With dry wit and a storyteller’s eye, Roache romps through the history and social meaning of colorful language.
A senior academic offers a tongue-in-cheek examination of why, how, and when we swear.
One might expect that an author who teaches philosophy at the University of London would be on the stuffy side, but Roache, host of the Academic Perfectionist podcast, is anything but dull. Her book is a lively examination of swearing in all its forms, and although it is often humorous, Roache also has serious points to make. Swearing is sometimes meant to be offensive, but much depends on the context. It can signal solidarity within a group or class, be used to emphasize a point and denote surprise, and have a cathartic quality that prevents disputes from escalating to violence. Brain scans suggest that swearing is intuitive and automatic rather than logical, an idea that fits its emotional basis. A surprising number of researchers have looked into this field, and Roache draws together their findings. She is mainly interested in swearing in the English language, and she traces the history of the key words and underlying concepts. There have been numerous attempts to censor swearing, but they have seldom worked, and there are terms that can be more offensive than a swear word, including racial slurs. The author disdains the use of asterisks when swear words are written since everyone will know what the word is anyway. Swearing was once seen as a lower-class phenomenon, but in recent decades, it has crossed socioeconomic and gender boundaries, to the point that it might have lost its power to shock and sting. Despite this, there are still some prohibitions. Swearing in front of children and from public figures is widely considered unacceptable. Those who are easily offended might want to avoid the book, but the rest of us will find it to be an informative, entertaining read.
With dry wit and a storyteller’s eye, Roache romps through the history and social meaning of colorful language.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9780190665067
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.
Portraits in a post-pandemic world.
After the Covid-19 lockdowns left New York City’s streets empty, many claimed that the city was “gone forever.” It was those words that inspired Stanton, whose previous collections include Humans of New York (2013), Humans of New York: Stories (2015), and Humans (2020), to return to the well once more for a new love letter to the city’s humanity and diversity. Beautifully laid out in hardcover with crisp, bright images, each portrait of a New Yorker is accompanied by sparse but potent quotes from Stanton’s interviews with his subjects. Early in the book, the author sequences three portraits—a couple laughing, then looking serious, then the woman with tears in her eyes—as they recount the arc of their relationship, transforming each emotional beat of their story into an affecting visual narrative. In another, an unhoused man sits on the street, his husky eating out of his hand. The caption: “I’m a late bloomer.” Though the pandemic isn’t mentioned often, Stanton focuses much of the book on optimistic stories of the post-pandemic era. Among the most notable profiles is Myles Smutney, founder of the Free Store Project, whose story of reclaiming boarded‑up buildings during the lockdowns speaks to the city’s resilience. In reusing the same formula from his previous books, the author confirms his thesis: New York isn’t going anywhere. As he writes in his lyrical prologue, “Just as one might dive among coral reefs to marvel at nature, one can come to New York City to marvel at humanity.” The book’s optimism paints New York as a city where diverse lives converge in moments of beauty, joy, and collective hope.
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781250277589
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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