Away With Words

Product Information

Fusing a love for travel with a passion for storytelling, Away With Words was brought to life by Siobháin Spear in 2018. Siobháin is the Editor-in-Chief & Co-Founder of insydo, a regional lifestyle publisher; she is also a Co-Founder of Brand Ripplr, the region’s largest influencer platform. Would suggest you read the physical copy to see the proper effect of the words and their appearance. The Kindle version didn’t create the same impact.

If someone urges you to spill the tea, they probably don’t want you tipping over a hot beverage. Originally, the tea here was the letter T, as in “truth.” To spill the T means to “pass along truthful information.” Plus, we’re serving up some delicious Italian idioms involving food. The Italian phrase that literally translates “eat the soup or jump out the window” means “take it or leave it,” and a phrase that translates as “we don’t fry with water around here” means “we don’t do things halfway.” Also: a takeoff word quiz, why carbonated beverages go by various names, including soda, coke, and pop; fill your boots, bangorrhea, cotton to, howdy; milkshake, frappe, velvet, frost, and cabinet; push-ups, press-ups and lagartijas; the Spanish origin of the word alligator, don’t break my plate or saw off my bench, FOMO after death, and much more. Set in a world where words appear physically when people speak, AWAY WITH WORDS explores the importance of communication and being there for those we love. But for as gently funny as the book is, it would all be for naught if it were not a brisk read. He could have easily overdone it and put every good pun he heard in his text. The edit job to take a lot of those out, I assume, wisely confined the puns to two primary usages: ‘what it feels like to pun’ and the plot-advancing ‘here’s who won this Punderdome.’ (I wonder if you could really do this book if there wasn’t a competitive aspect to it. I’ve never read The Pun Also Rises and I don’t want to.) Berkowitz does a great job of making you like him, and like puns. What a clever book! Sophie has used a speculative idea - this book is set in a world where, when people speak, their words appear as actual, physical things - and used it to highlight a very real problem - when people can't speak, for any reason, they are often treated as lesser than the people around them, less intelligent and less able. Sophie's two characters, one silent through anxiety and one because English is her third language and she's not very fluent yet - show this wonderfully.

Publisher

Fast Company reporter Joe Berkowitz investigates the bizarre and hilarious world of pun competitions from the Punderdome 3000 in Brooklyn to the World competition in Austin. Author Anna Kemp introduces The Hollow Hills, the sequel to her dark magical tale, Into Goblyn Wood. Utterly enjoyable reading experience that delivers on every attempted level. Joe Berkowitz did an incredible job capturing the spirit of punning and wordplay, and of embedding the reader in the posse of people who live to do it. I read Our Sister Again by Sophie Cameron last year and really enjoyed it so I was looking forward to reading Away With Words when I heard about it and it didn't disappoint me. This was another strong contemporary book set in Scotland with a twist, this time that in the world they live in you can see other people's words. I am not into poems, so while I appreciated the efforts of the two girls, I couldn’t feel as emotionally moved. Somehow, the writing kept me at a distance.

Utterly unique and movingly memorable, a wonderful story about what happens when we take control of our own narrative, and find ways to communicate across the gaps in language. Clever, brilliantly written, and thought-provoking, it will stay with you." – Sinéad O’Hart, author of The Time Tider Our Sister, Again expertly weaves family drama with high concept sci-fi. It’s a captivating tale about AI written with real, human heart.” Annabelle Sami, author of Llama Out Loud Our certified interpreters are based in Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, and Vancouver, but we have recently expanded our operations to remote areas throughout Washington, as well as communities in North Idaho and later Oregon. If you’re looking for quality, personalized service, you’ve come to the right place! As for the story, after moving from Spain to Scotland so her papa and his boyfriend can be together, Gala feels ill at ease, out of sorts, and definitely not at home. While she’s befriended by the two Eilidhs in her class, Gala still feels on the outside. Struggling to understand English, and to be heard, she longs to return to Spain. Which brings me to the most significant thought I had throughout AWW: my own relationship with puns. Finishing this book (and this review, I guess) is a strange juncture in my linguistic life. I like puns enough—have always loved puns enough, I should say—that once, in 2013, I announced to my then-girlfriend that I had decided I needed to stop punning because I was starting to spend too much brainpower looking for potential puns, to literally no social benefit. ( Ohh noooo, she cooed sadly, aware that I was painfully resigning an important part of my identity.)The two girls find their own ways to communicate, which includes collecting other people's discarded words. They use the words to write anonymous supportive poems for their classmates, but then someone begins leaving nasty messages using the same method - and the girls are blamed. Gala has finally started adapting to her new life in Scotland and is determined to find the culprit. Can she and Natalie show the school who they really are? What we’re all building may be epically pointless and ephemeral—an inside joke that never catches on, a loud parade through a ghost town—but I am nonetheless fully invested in helping it come together.” (86) Because: “Pun competitions that seem like something that could only exist in the frivolous present.” (54) In a transient place like this part of Brooklyn, these ideas capture the zeitgeist of the Punder world. Or not. Again, I say, I am hella-biased, and you might really hate puns. If that's the case, pretend this is a two-star review and keep going. But I like big puns, and I cannot lie. I seriously might go to Punderdome. Though I bet, if I really try, I could go beyond that. My thanks to Little Tiger Group and NetGalley for the DRC of “Away With Words”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

The concept of being able to see other people's words was really interesting as well as collecting and preserving those words. I also really like how Gala and Natalie used other people's words both struggling with English and speaking themselves respectively. Through the words Gala manages to develop her English and become more confident while Natalie uses them to express herself. Natalie struggles with selective mutism through the book which I felt was written well and in a way that was easy to understand and relate to. The book benefits from subject matter that translates very well to the written word, first of all. It’s fun to see him work more and more puns into the actual text as the book goes on: “Once the traction-less idea of a road trip was abandoned,” on 192, was pretty much the only “good” example, but the effort was enjoyable elsewhere. He’s a good writer.It might be that family and friends give them the strength they need to stand up for themselves, their actions and show the world who they both really are, and be proud of that.

My introduction to the book came from briefly being a member of this posse. When I showed up to my first Punderdome earlier this year, I had no idea how intense a scene I was stepping into. I knew the show had existed for years, but I’d never gotten anyone to go with me and generally put off trying it. The first time I stepped into Littlefield, I signed up to participate and got paired with an established punster who had won four times. (Thank god; I would have fared horribly at coming up with two minutes worth of puns on my own, without even understanding the format.) We made it to the second round, but what I saw from the established punners that night blew me away. Through the visible words, the book also highlights the power of words, language and communication. At the same time, the book also highlights the importance of friendship, not just through Gala and Natalie, but also through their connection with some of the other kids in their class. The two Eilidhs were especially lovely. And that's mostly because of her wonderful friendship with Natalie. Natalie has selective mutism and knows what it is to not find the right words or to not be able to speak them. They find some common ground, find a way to communicate with each other and start an amazing project. And then they learn that words are nothing but a tool. They can be used for good and for bad. And, most of all, they don't always say what the person speaking them really wants to say. The location of Scotland is beautifully depicted, with the focus being not just on the places but also on the lifestyle and attitudes of the locals.This book had a paradoxical effect on me. I love puns and use them a lot on social media, and while reading this I found myself thinking of them even more than usual. But it also made me kind of hate them, and the people who can’t stop using them. The participants get to know each other because of their frequent interaction. Many of the punsters work as writers for tv shows, movies, or newspapers or comedians. Some newspapers thrive on utilizing puns in their headlines and stories. At the competitions, a category is announced and the contestants have ninety seconds to come up with as many puns as they can. They then present them to live audiences and are judged by the audience’s response. It’s a beautiful concept and it’s naturally and authentically drawn in this otherwise thoroughly realistic world. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. [1] Cast [ edit ] Taking the words from Julia Donaldson’s poem; 'I opened the book and in I strode', is exactly what happened for me with this fabulous story of family and friendships by Sophie Cameron. Away with Words is a stunning account of the unlikely friendship between two young girls. Gala, who has recently moved to Scotland from Cadaques in Spain, and Natalie, a selective mute who is mostly ignored by the other children in her year but often bullied by some.