Kenosha News from Kenosha, Wisconsin • 29

1 KENOSHA NEWS I SUNDAY JULY 26 2015 I C9 Page designer Laura Tucker If curious about language this book get your goat TertSchlichenmeyer by Boze Hadleigh c2015 Skyhorse Publishing $1499 303 pages From the time you were old enough to communicate you took to words like a duck to water verbally hammed it up ever since Yes probably driven your Mends and femily batty all this talk-talk-talk of yours And yes there are times when what you say is a bunch of bull but not trying to start a bed: just having fun because as in the new book by Boze Hadleigh language for the birds No doubt about it we humans love our animals We love them so much that we sprinkle references to them in what saying--plus a road like that might make them sick as a dog And then there are the words that really make you scratch your head: Great hedgehog pudding made of the spiny mammals and dogs and monkeys are much more likely to ape you than is a copycat And about that famed cat curiosity? It been targeted at another type of animal Or say made you mad Calling him a dog goes back many years perhaps back into the mid-1800s when only good dog was a useful The word-that-rhymes-with-witch has always been directed at women its first near-appearance in film was in 1939 and that was pretty scandalous Call someone a rat and well rather self-explanatory The modem street use of the word is pretty wrong unless in a bark There really is more than one way to skin a cat (cat fish that is) A sawhorse and a clotheshorse are similar in origin And if you think a kitty really has nine lives well doggone it barking up the wrong tree Ahh language lovers I can practically hear you howling for this book now and for good reason Like a dog with a bone you want to let go Starting with canines and ending with birds bees and bugs Hadleigh goes whole hog in explaining where many of our favorite expressions originated But this book just horseplay Hadleigh includes words that are archaic (but need resurrection) as well as localisms and words want to add to your vocabulary That all adds up to fun useful and for dyed-in-the-wool linguists a golden egg So talk turkey: if been a age since you last read a book about language time you find this one You sound hackneyed or feel like a dinosaur with Naw this book is the meow The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer of West Salem Ms She has been reading since she was 3 years old and never goes anywhere without a book Email her at bookwormsez yahoocom our daily conversation mostly without even thinking about it Our shaggy dog stories are sometimes just that but where did those old sayings cliches discouraging words and tender nicknames come from? The truth as Hadleigh shows is an interesting yet convoluted tale In many cases animalistic words came about as descrip tion: Oxford England for instance was once a place where oxen forded a river Tell someone a dogleg in the road and know Hanging at Cinder Bottom9 is an engaging clever con Matthew Reilly writes compelling historical novel BY JEFF AYERS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (Gallery Books) by Matthew Reilly Matthew Reilly known for writing intense over-the-top action thrillers abandons his brand and delivers a historical novel set in 1546 In this story the sultan of the Ottoman Empire has sent an invitation to the kings of Europe conveying the idea of a chess tournament to determine the world champion Eachcoun-Vtry is'asked to send its finest player England sends Gilbert Giles to be its representative Along for the perilous journey are a young Elizabeth Tudor heir to the British throne and her teacher Roger Ascham They are followed on their journey by people with seemingly criminal thoughts in mind and soon one of the party appears to be poisoned When they finally arrive in Constantinople the treachery increases Soon murder inside the home puts everyone in danger and the sultan asks Ascham to use his keen mind to uncover the culprit before more people die Fans of Reilly who are expecting explosions and constant adrenaline might scratch their heads while reading Readers who enjoy a compelling historical tale with real-life figures will enjoy the story but it has a graphic sexual nature that might be off-putting to some unique unto itself the age of thirteen Goldie had twice pulled a skinny whittler blade and touched its point to the groin of a man trying to force himself upon her The ladies of Fat admired the he writes then-there was Abe loyal as they came quiet when quiet was called for and if need be tameless as the stalking This is the opportunity of fiction to create a foreign world with language and Taylor does it seamlessly Cinder Bottom is a real place the once-flourishing red-light district pf the town of Keystone in McDowell County Located in West southernmost curve McDowell County is a place of chronic poverty John Kennedy stopped there while campaigning and the deprivation of its residents prompted him to launch the modern food stamp program once in office County is a place that is often Taylor writes calling it but The picture he draws fiction with a grain of truth is Deadwood among the mountains Harry Trent is sometime mayor and a leading businessman a jovial manipulator who always seems to end up on top His cohort includes the Beavers brothers accrued wealth and power both and Sheriff Rutherford Rutherford a small and BY CAROLYN KELLOGG LOS ANGELES TIMES Hanging at Cinder Bottom: A by Glenn Taylor Tin House (400 pages $1595 paper) Imagine if Bonnie and Clyde had lived in West Virginia and needed to be so doggone famous Abe Baach and Goldie Toothman give the notorious outlaws a run for their (stolen) money in Hanging at Cinder Bottom" In the novel the pair come of age at the turn of the last century Coal was making West Virginia the Appalachian equivalent of the Wild West: There was outrageous wealth to be had particularly if you were a politician the law corrupt or all of the above Abe and Goldie are none Abe is the son of an immigrant barkeeper Goldie grows up in a brotheL a captivatmg performer and a blossoming magician-slash-card shark They are young and beautiful and a little reckless a perfect couple Except when the book begins in 1910 they are headed to the gallows What follows is the story of how they got there a tense tale of love grift and an elaborate con This is the third novel from Glenn Taylor a West Virginia native best known for Ballad of Trenchmouth a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist The prose is polished and archaic With Goldie serving drinks and secret codes like a the money starts rolling in for both Trent and Abe But eventually greed and jealousy collide and Abe has to flee town leaving Goldie behind This ingeniously structured novel is a lot of fun if you like card tricks and whiskey and the story of people with nothing who are trying to pull off a big one vile man who carries a superciliously long gun Their paths intersect with when Trent opens the Alhambra an ambitious hotel On the surface its modern amenities attract wealthy men in the coal business but to a select few the high-stakes poker game meant to do so Abe is the Keystone Kid the genius young card player on retainer to keep them entertained and properly fleeced TOP TENS Napoleon Waterloo make good reading even after 200 years OFF THE S'iElVES BY SCOTT KR0ES KENOSHA PUBLIC LIBRARY This year marks the 200 year an- niversary of the Battle of Waterloo in which a coalition of allied forces beat back Napoleon last attempt to regain leadership of France Since that day there has been no end to the number of books published on this larger-than-life character who at one time was master of Europe but was eventually defeated not only by armies of men but by his own hubris as well Napoleon accomplished so much in such a short span of time no wonder he has been an object of fascination for so many authors Below is just a very small sample of some of the better ones One of the best Overall biographies is a by Andrew Roberts This biography is one of the first to take advantage erf the recent publication of 33000 letters which radically transform our understanding of his character and motivation This gives us a chance to see Napoleoh as he was and just a one-dimensional portrayal of him as a vicious tyrant The book is aided by the fact that the author traveled to 53 of Napoleon's 60 battle sites and even made the long trip by boat to St Helena The battle itself which occurred on June 18 1815 is ably covered in tcrlcK): the Kietery cfFcnr Ttrra er i T1 by Ezrr-iCornr-'J Itit if This best-selling books according to Publishers Weekly: HARDCOVER FICTION Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins (Riverhead) 2 of by Brad Thor (AtriaEmily Bestler Books) 3 English Spy" by Daniel Silva (Harper) 4 by Catherine Coulter (GP Sons) 5 or Ole" by PattersonRoughan (Little Brown) 6 Keepers" by Stephen King (Scribner) 7 Melody Lingers On" by Mary Higgins Clark (Simon Schuster) 8 by Danielle Steel (Delacorte) 9 by EvanovichSutton (Bantam) I 10 Clancy: Under Fire" by Grant Blackwood (Putnam) HARDCOVER NONFICTION i I Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up" by Marie Kondo (Ten Speed) 2 Wright Brothers" by David McCullough (Simon Schuster) 3 Full Ufe by Jimmy Carter (Simon Schuster) i 4 Romance by Aziz Ansari (Penguin Press) 6 the Rabbit Hole" by Holly Madison (MorrowDey Street) 6 by Ann Coulter (Regenry Publishing) 7 Tima tor Truth" by Ted Cruz (HarperColiinsBroadsIde) 1 8 Whole by Melissa Hartwfg and Dallas Hartwig (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) Y'rire" by Erik Larson (Crown Putiichlrg) crJ 7 3 irrty 1 'f paigns of War and by Dominic Lieven Based on a fresh examination of Russian military archives the author provides the first-ever history of the period told from the Russian perspective The book moves from the 1807 treaty Signed by Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I through the Russian improbable entry into Paris in 1814 The story of how Napoleon came to be the ruler of France and one of the most powerful men in Europe can be found in the Path to by Philip Dwyer The author focuses acutely on forma- tive years from his Corsican origins to his French education from his youth to his flirtations with radicals of the French Revolution from his first military campaigns in Italy and Egypt to the political-military coup that brought him to power in 1799 Other notable books on Napoleon in- elude Wars: an International History by Charles Esdaile First Total War: Europe and the Birth of Warfare As We Know by David Bell a Political Life" by Stephen Englund and "Napoleon and the Struggle for Germany: the Fran-co-Prusslan War of (volumes 1 and 2) and Fall of all by Michael Leggiere 7 thdvM is published ys Each week a different Kenosha Library or Community Librr "CgmizeS reviews of at He through tl 2 1 Europe Through quotes from the let-ters and diaries of the Emperor Napoleon the Duke of Wellington and the ordinary officers and soldiers Cornwell brings to light how it felt to fight these famous battles as well as the moments of amazing bravery on both sides that left the outcome hanging in the balance until the bitter end What happened af ter the battle is covered in the Aftermath" by Paul If there is a moment in time where one can pinpoint the beginning of 1 downfall it is uS'-icTy his ill- adviced invasion of Rucsia in 1C12 Until fret time he had mostly erperi-- 1 V' "-llsuccceeestutvT''''' It rtdtrocrarctr: 7.