An amusing and informative study of names.
Pare, a non-native speaker, explores the idiosyncrasies of English.
Born and raised in Thailand, the author (a writer of multiple books for English learners) and her sisters attended Catholic school and took English language classes. Though both of her sisters’ names (Vilaivan and Waraporn) in Thai began with the same sound, their names in Roman script began with different letters. This quirk in English spelling sparked a curiosity in Pare that inspired this book, an exploration of English grammar, spelling, and language through the lens of names. It begins with useful information for English language–learners regarding the complexities and rules-defying grammar of names (the plural of Kennedys is never Kennedies), as well as need-to-know, culturally specific conventions related to names, such as the Western practice of maiden names. While such information may be well known to native speakers, this delightful book teems with amusing and intriguing analyses of all things names related. One section looks at commonly used words derived from personal names, such as “sandwich,” “boycott,” “panic,” and “silhouette.” Other passages discuss American naming schemes for hurricanes, how generations get their names (“Gen X” isn’t necessarily intuitive) and offer tips on how to remember the names of people we meet. Intriguing name-related facts from non-English languages are sprinkled throughout: The Mandarin names of Western banks in China, for instance, “give off the impression of wealth”—Goldman Sachs’ name, “Gao sheng,”translates to “highly prosperous,” and Wells Fargo’s translation, “Fuguo yinhang,”means “rich, country, bank.” The author excels at distilling the convolutions of English into accessible, fun lessons; even those whose first language is English will find both humor and surprising revelations in this book. The rule regarding American names, as one chapter reminds readers, is “There Are No Rules.” If you’ve ever wondered why Steven and Stephen are pronounced identically while Bette Midler and Bette Davis are pronounced differently, this book has the answer.
An amusing and informative study of names.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0977392865
Page Count: 258
Publisher: Saothai Books
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A pleasingly unformulaic book of hard-won advice that never rings false.
The comic and television personality turns serious—semi-serious, anyway—in a combination memoir and self-help book.
Handler opens these generally short essays with a memory of childhood that closes with the exhortation to keep the child within us alive into adulthood: “Hold on to that child tightly, as if she were your own, because she is.” The memory soon veers into the comically absurd, with an account of a cocaine-fueled cross-country trip with a random companion who looked like another TV personality: “I don’t know if Dog the Bounty Hunter does copious amounts of cocaine, but he sure looks like he does.” Drugs and juice are seldom far from the proceedings, but therapy is close by, too, and clearly the latter has been of tremendous use, if “exhausting in the sense that every new development or idea led to a period of intense self-awareness followed by waves of acute self-consciousness coupled with endless self-recrimination.” As the anecdotes progress, that intense self-awareness becomes less fraught. Some of her life lessons are drawn from her experiences wrestling with the yips and setbacks of performing before audiences; some turn into knowing one-liners (“I knew if three men in a row told me not to do something, it was imperative that I do the opposite”). Most, even if tongue-in-cheek or rueful, are delivered with a disarming friendliness laced with her trademark archness: Her account of a dinner opposite Woody Allen and daughter/wife Soon-Yi is worth the price of admission alone. In the main, Handler is a cheerleader for everyone worthy of cheers, and especially women. As she writes, encouragingly, “You have misbehaved, and then corrected, and then misbehaved again, and then corrected some more”—and have grown and flourished.
A pleasingly unformulaic book of hard-won advice that never rings false.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593596579
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dial Press
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
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