Bradley Chalkers IS the oldest kid in the fifth grade. He tells enormous lies. He picks fights with girls. No one likes him—except Carla, the new school counselor. She thinks Bradley is sensitive and generous, and knows that Bradley could change, if only he weren’t afraid to try. But when you feel like the most-hated kid in the whole school, believing in yourself can be the hardest thing in the world. . . .
And so this bohemian tale is complete, it aspired to being a mere interlude of sentiment, it delivered as promised, it had no conclusion, only a wry look at a brief moment of time that eclipsed the rest in its value but only at that time, but it clearly took Dominic into an affray he neither sought nor wished for. Its benefits were obvious and it’s pain indescribable, but none of these mattered to those who did not care to know. It was just another tale of the human condition that continued in some form of ascent into perhaps more delusion or perhaps not, this time.
When Dolly Magnuson moves to Pine Rapids, Wisconsin, in 1950, she discovers all too soon that making marriage work is harder than it looks in the pages of the Ladies’ Home Journal. Dolly tries to adapt to her new life by keeping the house, supporting her husband’s career, and fretting about dinner menus. She even gives up her dream of flying an airplane, trying instead to fit in at the stuffy Ladies Aid quilting circle. Soon, though, her loneliness and restless imagination are seized by the vacant house on the hill.
This book is an indispensable companion for all who care about saying what they mean and meaning what they say. It is a sophisticated guide to the conquest of jargon, clumsy locutions, tired words and phrases, and hackneyed cliches. This zesty work on good and bad usage is a needed corrective to the misuse and abuse of language. It includes hundreds of examples of the faddish and the too familiar, and offers wise and often witty counsel on how to use the English language with freshness, vigor, clarity, and confidence. Entries include Back Formations, Barnyard Metaphors, Crackerbarrel Terms, Drone Words, Dumbstruck Expressions, Fossil Phrases, Null Sounds, Toy Words, Tranquilizer Cliches.
A follow-up to Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic series.
As in all previous Shopaholic books, Rebecca is loud and proud about her luxury-brand obsession and equally at ease being a flighty, sometimes annoying lead, though her well-meaning secret birthday mission scores her much-needed points in the sympathy department. Series fans know what to expect and will get it by the Birkin-load.
