Diary of a Word Nerd

Awesome Young Adult Books/How to encourage reading

Teen Read Week 2015

Posted on October 23, 2015 by Julia Tomiak / 7 Comments

Do you know teens who read? Better yet, are you a teen who reads? How about a book lover trying to get a teen to read?

All of you need Teen Read Week – which is happening right now, Oct 18-24, 2015. Created by YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association), Teen Read Week encourages teens to read and visit their library. The theme this year is “Get Away @ Your Library.”

Teen Read Week Activities

Unfortunately, my local library isn’t doing anything for Teen Read Week (maybe I should tell them about it). But here are some cool ideas I found for activities on the official site:

“Page-to-screen” after school movie and discussion of film adaptations of popular books.
Teen author conferences
“Caught Ya Reading Day”- students caught reading at one high school will get candy. (My daughter would love this!)

Reading Recommendations

Here are some things to help teens find good books to read:

The YALSA Teen Book Finder App – This app allows users to search for books by title, author, or genre, find the books at their local library, and share about them on social media. Pretty cool! I’ll probably get it.
YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten Each year, teens vote for their favorite books. The voting closes Oct 24, but this is a great place to get reading suggestions. Check out the Teens’ Top Ten site to see this year’s 24 nominees and winners from previous years. Popular titles for 2015 include:
- To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
- The Bane Chronicles (for fans of The Mortal Instruments series)
- My Life with the Walter Boys
- Since You’ve Been Gone (my current read- it’s good!)
YALSA’s Facebook Page

Where do you go to find great teen reads? If you follow a blog or Facebook group geared to YA, I’d love to hear about it.

Now, it’s time for me to go volunteer at the Book Fair at my son’s school. Have a great weekend and happy reading!

Improving vocabulary

What Does Anhedonic Mean?

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Julia Tomiak / 6 Comments

My daughter and her BFF were debating how to spell the name of the grumbling old donkey from Winnie the Pooh. Would you know? It’s tricky. Try it right now. I can wait.

Photo Credit: Ashley via flickr CC-BY-ND

While looking up the spelling of Eeyore (did you get it right?), I came across anhedonic. Hubby the doctor had to explain it to me, and as soon as he finished I shouted “WORD NERD WORD!”

For more word nerdy words, visit Kathy at Bermuda Onion. Every week she hosts the Wondrous Words Wednesday meme in which bloggers share posts about new words they’ve learned. Join the fun!

Wikipedia (mind you, I went there for spelling, not fact checking) describes Eeyore as:

a pessimistic, gloomy, depressed, anhedonic, old grey stuffed donkey who is a friend of the title character, Winnie-the-Pooh.

Anhedonic \an-hē-’dä-nik\ from Greek a- (without) + hēdonē = pleasure

Characterized by an inability to experience pleasure in normally pleasurable acts

I should have guessed – the opposite of hedonism! Hubby says this is a medical term often used with patients who have depression.

Word Nerd Workout

Think of another anhedonic character from media or real life, or use anhedonic in a sentence.

I hate it when my friend Martha brings her anhedonic roommate out to dinner with us; she’s so pessimistic she makes my burger taste bad.

Your turn, and don’t forget to join in the Wondrous Words Wednesday meme.
Thanks for getting nerdy with me today!

How to encourage reading/News from book business/Words and Technology

Is Amazon Prime Worth It: 2015 Edition

Posted on October 16, 2015 by Julia Tomiak / 9 Comments

Almost three years ago, I shared Three Reasons Why Amazon Prime is Worth It. At the time, I thought Prime was a good investment, especially because I live an hour away from any reasonable shopping options. Since then, the fee has gone up $20, but Amazon has also added services.

Should I fork over another $99 to keep my Prime Membership? That’s my question today, and I’m bringing you along for the analysis. 😉

How much does Amazon Prime cost?

$99/ year. Ouch. Please note that it will automatically renew. You can ask for an email reminder three days before the renewal happens.

What Are the Benefits of Amazon Prime?

Free Two Day Shipping. This sells the membership for me. I don’t live near high quality stores, nor do I like to shop. I’d much rather spend ten minutes in my Amazon iPhone app than an hour in a mall. Also, I have four children and many times we scramble to Amazon for last minute birthday presents. Need I mention the times Prime has saved me with the in-laws?
In 2015 so far I’ve placed 36 orders. Assuming an average shipping fee of $5 per order, that would cost $180, $81 more than the Prime fee. I think I get my money’s worth.
Not all items on Amazon fall under the Prime shipping plan, but most often I can find what I need.
Prime Instant Video. Unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows. Please note, it’s difficult to search for titles, and the selection is limited. I couldn’t find Pitch Perfect, The Great Gatsby or the TV show Chuck (all popular in my house right now.)
To compare, Netflix costs $7.99 – $11.99 per month for unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows, depending on features. That’s about $120 per year. Since we live in the boonies and have Internet data limitations, we can’t reasonably use Amazon Instant Video or Netflix streaming, but we subscribe to the DVD mail program. We get two movies at a time (as many as we want per month) for $12/ month or $144 a year. So far, we’ve found everything we want to see on the Netflix site.
Prime Music. Ad-free access to millions of songs, albums, and Prime Playlists. You can listen to the music on multiple devices and organize your library into playlists. Genres available include Alt/Indie Rock, Blues, Christian, Children’s, Hip-Hop/ Rap, and many more. Prime Playlists include things like 80’s Movies and Scores to Study To. I couldn’t search for anything specific but saw a nice variety. I can’t use this service (see note about data issues above), but it looks pretty good.
Prime Photos. Unlimited photo storage in Amazon Cloud Drive as long as you keep your Amazon Prime subscription. I didn’t know about this benefit and will seriously consider storing some photos here. If you cancel your prime membership, you have 90 days to download and remove your files from the Cloud or incur storage fees.
It would be nice to store some of my many photos in the cloud.
Kindle Owners Lending Library. You can borrow one e-book per month to read on a Kindle, Kindle App, Fire Tablet, or Fire Phone. Like the Instant Video service, the selection is limited, and browsing the lending library is painful. We read The Hunger Games series using this feature, but we haven’t borrowed much since. Both the Instant Video and the Lending Library favor browsing over searching for a desired title.
Kindle First. Download an editor’s book pick a month before the official publication date.
Prime Pantry. Select grocery/ household items in regular sizes (e.g. not Sam’s bulk) to fill a virtual box that will ship for a flat 5.99 fee.

Taking all this into account, I’ll definitely renew this year, based on the two day shipping alone. I’m also excited about the possibility of photo storage. Of course I’ve gotta be careful how many photos I upload at once because of our data limits. Sometimes living on a farm really stinks.

If you use Amazon Prime, what benefits do you like best? Has anyone used Prime Music or Prime Pantry? Please share your experiences!

Thanks for stopping by!

Improving vocabulary

What Is Ethos?

Posted on October 14, 2015 by Julia Tomiak / 7 Comments

Several weeks ago, Jeff Goins discussed Balancing the Soul and Schedule of a Creative Life with Emily Freeman on his Portfolio Life podcast ( a fabulous podcast, by the way). The episode tackles difficult issues like finding margin and focusing on craft, and Jeff used the word ethos. I was pretty sure I knew what it meant, but I wanted to learn more about it.

If you like learning about words, join in the Wondrous Words Wednesday meme. Visit Kathy at Bermuda Onion to link up your post or see other word nerdy posts.

Ethos \’ē-thas\noun from the Greek ethos, custom, character
The distinguishing character, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a person, group, or institution

Examples:

The ethos of the Apple business model combines art with engineering.
Donald Trump exudes an ethos of arrogance.
It’s important not to let the hustle of modern life override my creative ethos.

This garden gate demonstrates a nature loving ethos.

Word Nerd Workout

Try using ethos in a sentence. How have you heard this word used?

Don’t forget to visit other Wondrous Words Wednesday posts!

Banned Book Week Giveaway Winner

Thanks to everyone who visited and commented on Five Things You Should Know About Banned Books. Readers shared interesting experiences with book banning – please check out the discussion if you haven’t already. I used a random number generator to pick a winner; congrats to Elizabeth at Thoughts From an Evil Overlord! Elizabeth wins a Barnes and Nobel gift card – maybe she’ll get a book that’s been banned! 😉

Elizabeth, please send your mailing address to julia dot tomiak at gmail dot com so I can ship your prize!

Thanks for stopping by!

Book reviews

Why You Must Read All the Light We Cannot See

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Julia Tomiak / 6 Comments

I have recently finished my favorite book of 2015. Seriously, it’s fabulous. If you like historical fiction, or even if you don’t, please pick up All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

Premise

All the Light follows two children on opposite sides of WWII. Marie-Laure LeBlanc lost her mother to childbirth and her sight to congenital cataracts. She lives in Paris with her father, the locksmith of the National Museum of Natural History. Monsier LeBlanc forces Marie Laure to navigate her world independently, challenging her to develop her other senses. His loving, but demanding, expectations will one day save her life.

Werner is an orphan in Germany. His mind bursts with questions and ideas, and he has a particular affinity for building and fixing radios. Werner will do anything to escape the fate of his father – death in the mines of Zollverein, the coal mining complex outside Essen, Germany, where he lives. When Werner’s talent gains the attention of local Nazi leaders, he seizes the opportunity to leave Zollverein to train at a special school. Unfortunately, Werner trades one nightmare fate for another.

Eventually, a radio brings Marie-Laure and Werner together, just in time for Werner to save Marie-Laure’s life.

All you life you wait, and then it finally comes, and are you ready?

What I liked

Anthony Doerr tells this story with beautiful writing, including fresh, vivid descriptions, such as:

Hours wear out and fall away… [Marie-Laure] stands alone in Madame Manec’s room and smells peppermint, candle wax, six decades of loyalty. Housemaid, nurse, mother, confederate, counselor, chef – what ten thousand things was Madame Manec to … them all?

Doerr uses alternating points of view, as well as changing time frames and settings, to increase tension and keep the story moving. He opens with the bombing of Saint Malo to pull us in to a life threatening situation, then he backtracks and explains how the characters found themselves in such dire circumstances.
The characters are fully developed, interesting and compelling. By having at least one character from each side of the conflict, Doerr explores the human side of war. I’ve often wondered how so many Germans could buy into Hitler’s philosophy, could consort with him in the murder of millions of people. All the Light shows how good fear is at controlling behavior.
Although it’s a novel about WWII, and therefore sad and at times disturbing, it also has themes of love and bravery and hope. It made me cry, but I adore it.

What I didn’t like

Nothing. This book won the Pulitzer Prize. I can see why.
Some of my fellow book clubbers didn’t like the switching of time and place; they found it distracting from the story.

Have you read All the Light We Cannot See? What did you think of it? Since my review overflows with praise, can anyone add some criticism?

Thanks for adding to the discussion!

Improving vocabulary

What Does Praxis Mean?

Posted on October 7, 2015 by Julia Tomiak / 6 Comments

All the Light We Cannot See has so many fabulous vocabulary words in it, I have to share one more. I used an index card as my bookmark, noting all the “new to me” words and looking them up.

If you’re nerdy enough to love words and index cards, join the Wondrous Words Wednesday meme with Kathy at Bermuda Onion. Bloggers share new words they’ve learned or highlight favorites.

Here’s my word for this week: praxis. Do you know it? Before finding it in All the Light, I’d previously heard of it as the name of a test. (Quick Google search reveals… yes! It is a teaching exam for educators. Aha! Did you know I pulled a stint as a middle school teacher of kids with special needs? Whew, what a year.)

Anyway, here’s a quote from the novel:

He comes home from school, kneels on the kitchen floor, and forms airplane after airplane with unswerving, almost frightening devotion, evaluating different wingtips, tails, noses, mostly seeming to love the praxis of it, the transformation of something flat into something that can fly.

praxis \ˈprak-səs\ noun from Medieval Latin, from Greek, doing, action, from prassein to do, practice
1. Action or practice, as practice of an art, science or skill
2. Practical application of a theory

Apparently, a man named Tim Godfrey published an e-book about Internet Marketing called Profit Praxis. Pretty catchy title. Here’s a review on Profit Praxis from Tech Our Way.

Word Nerd Workout

This one is tough to use in a sentence. Here’s my try:

My daughter finally enjoys the praxis of playing her piano pieces and does so without nagging from me.

If you can’t think of a sentence, tell me about a praxis you enjoy (something you like to practice).

Don’t forget to visit Bermuda Onion!

Banned Book Week Giveaway Still Open

If you haven’t already, read my post Five Things You Should Know about Banned Books and leave a comment to enter my giveaway of a Barnes and Nobel gift card. The winner can buy any book he/she wants, even one that’s been banned! Giveaway closes Friday, October 9.

Thanks for stopping by!