LIZZIE SKURNICK at Books Inc. in The Marina

Lizzie Skurnick discusses That Should Be a Word: A Language Lover S Guide to Choregasms, Povertunity, Brattling, and 250 Other Much-Needed Terms for the Modern World.

Finally there's a word for it: "Fidgital"--excessively checking one's devices. "Martyrmony"--staying married out of duty. Author of the highly popular "That Should Be a Word" feature in the "New York Times Magazine," Lizzie Skurnick delights word lovers with razor-sharp social commentary delivered via clever neologisms. "That Should Be a Word "is a compendium of 244 of Skurnick's wittiest wordplays--more than half of them new--arranged in ingenious diagrams detailing their interrelationships. Complete with definitions, pronunciations, usage examples, and illustrations, "That Should Be a Word" features words on our obsession with food: "carbiter"--one who asserts that someone else cannot be hungry. On social media, like "twiticule"--to mock someone in 140 characters. On the modern family, like "brattle"--to discuss one's children at great length, which leads to words like "spamily"--Facebook or Twitter updates about kids--and "spawntourage"--a group of approaching strollers. From highlighting the profound financial anxiety of a post-recession society ("bangst") to mocking the hyper-vain celebrity circle that abstains from anything of import ("celebracy"), "That Should Be a Word" delves deep into all the most humorous, and maddening, aspects of life in the 21st century.
 

About the author: Lizzie Skurnick is the columnist for Jezebel.com’s Fine Lines and the author of ten teen books in the Sweet Valley High, Love Stories and Alias series. Her literary blog, Old Hag, is a Forbes Best of the Web pick. She’s on the board of the National Book Critics Circle and has written on books and culture extensively for the New York Times Book ReviewTimes Sunday Styles, the LA Times, NPR.org, The Washington Post and many other publications. Her poetry has appeared everywhere from Morning Edition to the Iowa Review to New York magazine online, and she is the recipient of residencies or awards from Yaddo, the Ucross Foundation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the AWP. An expanded edition of her Pushcart Prize-nominated chapbook of poetry, Check-In, was released by Caketrain Books in 2009. She lives in Jersey City.

Event date: 
Monday, April 27, 2015 - 7:00pm
Event address: 
Books Inc.
2251 Chestnut St
San Francisco, CA
Books: 
That Should Be a Word: A Language Lover’s Guide to Choregasms, Povertunity, Brattling, and 250 Other Much-Needed Terms for the Modern World By Lizzie Skurnick Cover Image
$13.95
Unavailable, Out of Stock, or Out of Print
ISBN: 9780761182689
Published: Workman Publishing Company - April 7th, 2015