Usage: Persuade vs Convince

Here’s a pair of words that are not synonyms despite being similar in meaning.

Persuade has to do with actions. You persuade someone to do something.

Convince has to do with beliefs. You convince someone that something is true or untrue.

Trick to Remember
You persuade someone to pursue a course of action.
You convince someone to share your convictions.

Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames

I think any fan of Kings of the Wyld will find this satisfying. It’s a bit more serious, but it still has the snide dialogue and band references and alliteration that we’ve come to love.

I am really, really horrible when it comes to band names and even song titles (let alone individual band members). I can tell you that my favorite band is Depeche Mode, but I couldn’t tell you any of the members’ names. So I know I missed tons of references in this book, but it didn’t detract from the actual plot, and I still got Men Without Helmets, Quarterflash, WHAM, and Rich the Lion.

The book just felt kind of long to me. There’s tons of battles and fighting, and nothing felt extraneous, but it was just long.

The characters are great. They are all deeply flawed, which allows for a lot of plot and character development. So if you’re tired of Miss Special who’s so perfect and full of specialness, this book will be extremely refreshing. Almost every character has to deal with or confront his or her father in the book, which was an interesting theme to think about. I didn’t quite feel like Tam belonged with Cura. I felt like Cura was way older (which may be not correct) and too damaged to be able to contribute to a healthy relationship.

Evil thrives on division. It stokes the embers of pride and prejudice until they become an inferno that might one day devour us all.

Usage: Entitled vs Titled

This poor word (entitled) has been abused so often, I think the dictionaries are caving and allowing it to be synonymous with titled.

Entitled means to have permission; entitle is to give permission.
Titled means to have a title; title (as a verb) is to give a title.

Right: The book is titled Nevernight.
Wrong: The book is entitled Nevernight.
Right: You are entitled to a heated work environment.
Wrong: You are titled to a heated work environment. (Nobody makes this error.)

Trick to Remember
Title is only for titles, names of things.
The book has a title, and it has been titled Nevernight.

Entitle is to give permission, similar to enable and words like endow, ensure, enshroud, enslave. The government often talks about entitlement programs.

The Last Town (Black Crouch)

The Last Town (Wayward Pines #3) by Blake Crouch
☆☆☆
Thriller, Post-Apocalyptic

This conclusion to the Wayward Pines trilogy is a straight-up monster movie:






That’s about it. The writing is fine, despite the Dramatic Sentence Fragments and sentences with subjects left out. The ending is kind of weak, as if Crouch couldn’t think of an ending while writing the series and then ran out of time to think of one and had to just end it.

Punctuation: Items in a Series and and Oxford Comma

Comma rules tend to overlap or intersect each other. Keep the rules separate and it’s easier to tell where you need a comma. A good rule to start with is the Items-In-A-Series Comma.

Commas are used to separate “items in a series,” which means a list. The lists can be simple or complex. It’s best to look at examples.

I need eggs, butter, cheese, and flour.
This is a simple list of nouns, easy to separate with commas. The first item of the series is eggs.

I need to buy gas, pick up the kids from soccer, make dinner, and pay bills.
Each item in this series is a verb phrase (a phrase that starts with a phrase). The first item is buy gas.

I’m going to print the reports, Dave is running for office, and Jill went home early.
Each item in this series is a complete sentence, but put together like this, it’s not a run-on sentence. The first item in the series is I’m going to print the reports.

The Oxford comma is a matter of debate. This is the comma before the and in a series. The Associated Press style is to not use it. Pretty much everyone else does.

My personal preference is to not use it when the items in a series are one-word items and then use it all other times. So in the above examples, I would omit the Oxford comma in the first sentence and keep it in the rest. But this may be too eccentric for practical use.

Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Eragon (The Inheritance Cycle #1) by Christopher Paolini
☆☆
Fantasy — High

Well, this is really good if the writer is 16. (Oh, he is?) Give him another fifteen years of writing experience, and he should be really good. (Oh, it’s been fifteen years? How is he now?)

The beginning is pretty decent, but after that I grew increasingly bored. There is little to none character development. Eragon has very few flaws, if any, and just goes along reacting to stuff and trying to be a hero. The descriptions are pretty boring, and the action scenes are pretty boring. The writing itself was pretty good on the surface, but I think it needed to be more succinct.

I’m going to summarize the plot in gifs, so spoilers ahead. But if you have read any fantasy book before, you already know what happens. (Seriously, this story is Star Wars with a Lord of the Rings paint job on it.)

Eragon is an orphan living with his aunt and uncle. He has no idea who his father is. He picks up a mysterious object



that leads him to seek advice from a Strange Old Hermit:



and gets his family killed:



He wanders around for a while and quickly becomes a master at magic and sword fighting.





While our hero enjoys what I like to call Die Hard syndrome,



the mentor of course has to go.



He has to decide whether to join the Rebel Alliance



and rescues a princess archetype along the way.



Naturally, all the female characters (all two or three of them) are amazingly beautiful.



Okay, about the dragon. The dragon doesn’t have much personality, either. She and Eragon are perfect for each other in this way. For some reason, whenever the book talked about Eragon riding the dragon, I kept imagining this:



The audio narration was pretty good, but the dragon’s voice (and the were-cat’s) for some reason sounded like an impersonation of Frank Oz. I thought of these guys every time the dragon talked:







TL;DR
This book is a great introduction to fantasy for young readers. Everyone else will just see one cliche and trope after another.

Usage: Amused vs. Bemused

Note the meanings of these two different words (Merriam-Webster):
amused: pleasantly entertained or diverted
bemused: marked by confusion or bewilderment, lost in thought or reverie

Too many writers are using bemused to mean amused. They are not interchangeable, at least for now.

To muse means to be absorbed in thought. If you are comfortable with your Latin prefixes, a- means not, so amused means not absorbed in thought. You are being entertained instead. The be- prefix has a lot of meanings, mostly to do with making things more complicated. So you may be over-thinking something if you’re bemused.

Trick to Remember
Bemused is similar to bewildered and befuddled.
Amused makes you say ah! ooh!

Marijuana: The Unbiased Truth About the World’s Most Popular Weed by Kevin P. Hill

Marijuana: The Unbiased Truth About the World’s Most Popular Weed by Kevin P. Hill

☆☆☆☆
Nonfiction – Science, Medicine, Drugs

This is a very informative book by a marijuana addiction doctor. The first part is the science and facts about marijuana, the second part is about the debate about legalization in America, and the third part is overcoming addiction for yourself or loved ones. This third part didn’t apply to me, so I skimmed that part more. I’m not a fan of biology, but I am interested in physiology and pharmacology. I also wanted to get more information about legalization policies. Here are some key points I found interesting:

● Marijuana is addictive, though less addictive than other substances. (I didn’t know it was considered a nonaddictive drug.)

● Far more people are addicted to marijuana than opioids. In fact, the vast majority of prescription opioid users (like myself) are using them responsibly. To say we have an “opioid epidemic” is an exaggeration.

Considering the substantial number of people who use marijuana and become addicted, it is puzzling that we hear more about the potential dangers of opioid use than the risk of addiction to marijuana. This is especially true when we consider that the number of Americans affected by marijuana is so much greater than the number affected by opioids, including heroin. The same holds true for methamphetamine and other illicit drug use.

● Marijuana use in teens causes a permanent drop in IQ. (I have a friend who saw this firsthand with her students. She teaches high-risk, criminal teens.)

● Marijuana today is far more potent than that used in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Baby boomers and middle-aged adults who used in then may think it’s not a big deal and not realize that it’s different now.

In those decades, the average THC content was about 1-2 percent. The latest average THC content established in the United States is 13 percent. … Also, keep in mind that marijuana with a THC content in the range of 27 percent can be purchased.

● “Medical marijuana” is not the same as cannabinoid drugs. There are already FDA-approved cannabinoid drugs available in every state. Medical marijuana means using a medical excuse to use ordinary THC-rich marijuana, which has not showed promising uses for medical conditions. It’s also usually smoked, which is never healthy for you.

According to a 2011 story in the Huffington Post, by 2011 Denver had more medical marijuana dispensaries than it had Starbucks coffee shops. It seems very unlikely that there is a greater medical need for marijuana in Denver than the recreational consumption of coffee products.

As a fan of  personal liberty, I lean in favor of decriminalization and legalization. However, implementing sound policies that prevent abuse and misuse by children is still a tricky process. There’s still a lot to learn, and it seems like a good idea to observe Colorado and Washington for a while and learn from them before doing the same in other states.

Overall, a good, informative book if you are interested in the subject.

Spelling: Recreate vs Re-create

This is an interesting one. In general, hyphenated prefixes are frowned upon (nonprofit but non-native). In this case, the hyphen is used to distinguish between two words that are pronounced differently but otherwise spelled the same.

Recreate is the verb form of recreation. It isn’t used very much, so nobody really thinks about it.

Re-create is to create again. This is a much handier word than recreate.

Trick to Remember
Without a hyphen, the word is pronounced REC-ree-ate (as in recreation). With a hyphen, the re is separated from the c and so is pronounced ree-cree-ATE.

Warbreaker

Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
☆☆☆☆ Fantasy – High, Epic

So, what do an atheist god, a pacifist warrior with a sentient sword, an all-powerful being with no real power, a charismatic mercenary, and two princess sisters have to do with each other? Not much, at first. A long time ago, one nation broke into two. Now, war seems inevitable. Can it be stopped?

When the book opens, the seemingly unconnected characters are introduced and set up like chess pieces. You don’t really relate to any of them and don’t know who to root for. Gradually, the big picture becomes clear. This is typical of Sanderson.

Here, the magic system, culture, and theology are based around color. The world building is deep and thorough. Watch the characters closely — no one is whom they appear to be. It’s a creative, humorous, and epic tale, brilliantly crafted, about what it really takes to be a hero.

Usage: Farther vs Further

Guess what? These two words are not interchangeable.

Farther is for distance: The store is farther than the school. You have to run farther than that.

Further is for degree: We need more money to further the cause. I will look into the matter further.

Trick to Remember
Farther is for things that are far.
Further is related to furthermore and metaphorical distances.

Usage: Uninterested vs. Disinterested

This is an issue I’m seeing a lot in published books, which have presumably passed by editors. Disinterested has become a trendy word in books the last few years. However, it does not mean the same as uninterested.

Uninterested means one is not interested in something; indifferent.

Disinterested means one is impartial and unbiased; lacking a conflict of interest.

You want a judge to be disinterested but not necessarily uninterested. You will rarely, if ever, see disinterested outside of legal contexts.

Trick to Remember
If something is uninteresting, you are uninterested in it. If you are disinterested, you are distancing yourself from the interested parties in a conflict.

Sourcery by Terry Pratchett

Sourcery (Discworld #5; Rincewind #3) by Terry Pratchett

Fantasy, Satire

Here we have the third book featuring Rincewind (and the Luggage). The plot of this story is secondary to the quirkiness of the characters and the settings. There’s Sourcery vs. Magic and some spoofing off the Arabian Nights. I was getting a little tired of it by the end. But it was still funny, and I found some favorite bits to quote:

“I meant,” said Ipslore bitterly, “what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?”
Death thought about it.
CATS, he said eventually. CATS ARE NICE.

“It’s vital to remember who you really are. It’s very important. It isn’t a good idea to rely on other people or things to do it for you, you see. They always get it wrong.”

“If failure had no penalty, success would not be a prize.”

“I’m not going to ride on a magic carpet!” he hissed. “I’m afraid of grounds!”
“You mean heights,” said Conina. “And stop being silly.”
“I know what I mean! It’s the grounds that kill you!”