Better Than Great
A Plenitudinous Compendium of Wallopingly Fresh Superlatives
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A veritable "tko of terminology," Better Than Great is the essential guide for describing the extraordinary — the must have reference for anyone wishing to rise above tired superlatives. Deft praise encourages others to feel as we do, share our enthusiasms. It rewards deserving objects of admiration. It persuades people to take certain actions. It sells things. Sadly, in this "age of awesome," our words and phrases of acclaim are exhausted, all but impotent. Even so, we find ourselves defaulting to such habitual choices as good, great, and terrific, or substitute the weary synonyms that tuble our of a thesaurus — superb, marvelous, outstanding, and the like. The piling on of intensifers such as the now-silly "super," only makes matters worse and negative modifiers render our common parlance nearly tragic. Until now. Arthur Plotnik, the wunderkind of word-wonks is, without mincing, proffering a well knit wellspring of worthy and wondrous words to rescue our worn-down usage. Plotnik is both hella AND hecka up to the task of rescuing the English language and offers readers the chance to never be at a loss for words!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sneaky guile, chronic cuteness and aw-shucks Southern charm meld in this series launch from the creator of the much admired Fletch stories. Skylar Whitfield of Greendowns County, probably in Tennessee, is college-age (but not college-bound), aimless and catnip to the local women. He's also Sheriff Pepp's prime suspect when beauty queen Mary Lou Simes is battered to death. The kills keep a-comin' to the Simes clan, and Skylar can't muster a good alibi, although you have to admire a guy who breaks out of jail to go to church and continue his unstinting commitment to the pleasuring of nubile women. McDonald produces endlessly entertaining dialogue, especially between Skylar and his hidebound Yankee cousin Jonathan, visiting from Boston; ``Jon Than'' hates Skylar's guts, but he's the one who unearths the true renaissance man beneath Skylar's heart-melting smile and doubtful grammar. McDonald saddles the poor sheriff with the meanest wife on God's earth and nearly ruins his story with a late copycat death that won't fool many. This book has already been optioned for film (by Sandollar).
