Damn English! by Gary Sherbell
Damn English! (Black Rose Writing 2025) by Gary Sherbell is a witty exploration of why your high school English papers were always covered in red ink. With humor and insight, Sherbell compiles a collection of homonyms, tricky spellings, and the many illogical quirks of the English language—all in one entertaining volume.
For instance, he questions why the prefix “in” usually means “not,” yet “inflammable” still means “easily set on fire.” He also pokes fun at the excessive number of synonyms in English, such as “coot,” “fogey,” and “geezer” for an elderly man or “tad,” “smidgeon,” and “little bit” for a small quantity.
Another chapter delves into the differences between American and British English—why Brits live in “flats” while Americans live in “apartments,” or why they take the “lift” instead of the “elevator.” And don’t even get him started on what “football” means on opposite sides of the Atlantic.
Sherbell also explores idioms—the expressions that often perplex those learning English as a second language. Ever wondered where phrases like “having an axe to grind” or “until the cows come home” originate? And what exactly is a “thinking cap,” and how does one put it on?
This book is a treat for language lovers and anyone who enjoys a good laugh at the absurdities of English.
When Time Was Suspended by Julia Nunnally Duncan
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If you like your poems to be totally accessible, When Time Was Suspended (Redhawk Publications 2024) by Julia Nunnally Duncan is the collection for you. Sections cover anecdotes about her ancestors, dogs chasing snakes, soldiers in the Great War and Civil War, and poems inspired by old photographs. There’s a nice, comfortable story-telling quality to Duncan’s poetry and a strong sense of place. Duncan’s upbringing in Appalachia is featured predominantly in this work.
In “Three Brothers Dead from Infection 1883,” Duncan imagines who these boys in “homely woolen suits” might be: “Yet I suspect they were hard workers— / as children then were expected to be— / helpmates stolen from a family / shattered at losing all three.”
Former editor of Southern Literary Review, Allen Mendenhall, says Duncan “renders moments in time with haunting sensitivity, turning sights into insights, sounds into subjects. Nostalgic, prophetic, and profound, these poems of family and place tell aching stories about moments and scenes long gone that, nevertheless, persist.”
An alumnus of Warren Wilson College, Duncan taught English and Humanities at McDowell Technical Community College for over thirty years. She now devotes her creative energies to writing and playing classical piano. She lives in Marion, NC.
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