Roz Chast – illustratör

Weird and Wonderful Words is a pot-pourri, a gallimaufry, a salmagundi, a treasure trove of colourful, quirky, and unusual words. Containing hundreds of definitions written in a clear and conversational style and full-page illustrations which offer a whimsical and hilarious view of our glorious language. Amuse yourself and entertain your friends with your knowledge of who a snollygoster or a Funambulist may be, what a humdudgeon or a nubbingcheat was, or why you might want to engage in catopromancy. Appendices include a bibliography of Oxford's dictionaries and a guide to creating your own unusual words correctly from Greek and Latin roots. The perfect stocking filler and gift book, Weird and Wonderful Words is sure to be a favourite of logophiles (word lovers) everywhere.

Do you know what a snollygoster is? Would you eat something called a muktuk? Do you know anyone who engages in onolatry? Impress your friends and pepper your dinner party conversations with such nuggets as gobemouche, mumpsimus, and cachinnate. You can learn about all of these bizarre and beautiful words and many more in Totally Weird and Wonderful Words. Offering a potpourri of colorful and fascinating words compiled by noted lexicographer Erin McKean, it contains hundreds of definitions, and has been updated to include two new essays, with over 150 words new to this edition. Written in a clear and conversational style, the book contains full-page cartoon illustrations by Roz Chast and Danny Shanahan. Featuring hundreds of words guaranteed to amuse and astonish, this is a book that will appeal to logophiles everywhere. It also features a bibliography of Oxford's dictionaries and a guide to creating your own unusual words correctly from Greek and Latin roots.

The country folk say "howdy-do" but here in town, it’s "yo"; they’ll say it in the country too in twenty years or so.Rolling Stone magazine has called songwriter Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields "the Cole Porter of his generation"; O, The Oprah Magazine has hailed cartoonist Roz Chast as "the wryest pen since Dorothy Parker’s." Together they have crafted a witty book in celebration of two-letter words, focusing on the 101 such words that count in Scrabble. Featuring four-line poems by Merritt and colour illustrations by Chast, 101 Two-Letter Words covers familiar words (go, hi, no, ox) as well as obscure ones (ka, oe, qi, xu). With dark wit and clever wordplay, it will delight, not just Scrabble players and crossword puzzle fanatics, but anyone in thrall to the weirdest corners of the English language.

This is Oh, the Places You''ll Never Go--the ultimate hilarious, cynical, but absolutely realistic view of a college graduate''s future. And what he or she can or can''t do about it."This commencement address will never be given, because graduation speakers are supposed to offer encouragement and inspiration. That''s not what you need. You need a warning."     So begins Carl Hiaasen''s attempt to prepare young men and women for their future. And who better to warn them about their precarious paths forward than Carl Hiaasen? The answer, after reading Assume the Worst, is: Nobody.     And who better to illustrate--and with those illustrations, expand upon and cement Hiaasen''s cynical point of view--than Roz Chast, best-selling author/illustrator and National Book Award winner? The answer again is easy: Nobody.     Following the format of Anna Quindlen''s commencement address (Being Perfect) and George Saunders''s commencement address (Congratulations, by the way), the collaboration of Hiaasen and Chast might look typical from the outside, but inside it is anything but.      This book is bound to be a classic, sold year after year come graduation time. Although it''s also a good gift for anyone starting a job, getting married, or recently released from prison. Because it is not just funny. It is, in its own Hiaasen way, extremely wise and even hopeful. Well, it might not be full of hope, but there are certainly enough slivers of the stuff in there to more than keep us all going.