Diary of a Word Nerd

Favorite Books of 2016

Posted on December 12, 2016 by Julia Tomiak / 8 Comments

A HUGE thank you to everyone who contributed suggestions to my Favorite Books of 2016 Giveaway. I love getting help from you each year because it generates an eclectic list of titles. If we kept it to my ideas, sci fi and nonfiction would get neglected. I quoted comments that describe the books and why they were appealing; this post has many contributing authors. (Thank you every one!)

Speaking of comments, congratulations to the winner of this year’s Favorite Books Giveaway:

Megan Kinney

Megan, please email me the name of the book you would like to receive and where I should ship it.

Enjoy this list for gifting and personal pleasure:

Memoir

Driving Hungry by Layne Mosler “It’s a memoir that’s part travel writing, restaurant review, and cultural study, and love story. I enjoyed it all!”

Beginning French: Lessons from a Stone Farmhouse by Les Americans. “It’s about a California couple buying an old farmhouse in southern France and living there part of each year.”

Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes. “Ms Rhimes is an introvert (not surprising for a writer but surprising for her position in Hollywood), and she decided that she needed to make some changes in her life. I could relate to her fears and trepidation. It is written in a casual style that I found enjoyable.”

You’ll Grow Out of It by Jessi Klein “Jessi Klein is a comedy writer, but her memoir proves she can pen much more than one liners. Each essay is honest and real, and covers everything from her tomboy childhood, her dating life, to her quest for the perfect wedding dress. It’s a relatable, honest, and very funny book.”

Historical Fiction

The Moon in the Palace & The Empress of Bright Moon by Weina Dai Randel

The Clifton Chronicles by Jeffrey Archer

Science Fiction

14 by Peter Clines “A delicious thriller of a science fiction novel. It features a very strange apartment building where every unit is unique, with strange asymmetrical cockroaches, cold spots, cryptic writing behind the wallpaper, and most intriguing of all, Unit 14 is padlocked shut.

Into the Dark by JA Sutherland. “Ships, captains, shipmates, sailing, naval adventures, pirates, enemies, New London, loved ones, action, drama, suspense, and a heroine – ALL SET IN DEEP SPACE. I thought it was brilliant, unique, and entertaining as the young heroine faces enemies from without and surprisingly from within.”

Fiction

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving “There is never a dull moment as it follows the two main characters from childhood to adulthood. It is funny, sad, touching, poignant, thought provoking, and thoroughly entertaining.”

Faithful by Alice Hoffman

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury “A stunning and haunting coming-of-age.”

The Overton Window by Glenn Beck (Political thriller) Seamlessly weaving together American history, frightening facts about America’s present condition, and a fast-placed plot, Glenn’s new thriller will educate, enlighten, and, most importantly, entertain his fans in a whole new way. [Goodreads]

A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas (YA fantasy) “A perfect blend of fantasy and romance, with some thrills and high stakes thrown in. The beautiful writing with flawless phrasing is what hooked me.”

The Walk by Richard Paul Evans (Christian fiction). A life-changing journey, both physical and spiritual, The Walk is the first of several books about one man’s search for hope. [Goodreads]

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (Thriller). “I liked the suspense. The main character had so many flaws and you just had to finish to see if what was happening was real and how it ended.”

Hurt by Tabitha Suzuma (YA contemporary). “It’s worth reading, well-written.”

The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty

Blue by Danielle Steel “Not deep, but a nice story.”

Nonfiction

Hamilton, the Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and 11 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. It tells the story of a revolution – the one that founded this story, but also how this brilliant story came to be.

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien This book tells the horrors, the friendship, the fear and the shame of the Vietnam war with brutal honesty.

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabelle Wilkerson

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain Non-fiction about, well, introversion and all that makes introverts tick. Highly recommended if you are an introvert or know/love one.

Becoming Grandmother by Lesley Stahl

Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer. “It’s a heavy book and it’s difficult to read, but it was very good and it shows different perspectives of situations these students had to deal with. … a thought-provoking read that brings up some important points that all women, but especially college-age girls like me, should think about.”

Kidlit

The Inquisitor’s Apprentice by Chris Moriarty Wonderful voice, great setting descriptions, and some deep questions.

For more reading suggestions, check out Goodreads Choice Award Winners for 2016. Winners include Liane Moriarty’s Truly, Madly, Guilty, Harry Potter, and Stephen King’s latest.

Do any of these books appeal to you? I’ve added several to my Goodreads “Want to Read” shelf while compiling this post. Thanks again, everyone!

Improving vocabulary

The Underestimated Power of Stationery

Posted on December 7, 2016 by Julia Tomiak / 19 Comments

People don’t write letters much anymore. In a world of tweets, texts, and emojis, letters seem slow and antiquated. And yet, there is something exciting about finding a hand written note in the mailbox! It says someone actually took the time to find stationery, sit down, and write a few thoughts on paper. Wow.

I’m not the only one who believes this. If I were, we all wouldn’t spend precious time and money sending holiday cards every year. There’s something about a hard copy card and a hand written note that we just can’t give up. But I’d argue that hand written notes, and the stationery we pen them on, should have a place all the time, not just December.

Written letters connect us across time and distance. My daughter exchanges lengthy letters with her Nana, and she’s learned many interesting things about my mother in law through this pen-pal relationship. Best of all, she will always have Nana’s letters to turn to for stories and wisdom. My grandmother and mother passed out of my life years ago, but I still have letters from each of them that I treasure. It’s especially nice having samples of their handwriting, unique and personal remnants of their lives.

An example of stationery you can find at Zazzle.com

So, for a Word Nerdy gift this holiday season, I suggest personalized stationery. You can lose hours researching stationery on the Internet, so let me save you some time. I found the most affordable customizable stationery at Zazzle.com, but it doesn’t come with envelopes. (I’m just gonna pick up some invitation sized envelopes at Walmart.) If you’re willing to pay more, you can find classy and stylish stationery and cards at tinyprints.com and vistaprint.com, envelopes included. Expect to pay at least $1-$2 per sheet/card, and look for holiday promotions.

Word Nerd Note: Up until a few months ago, I didn’t realize that stationery, or writing paper, is spelled differently than stationary, the adjective that means “lack of movement”. Stationery comes from the noun stationer, which is a person or store that sells stationery; years ago stationer meant bookseller or publisher. When you need help with spelling, remember that paper has “er” in it, and so does stationery. (For more interesting facts about words, visit Kathy at Bermuda Onion for Wondrous Words Wednesday.)

What are your thoughts on writing letters, and would you like to give or receive personalized stationery as a gift?

Thanks for sharing!

Book reviews/How to encourage reading

What Was Your Favorite Book of 2016?

Posted on December 2, 2016 by Julia Tomiak / 21 Comments

It’s holiday time again, and I’m trying hard not to freak out about the “December to do list”. Husband tells me every year, “You always get everything done. Why do you get so worked up about this?” Ah, dear hubby, the devil is in the details, on multiple levels. Do details threaten to unravel you, too, as December unfolds? I have a plan to help us approach the holiday season with a little more joy and a little less cranky.

The Word Nerd Plan

The first part of the plan errs on the “nerdy” side; it’s a spreadsheet. Yes, I actually have a spreadsheet that I use each year to help me remember who I need to buy gifts for and what I’d like to give them. It takes just a few minutes to whip up this gift guide, with a column for names, a column for ideas and a small column for “Yes, did that!”. If you have a lot of loved ones you like to remember at the holidays, but struggle to actually remember all them, make a spreadsheet and fill in the blanks. It will give you a huge sense of accomplishment.

The second part of the plan gets into the “wordy”. I love giving books as gifts. They are easy to mail, reusable, instructive, and entertaining. Besides, buying books supports writers and the publishing industry, and we all want to keep books around, right? The problem: finding proper books for each person on your spreadsheet. Here’s where Diary of a Word Nerd can help.

Today I’m starting the Favorite Books Giveaway for 2016. Here’s how it works. Tell me your favorite book from 2016 and the reason you liked it. I’ll add your book to a list of recommendations and your name to a drawing of potential winners. In the end, we’ll have a collection of fabulous book titles to use as a shopping guide, and one lucky reader will have a new book to read.

Favorite Books of 2016: Giveaway details

You may enter the giveaway by commenting on my blog, my Facebook profile, my Twitter feed, or my Instagram Favorite Book post by December 12, 2016.
Your comment must include your favorite book from 2016 and a short explanation of why you recommend it. All genres welcome.
The book doesn’t have to be published in 2016, just read in 2016.
I will announce the winner on Monday, December 12, 2016 with the full list of favorites. That will give you plenty of shopping time. 😉
The giveaway winner must choose a book and provide mailing address.

The first suggestion

I love Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty and have given it as a gift several times this year with enthusiastic responses. My book club enjoyed it as well. Moriarty combines wit, sensitivity, and suspense in this novel about an unexpected death at a primary school fundraiser. Using multiple points of view, Moriarty cleverly dispenses clues to her mystery while also exploring sensitive issues like domestic abuse and assault. There’s a foreboding sense of doom that hangs over the novel and keeps the pages turning, but Big Little Lies balances the dark themes with hilarious and accurate commentary on domestic life and the challenges of parenting and marriage.

I listened to the audio book of Big Little Lies, which is performed perfectly by Caroline Lee. However, audio books don’t gift well, so for the holidays, I recommend a hard copy.

Now it’s your turn. What was your favorite book of 2016 and why. Please share this post to social media so that we can get a lot of responses and a giant list of ideas.

Thanks for sharing!

How to encourage reading/News from book business

Another Reason to Join Goodreads: E-book Deals

Posted on November 22, 2016 by Julia Tomiak / 4 Comments

It’s the week of Thanksgiving. You’ve got pies to bake and clothes to wash, and you’re so tired of running around that you can’t wait to sit down and read a great book – either on the road to the in-laws or while the family is sitting around after turkey time to discuss the outcome of the election. Unfortunately, you’ve don’t have time to go to the bookstore or the library to grab an entertaining novel you can lose yourself in.

This is when Goodreads Deals come in handy.

About a month ago, I started getting emails about “Goodreads Daily Deals.” Every day, Goodreads sends me snippets about five or so books that are selling for a super deal- usually three bucks or less. Just yesterday, my email included a deal for Be Frank with Me by Julia Clairborne Johnson, pitched as “perfect for fans of Where’d You Go, Bernadette”. (This just happens to be one of my favorite books.) There were also two YA novels that looked appealing.

Initially, I thought this would be a great way to get Christmas presents for my friends and family. Unfortunately, the deals are only for e-books, in various formats including Kindle, Nook, iBooks, and Google Play. Now I understand that it’s a great way to get e-books really cheap.

Here’s how it works:
If you haven’t already, join Goodreads! It’s free, and there are plenty of great reasons to do so, like keeping track of books you read, saving books you want to read, finding reviews of books you’re going to read. See my Goodreads Guide for Word Nerds and Goodreads: How to Add Books for details.
Get the technology to read e-books. You can use a Kindle app, a Kindle, a Nook, etc.
It’s easy to pick your preferences for notifications.

Set up your preferences in Goodreads Deals. You can choose to get notifications about books on your “Want to Read” shelf and authors that you follow. You can also select genres you like the Deals settings. For example, I have young adult, fiction, best sellers, and mystery and thrillers picked in my settings.
Watch for the emails.

I researched Be Frank with Me. It was released earlier in 2016, and overall it gets favorable reviews and sounds like a story I’d enjoy. I bought it through the Kindle store and sent it to my Kindle Cloud so I can access it on my iPhone (with the Kindle app), on hubby’s Kindle, or on the iPad. Since I picked the Kindle format, I was charged through my Amazon account.

Speaking of hubby, he hasn’t read a book in a while, so I’ll be on the watch for a good thriller to grab his attention and reset his healthy bedtime habit. Hah! I can still use it to get books for other people.

Goodreads promises that more genres will be included soon, and I hope that includes Kid Lit. My kids are usually the one begging me for books last minute. This could come in really handy, especially over the holiday break.

The only downside to this program? The daily email. I get overwhelmed easily and already delete a fair amount of spam every day. However, it looks like it’s easy to unsubscribe from Goodreads Deals – just click the link at the bottom of the email.

Have you tried Goodreads Deals? What did you think? Where do you go to get cheap e-books?

Thanks for sharing!

Who I Am

Medicine for My Soul

Posted on November 15, 2016 by Julia Tomiak / 9 Comments

For this month’s installment of the Who I Am project, Dana and Bev asked participants to write about Medicine for the Soul. This prompt couldn’t come at a better time.

I’ve just wrapped up a full season of fall sports: three kids running cross country and three kids playing soccer. Note, I only have four children; you figure out the math. I’ve also been fully enmeshed in coaching cross country – a thing I love and that definitely fills my soul – but all that time committed to snack requests and Milesplit means I’ve put off important, but less enjoyable, things, like balancing checkbooks and making appointments. Now I face a lengthy and intimidating to-do list that doesn’t even include Christmas tasks. Kinda makes me want to go for a run… and not come back.

Thank you, Dana and Bev, for forcing me to contemplate the things that fill my spirit and bring me joy just when I need them the most. Here are a few of them:

Being Creative It’s taken me until middle age to appreciate that my soul requires creative activity. Not just “likes” it, but requires it. In the past, that meant drawing with pencils and pastels or painting with acrylics. Now, with less time for cleaning brushes, my creativity takes the form of writing and photography. Stringing words together brings great pleasure, perhaps because I’m focusing on one thing for a while, but also because it feeds my creative need. When I make time to exercise and write in the morning, my whole day goes better. Really, I need to “take” creative time every day, like a vitamin.

Exercise Whatever form it is, I always feel better after, even if I didn’t want to go to the pool on a cold winter morning and swim laps (Getting wet in January? Yuck!) Endorphins, feeling strong, burning away unneeded calories- these physical benefits of exercise combine into a soothing elixir for my weary soul.

Service work When I’m spinning down a spiral of fatigue and irritation, nothing snaps me out of my self-pity better than service work. Reading with kids at the elementary school, delivering food, walking with a troubled friend who needs someone to listen – all these things expand my perspective and shift my focus from my own worries to the needs of someone else. Note: this does not include the everyday service work of cooking, cleaning and laundry that most mothers perform. I need something outside of the daily minutia to medicate my spirit.

Mantra Bands I’m not big on jewelry, but these simple bracelets remind me to put my heart in the right place – on the positive. There are tons of messages to choose from at Mantraband.com; I have the three pictured above. When I’m irritable or letting anxiety have too much sway in my day, the jangle of these silver bands prompts me to look down, read the words, and remember who I want to be.

Happier with Gretchen Rubin My friend Amy recommended this podcast, and what a great thing. Gretchen and her sister discuss little ways to make each day a little happier. Because of these ladies, I’m currently working on my “Personal Ten Commandments” which include

Assume positive intent
Connect before I correct
You get more of what you notice – so attend to the good stuff

Another great podcast for soul care: Michael Hyatt’s This is Your Life. Michael shares productivity tips and encourages his listeners to be their best self.

Laughter and Friends Cheesy and unoriginal, but good friends and a great belly laugh do much to calm my soul. One of the greatest gifts my husband brings to our marriage is the ability to make me smile in the midst of tense situations. And that emoji induced giggle I get via texts from a dear friend? Better than Valium, people.

The trick with all these “treatments”? Just like real life medications, they won’t work unless I take them. I’ve got to give myself permission to indulge, for the health of my soul. And so do you, my friend.

What do you do to take care of your soul? Do you do those things often enough?

I’m giving you permission today to treat your spirit and find your joy.

If you’d like to join the Who I Am project, visit Dana’s blog for details:

Favorite Characters/Improving vocabulary

NaNoWriMo Tip: Character Personality Types

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Julia Tomiak / 5 Comments

It’s November, or NaNoWriMo for writerly types. What is NaNoWriMo? Although it sounds like a string of baby babble, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is a writing challenge, inspiring people to write daily with the goal of a 50,000 word novel by the end of the month.

I’m participating for the first time this year, and while prepping for the challenge, I brainstormed about my characters using KM Weiland’s Crafting Unforgettable Characters e-book. (If you’re a writer, check out Weiland’s multiple writing resources, including her website and podcast. Extremely helpful! ) I had to chose a “personality type” for each of my characters:

Choleric
Sanguine
Phlegmatic
Melancholy

Since I didn’t know what these words meant, I had a hard time applying them to my characters. You too? Let’s break these words down for Wondrous Words Wednesday. (If you like learning about words, visit Kathy’s Blog today!)

1) choleric, from Middle English (in the sense ‘bilious’): from Old French cholerique, via Latin from Greek kholerikos, from kholera; made angry easily
2) sanguine, from Latin sanguis, blood: confident and hopeful
3) phlegmatic, from Greek flam, inflammation, phlegein to burn: not easily upset, excited, or angered
4) melancholy, from Greek melan + chole, bile: a sad, pensive mood or feeling

I’ve got experience in health care, so I knew sanguine meant bloody, but I wasn’t sure how we got from bloody to confident. Turns out, in ancient Greece, Hippocrates believed that a person’s temperament was influenced by his bodily fluids. He proposed that our bodily fluids contain humors, and when those humors are balanced, people experience good health. When they are unbalanced, disease and disability occur. This is called the Four Humors theory of temperament.

yellow bile -> choleric person
blood -> sanguine person
phlegm -> phlegmatic person
black bile -> melancholic person

So, according to Hippocrates, excess black bile led to a melancholic disposition, and so on. Although Western and Islamic cultures adopted the Four Humors theory, it was eventually disproved. However, it still influences psychological tests and theory today, including the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator. For more detailed information about the Four Humors, as well as links to personality tests, visit Lonerwolf.com. Weiland recommends dabbing in a bit of psychology to give characters more well-rounded development.

Word Nerd Workout

Try to think of a character from a book or movie to fit one of the personality types. Or, better yet, tell us what your personality type is!

Photo Credit: johnantoni via Flickr CC-BY-SA

I’ll illustrate each type for you:

Choleric – Strong willed, dominant, has a quick temper: Miss Piggy (The Muppets)
Sanguine – Sociable, charismatic, stimulation seeking; can be impulsive and frivolous: Pippen (The Lord of the Rings)
Phlegmatic- Loyal, trustworthy, stable “nice guys”: Ron Weasley (Harry Potter)
Melancholy – Thoughtful, introspective, and reserved: Halt the Ranger (Ranger’s Apprentice)

My son says I’m “choleric, all the way, worse than Miss Piggy”. Thanks, kid.

It was hard to classify myself, or my characters, as any one of these, a common struggle I have with personality tests. But they are kinda fun. How about you?

Thanks for getting nerdy with me, and if you’re doing NaNoWriMo too, good luck!