Tag Archives: Ashley Poston

Another Fun Rom-Com From Ashley Poston

Featured

Posted on by
Reply

I loved the emotion in The Seven Year Slip. Ashley Poston knows how to grab your heart and keep you reading. This rom-com was fun, yet it involved a story of loss. The main character has lost her beloved aunt but truly finds her person, her best friend, her true love in the process I’m not always a fan of time travel stories, but this one had me turning the pages. I previously wrote about The Dead Romantics. I can’t decide which one I like better, but will be looking for more from Poston.

In this blog I offer a different type of book review­—one that’s combined with vocabulary building. In The Seven Year Slip I found a few interesting words, as follows:

From The Seven Year Slip:

Every touch, every brush of his fingertips across my skin, had a weight to it. A reverence.

reverence: noun, deep respect for someone or something / archaic – a gesture indicative of respect; a bow or curtsy / (His/Your Reverence) a title given to a member of the clergy, or used in addressing them

verb, regard or treat with deep respect

—

From The Seven Year Slip:

“You’re a sight for sore eyes. And you’re right on time for dinner,” he said into my hair. “I hope you like japchae.”

japchae: noun, (in Korean cuisine) a dish consisting of noodles made from sweet potato starch, stir-fried with vegetables and other ingredients, and typically seasoned with soy sauce and sesame oil.

—

From The Seven Year Slip:

On the ride over, I imagined what his restaurant would look like—maybe it looked like the one he talked about over cold noodles. Long family-style tables and crimson-red walls, comfy and warm, the leather chairs broken in. Local artists would be on the walls, the chandeliers this amalgamation of scones and candelabras.

amalgamation: noun, the action, process, or result of combining or uniting

—

From The Seven Year Slip:

Sometimes the people you loved left you halfway through a story.

Sometimes they left you without a goodbye.

And, sometimes they stayed around in little ways. In the memory of a musical. In the smell of their perfume. In the sound of the rain, and the itch for adventure, and the yearning for that liminal space between one airport terminal and the next.

liminal: adjective, 1. Occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold 2. Relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process

—

From The Seven Year Slip:

Then he left for the next table, and my friends began to talk about the dishes on the menu—almost all of them were iterations of recipes in his proposal but heightened to fit this elevated space.

iteration: noun, the repetition of a process or utterance / repetition of mathematical or computational procedure applied to the result of a previous application, typically as a means of obtaining successively closer approximations to the solution of a problem / a new version of a piece of computer hardware or software

—

From The Seven Year Slip:

Even though my parents were paragons of a successful romance—they fit each other’s quirks and hang-ups like puzzle pieces—my aunt had lived alone almost her entire life, and it wasn’t all that bad.

paragon: noun, a person or thing regarded as a perfect example of a particular quality / a person or thing viewed as a model of excellence / a perfect diamond of 100 carats or more

—

From The Seven Year Slip:

He shook his head. “I’m not talking about that. A restaurant doesn’t have to be fancy, with artfully plated smears of coulis and beurre blanc—”

coulis: noun, a thin fruit or vegetable puree, used as a sauce

Beurre blanc: noun, a creamy sauce made with butter, onions or shallots, and vinegar or lemon juice, usually served with seafood dishes

—

What interesting words or terms have you found in your recent reading?

—

To connect or learn more about Ashley Poston and her books, find her at https://www.ashposton.com/.

—

 Definitions are typically from the dictionary that comes with my Mac or The New Oxford American Dictionary.

—

“The word is only a representation of the meaning; even at its best, writing almost always falls short of full meaning. Given that, why in God’s name would you want to make things worse by choosing a word which is only cousin to the one you really wanted to use?” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Love Springs from Impossible Connections in The Dead Romantics

Featured

Posted on by
2

What a fun read in The Dead Romantics! Ashley Poston truly pulled me with this romantic comedy about a struggling writer, down on her luck when it comes to love, and then forced to deal with the death of her father. I could relate to this character. She grew up in her family’s funeral home, and I grew up in my family’s cemetery. 

In this blog I offer a different type of book review­—one that’s combined with vocabulary building. In The Dead Romantics I found a few interesting words.

From The Dead Romantics:

“Are you saying yes?” He arched a very pointed eyebrow. It was the kind of arch a feature writer would call belleristic when they sat down to pen his profile in GQ.

belletristic: adjective, written and regarded for aesthetic value rather than content / of, pertaining to, or having the characteristics of belles-lettres (a category of writing, originally meaning beautiful or fine writing.)

belletrist: noun, a person who writes essays, particularly on literary and artistic criticism, that are composed and read primarily for their aesthetic effect / Derivative: belletristic, an adjective

—

From The Dead Romantics:

She didn’t share her stories—whether they were real or not—she didn’t wear tiny black dresses, and she didn’t drink artisanal drinks named after dead poets.

artisanal: adjective, relating to or characteristic of an artisan / (of a product, especially food or drink) made in a traditional or non-mechanized way

—

From The Dead Romantics:

“Colloquialism? Yeah. I was there at the bar getting drinks with him because apparently he wanted to vent about the font they’re using in his book.”

colloquialism: noun, a word or phrase that is not formal or literary, typically one used in ordinary or familiar conversation / the use of ordinary or familiar words or phrases

—

From The Dead Romantics:

“Connoisseur or lifeblood?”

connoisseur: noun, an expert judge in matters of taste / Derivative—noun, connoisseurship

—

From The Dead Romantics:

“I liked the notes in some very limited roasts that I procured from—”

procure: verb, 1. obtain (something), especially with care or effort / obtain (someone) as a prostitute for another person 2. persuade or cause (someone) to do something

—

From The Dead Romantics:

Mom was stalwart, sipping on a glass of champagne, so gracious to everyone who came to say their goodbyes.

stalwart: adjective, loyal reliable, and hardworking / strongly built and sturdy

ALSO – stalwart: noun, a loyal, reliable, and hardworking supporter or participant in an organization or team

—

From The Dead Romantics:

I rolled my eyes. “No one will sell the next Harry Potter. It hit a zeitgeist that’ll never be re-created, and because there is so much to choose from now, it’s near impossible to predict the next publishing trend—”

zeitgeist: noun, the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time 

Origin: mid-19th century from German Zeitgeist, from Zeit ‘time’ and Geist ‘spirit’

—

What interesting words or terms have you found in your recent reading?

—

To connect or learn more about Ashley Poston and her books, find her at https://www.ashposton.com/.

—

 Definitions are typically from the dictionary that comes with my Mac or The New Oxford American Dictionary.

—

“The word is only a representation of the meaning; even at its best, writing almost always falls short of full meaning. Given that, why in God’s name would you want to make things worse by choosing a word which is only cousin to the one you really wanted to use?” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft