Book Lovers’ Memes (Set 6)

Spelling: Flier vs Flyer

Spelling: Flier vs Flyer

Use flier in every instance:
We’ll put up some chess club fliers.
He’s a flier for the Air Force.

Flyer is used in the names of some transportation companies. Some styles let you use flyer for leaflets, but I don’t recommend it. Doesn’t the i spelling just look nicer?

Trick to Remember:
Fliers like to fly high, and they can’t with the letter y, which goes below the baseline.

Spelling: Two Words

These three pairs of words are never spelled as one word:

a lot

I don’t know why this gets written as alot so often. No one mistakes a little, a couple, a few for one word. Just remember, Is it a little or a lot? The a is alone is both cases.

all right

The spelling alright seems acceptable in graphic novels and similar situations, but in general it is always two words. This probably doesn’t make sense since the words altogether, already, and always are single words. Just keep it two words. We want to see alllll the l’s in all right.

under way

These are two different parts of speech (preposition and adjective/noun), which is a big clue that they are two words. It’s similar to saying over there or around that. We’re starting to see underwent as a past tense verb, but otherwise leave it as two words.

Review: Terminal Alliance by Jim C. Hines

Terminal Alliance by Jim C. Hines

☆☆☆☆

Science Fiction

This was a fun space adventure. Humans on earth have sort of devolved into zombies, so this alien race takes them out a few at a time, cures them, and gives them jobs on their spaceships. On one of these ships, a bio-weapon takes out the command staff and turns most of the humans into zombies. Only the Health and Sanitation crew comes out unscathed, and they take it upon themselves to investigate what happened and cure their crewmates.

It was funny to watch a group of janitors and plumbers learn how to pilot a spaceship and turn on communications, sort of like on “Galaxy Quest” when the crew B.S.es their way around the ship. There are plenty of embarrassing moments.



But there’s also a solid adventure story with a mystery and action and clever escapes. So if you enjoy straight-up science fiction that’s not dark and depressing, you may want to check this out.

Book Lovers’ Memes (Set 5)

Usage: Fewer/Less, Much/Many, Continual/Continuous

Usage: Fewer/Less, Much/Many, Continual/Continuous

These are pairs of words that mean the same but are used in different situations. Fewer, many, and continual are for things that can be counted one at a time. Less, much, and continuous are for things that have infinite variations of degrees or volume. (In math terms, it’s the difference between discrete and continuous.) 

You can have less time but fewer hours.
You have much (more) money but many (more) coins. 
You can be interrupted continually but hear a hum continuously.

Most people use much and many just fine but have problems with the other two. 

Trick to Remember
There’s not a good trick, but seeing it in table form might help.
much —  less — continuous = a blob; not countable
many — fewer — continual = countable

Review: The Windfall App

The Windfall App by Teresa Richards

☆☆☆☆
Young Adult — Contemporary

This was a pleasant surprise! I’m not normally a fan of contemporaries, but this one kept me eager to find out what happened next the whole time. The main character is likable and not a bubbly moron. She’s also a pianist (as am I, but not as good) and lives in San Francisco, which is near my hometown.

Marina has a real family, and she actually loves them even if they have conflicts. While she is inexperienced in life, she’s not an idiot. The other characters were also real people. There were a couple of mysteries that kept me intrigued, and the climax and ending were satisfying in their storytelling.

Editing is pretty good; better than many other novels. My only real complaint is that a San Franciscan would never ever ever call cable cars “trolleys.”

Clean content – no swearing, no sexual content, mild violence
I received a free copy of this book. I had the option of reviewing.