Friends with Words: Adventures in Languageland

If you’re a fan of the radio show and podcast A Way With Words, you’ve likely already bought this eagerly awaited book. If not, you’ll definitely tune in after reading this delightful account of “adventures in languageland.” Never stuffy, Barnette’s style is approachable and direct as she brings the reader along on a word journey through America, showcasing iconic and unusual expressions found in each region.

These chapters are interspersed with more autobiographical ones describing how her own fascination with and knowledge of words developed.

In later pages, she explains how the radio program is created with her co-host, Grant Barrett, and the numerous hurdles it has encountered over the years.

Just two of the terms I enjoyed learning include chatoyant (to shimmer like a cat’s eye) and the sorely needed verschlimmbesserung, or dis-improvement: an attempt to make something better that actually worsens it. Such as Brexit, or certain software “upgrades.”

Word lovers should not miss this volume. (And it would make a perfect gift for the other lexicographers, onomasticians, and logophiles in your life.)