.
Although this is not the first book in the Lucky Marks Mystery series, it is the first one I have read. (I now have the “first” book in my possession, and will be starting it soon!)
Lucky Marks is your classic detective: smart, funny, and a devil-may-care attitude. Lucky finds himself working for a film studio where he is responsible for looking for the skeletons in the actors and actresses closets before the journalists find them. While working there, he gets put on the trail of a director who seems to be a little too interested in his younger actresses. Under-age and no-way-legal actresses, that is.
It does not take long for a dead body to appear on set, and then it gets even more interesting. With a studio full of actors and actresses who could all be suspects, it is time for Lucky to put his skills to the test and find the guilty person, before anyone else gets killed.
The lovely English language has several words that can be written two ways, and mean two different things, when used properly, in two different ways. (Yes; more comma-abuse by yours-truly!)
Anymore, or any more? Awhile, or a while?
Anymore is considered a misspelling by many readers, writers, and editors. Most feel that any more is only interchangeable with any longer, and that anymore is an adjective that should never be used. Because they feel it is not a real word. As a note, when I am reading something and see this, it doesn’t make me cringe. When I am editing and see it, I change it to any more.
Awhile should only be used when it can be substituted with ‘for a while’, and still make sense.
“We waited awhile before getting our table.” or “We waited for a while before getting our table.”
This is considered an adverb.
The word ‘while’ can be used as a noun, and in this case you need to say ‘a while’, and not ‘awhile’.
“I just talked to him a while ago.” Saying “I just talked to him for a while ago,” does not make sense. This lets you know it is a noun in this sentence, and not an adverb.
I think most difficult English language situations can be figured out by substituting the word/phrase that is in question, and see if it still makes sense.
What ones trip you up?
I want to tell you I loved it; but I can’t. I am not ready to tell you I hated it, either. I tried my best to ignore all of the spoilers and media-hype as I was reading this story, and I think I was fairly successful.
But; life goes on as it always goes on, and I was well beyond distracted with work, daughters, school-things, editing, and oh, yeah: I have not been feeling well for 6+ days now.
So, I will absolutely cut Ms. Harper Lee some slack here. But I do feel that even in my most focused state of mind, I would have found this a bit difficult to read.
When I first started it, it was like a breath of fresh air: someone who wrote because they had to, and it all came natural and nothing sounded forced. But then the point-of-view was changing faster than my teenage daughters change their clothes, or minds, or attitudes; truth-be-told.
At this point I am looking forward to hearing what you thought of it. One passage that I absolutely have to share:
‘Why doesn’t their flesh creep? How can they devoutly believe everything they hear in church and then say the things they do and listen to the things they hear without throwing up? I thought I was a Christian but I’m not. I’m something else and I don’t know what. Everything I have ever taken for right or wrong these people have taught me – these same, these very people. So it’s me, it’s not them. Something has happened to me.’ (Ms. Jean Louise Finch, pg 167, Go Set a Watchman).
Did you love it, or did you hate it?
Am I the only one anxiously waiting for this new book to come out on Tuesday? It has been a long time since I waited for a book release. Like Harry-Potter-midnight-lines long time.
The Guardian has published the first chapter to this new story, and you can read it here: Go Set a Watchman Chapter One. (If my link will not work for you, like it is not working for me, copy and paste this: http://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2015/jul/10/go-set-a-watchman-read-the-first-chapter )
There is a major spoiler, or update from To Kill a Mockingbird, right from the start of this story. So if you do not want to know what that is until you have the book-in-hand, avoid anything online related to this story.
Hoping your Saturday is full of good weather, good memories, and great stories!
I think it has been about 20 years since I have read a book by Judy Blume. As always, she did not disappoint. I will be honest and say it took a few chapters before I really began having a vested interest in the characters and plot, but once I got to that point, it was difficult to put it down.
This is a fictional story, with the main action of the story revolving around real events that happened in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where Mrs. Blume grew up. There were 3 airplane crashes within a span of 58 days during the 1951-1952 school year, and Judy was an 8th grade student at the junior high school when these crashes took place.
She easily pulls together a story that spans 35 years, and many characters are introduced that play a significant role from beginning to end. The main characters are Miri, Henry, Natalie, Mason, Rusty, Irene, and Corinne, just to mention a few. Okay; just to mention several.
There is drama, suspense, romance, fighting, and all of the struggles that boys and girls go through as they become adults. No spoilers as usual, but it is definitely a story worth investing a few days of reading on.
Have you read it already? Let me know what you thought!
Have you read a story with more punctuation in it than actual words? I myself am guilty of abusing the very basic comma. You have likely noticed me doing this in my posts. Every. Single. One. I like using periods to emphasize how I am feeling as well.
You see what I did there, right? Oh; I did it again, just now.
Okay. Sorry. I am really done now.
But as I have watched, and continue to watch, my 4 daughters go through school, it is beyond obvious that the emphasis on basic grammar and language structure is nowhere near what I stressed about. They do not even have to read the books that my 3 siblings and I had to read. I am positive none of my girls have any idea what “The Scarlet Letter” is.
So I am about to unleash some random Proper-English-Etiquette-If-You-Care-To-Use-It posts.
I am pretty sure we are all going to have fun with this one 🙂
I believe this is book 5 of the 7 books I bought in the “Booktown Mystery” series of books. I enjoyed it as well as the others, but there were a couple of things that I read that just did not sit well with me.
Tricia Miles again is caught up in a murder mystery of her own, while trying to run her bookstore, “Haven’t Got a Clue”. There are many who really wish she would just mind her own business: mostly the people killing other people. Her sister, Angelica, is on a book tour promoting her new cookbook, so Tricia is watching her employees at her restaurant and bookstore. Throw in her love-life-going-down-the drain, and some sketchy behavior by her employees, and you will certainly keep turning the pages.
I am switching it up and starting a different type of genre to read next, so be on the look-out for that.
I have yet to hear from anyone who has read this series, and am curious on how you liked it if you have indeed read some of these stories?
I am about set on getting my blog where I need it, and setting up my store for all things book! There is nothing like a couple of family emergencies to make you lose your focus!
So I will be set up to edit books, which I have been doing for quite some time now; on the side. I also have personalized book bags, key chains, bracelets, and all things book.
Most of all, I am so thankful to those of you that choose to follow me. I am all about book reviews. Most of the time they are professional; but sometimes, I just have to throw out there what I thought immediately, (first impressions, right?), So I am always good for a laugh. Straight-forward, but tell-it-like-I-see-it.
But most of all… Thank you for your patience.
You are about to see a bigger-and-better Books and Opinions that will make you stand up and say…”What took you so long?”
Another brilliant book by Stephen King. He is in fine form with this sequel to “Mr. Mercedes”. The way this story ended has me nothing but hopeful that there has to be a third installment.
These books have the classic Stephen King feel to me. Fright, suspense, and a touch of paranormal and unexplainable things happening quietly in the background.
Bill Hodges is enjoying his retirement from Detective, and quite successful in his private detective business. This story picks up where “Mr. Mercedes” ended, but the focus has turned to one of the families that was devastated by the actions of Mr. Mercedes.
If you have read “Mr. Mercedes”, then some of these names will be familiar to you. If you have not read it, yet, I cannot recommend it enough. In this installment, we get more of Holly, now Hodges assistant. Jerome and Barbara are still in this story, and we get to meet Pete and Tina Saubers. Their father was seriously injuring in the City Center Massacre, and Pete finds a way to help them with their financial struggles. Although he does nothing illegal, per-se, what he does do has serious consequences for his family. It is up to Bill to save all of them.
If you have gotten to read this as well, I would love to here what you thought of it!
booksandopinions.com 