Down the Rabbit Hole

This month, the Marquis de Chastellux appeared, for the second time in my life, in a book I am reading called Enough is Enuf, on the exciting topic of English orthography.  (English orthography is like American immigration law: hopelessly complex and important, but no one has the guts or political capital to come up with a good and lasting reform that everyone will accept.)  The resurrection of Monsieur le Marquis brought back to life these thoughts from early 2024:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - 

When one of my children was in elementary school, they came home with a vocabulary list.   They told me their classmate pronounced the word “determined” DEET - er - mind (long I) .  That reminded me of my mother’s story that, because she spent a lot of time reading as a child, she knew lots of words but didn’t know how to pronounce them, a situation which sometimes caused her embarrassment.  

I hope my children did not laugh at their classmate.  But on that day, DEET-er-mind entered our family’s vocabulary.

The up and coming generation can look up how to pronounce words whenever it wants, thanks to Prof. Internet and Lieut. Youtube.  I have been using this feature to quell one source of anxiety in my life: how to pronounce characters’ names.

When reading The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride, it occurred to me that the character’s name “Chona” is probably not pronounced “CHO- nah”, given that she is a person of the early 20th Century whose family speaks Yiddish. I went down a rabbit hole of internet exploration. I concluded that her name is more like “Hannah” with a raspy “H” and short “a” vowels.  

Hannah would be pronounced Hona (or Chona), but it is spelled חנה. 

The Yiddish male name "Chonah" or "Chunah" is a Yiddish diminutive form of the Hebrew name "Elchanan".

I was a bit perplexed to learn that the author himself pronounces it “CHO-nah” with the “ch” as in “church”.

I discovered that there is something else called La Chona which might be: 

a Mexican dance, 

a name in Filipino, 

a woman who dates drug traffickers.

In the other book I was reading at the time (First Principles: What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country, by Thomas E. Ricks) , there is a reference to a Frenchman who assists the American revolution - Marquis de Chastellux, a.k.a. Francois-Jean de Beauvoir, Chevalier de Chastellux.  (He didn’t become a marquis until later in his life.)  

Although I was a French major, I was unsure how to pronounce the name Chastellux.  In looking it up I found out that there is an entire Society of the Cincinnati which sponsors lectures, and there was a brilliant lecture by Dr Iris De Rode completely focused on Chastellux, whose name is pronounced something like SHAH-tell-ew, except you have to say “ew” in the French way by kind of pursing your lips. I was delighted to go down this rabbit hole, most especially to hear the accent of the Dutch scholar speaking in English.  Charming!

Not the Marquis de Chastellux

Is there any American who did not mispronounce “Hermione” when the Harry Potter series first came out?

I suppose that the best solution to find out how to pronounce characters’ names is to get the audio book.  But that’s not always possible.  

Words I still can’t remember how to pronounce properly, in the moment:

sycophant

ephemeral

presaged

All three words are extremely relevant these days.

However, I can instruct you on how to properly pronounce “prophecy,” “prophesy,” “prophecies,” “prophesies,” and “prophesying.” I refuse to accept “prophesizing.”  

- - - - - - - -

What difficult-to-pronounce character name have you come across in your reading?

Words of wisdom from across the centuries

First Lines: September 2025 edition

Below are the first lines of the books I finished reading in September.  An even split between fiction and nonfiction plus one DNF.  Includes one children's book and one graphic book (nonfiction).

 

Seen while canvassing in 2019:
frogs reading and sipping tea.

 

Book 1

Sister Bernadette Ohlson paused outside the main entrance of The Abbey:Senior Living to inhale the earthy smell of autumn. 

 

 

Book 2

On Monday, June 1, 2020, at 7:06 p.m., the president of the United States strode defiantly across Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Park–trailing a retinue of aides, Secret Service agents, his daughter Ivanka, the attorney general, and America’s top military leaders, including the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff–in order to be photographed holding a Bible in front of St. John’s Church, whose parish house had sustained minor fire damage during protests the previous evening.

 

 

Book 3

(The book begins with graphic pages)

“Happy birthday to Youuuuuuuu.”

“What’s this, Donald?”

“This is your birthday present. It is a Ulysses Super-Suction, Multi-Terrain 200X!  Happy birthday.”

“It’s a vacuum cleaner.”

 

 

Book 4

The Ransomes had been burgled.  “Robbed,” Mrs. Ransome said.  “Burgled,” Mr Ransome corrected. Premises were burgled; persons were robbed.

 

Book 5

Suddenly, the Same Thing

“I just hate terrorist attacks,” the thin nurse says to the older one. “Want some gum?”

 

 

Book 6

York, December 1952

Each day of the week has its own feel – or so I think.  Mondays are universally loathed, whilst Fridays bring a spring to the step.

Book 7

It may have been a butterfly that first started me thinking seriously about biology.

 

Book 8

I was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, in Talbot County, Maryland, on a plantation owned by Colonel Edward Lloyd.  More than twenty years of my life were spent within the peculiar institution known as slavery.

 

Did not finish

Monday, March 7

The morning air off the Mojave in late winter is as clean and crisp as you’ll ever breathe in Los Angeles County.

  

 

The titles and authors revealed:

 

 

Book 1

Dropped Like a Bad Habit (Nun the Wiser Mysteries Book 2)

By Melissa Westemeier

327 pages.  First published August 2025. 

The eavesdropping nun is back!  Along with her police pal and former student AJ, Sister Bernie solves several mysteries, both small and large, on what has to be the friendliest but also the unluckiest street in Eugene, Oregon.   This book is the second in the coziest mysteriest series the “Nun the Wiser Mysteries”.  I enjoyed both books a great deal. Yes, it’s a murder mystery, but in these divided times, it also shows us an example of what a community can be.  It takes place in autumn, my favorite season, which added to my enjoyment reading it.

There is an appearance of tea (something I look for in novels) and an instance of cupcakes.  And an awesome Halloween party.  The author recognizes that Halloween parties at retirement centers are a big deal.  Back in 2012, my aunt, as a new resident of the retirement center, was invited to judge the Halloween costume contest.  She received a fair amount of pressure from entrants!  And the pumpkin decorating contest entries were top notch.  

 

 

Book 2

How we Learn to Be Brave:  Decisive Moments in Life and Faith

By Mariann Edgar Budde

224 pages • first pub 2023 

nonfiction, religion, self help

with a preface written in 2025.

Lots to ponder in this reading.  These are times in which bravery is called for.

 

 

Book 3

Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

Kate DiCamillo with K.G. Campbell (Illustrator)

240 pages • first pub 2013

fiction, fantasy, middle grade

Third re-reading because I love this book.  In these times we need to read about a superhero squirrel.  And be careful with your vacuum cleaner.

 

 

Book 4

The Clothes They Stood Up In

By Alan Bennett

174 pages • first pub 1998

fiction, mystery, short stories

Meh. This was just weird but not in any delightful or enlightening way.  I wouldn’t have finished but it was short so I pushed on through in the hopes of some grand unifying theory of life at the end, but nope.  Also, I am not a big short story fan. 

 

Book 5

The Seven Good Years

By Etgar Keret

194 pages.  Published 2015. 

nonfiction essays memoir

(The copyright years in the front of the book run from 2006 through 2015.  I am going to guess that these were once individual essays, compiled into this book).

I almost gave up on this, because some of the statements at the beginning were jarring, given the events in Israel on Oct 7, 2023 and following.  The birth of the author’s son was mentioned early on, but most of the short memoir-essays do not focus on the child.  Some parts I found very interesting indeed, especially the essay near the end where a stranger builds a narrow house for the author, which he finds fitting to honor his chosen genre of short stories.  Rabbi mentioned Keret in his Rosh Hashanah sermon.  I guess he’s a pretty famous Israeli author.

 

Book 6

Murder at Holly House (Frank Grasby Mystery #1)

By Denzil Meyrick

362 pages • first pub 2023

fiction crime historical mystery

I read the paperback version.

A funny murder mystery which moves along.  Loads of quirky characters with Dickensian names. The main character, who is an incompetent police inspector, is sent to a remote village to investigate local thefts.   But there is SO much more going on.  Beware of remote British villages!

There is a goodly amount of tea drinking in this book.

This book has four beginnings.  The first is the often-used fake introduction of the text as a serendipitous find in a left-behind carton or suitcase.  The second purports to be a note from the author.  The third purports to be a police wire, and the fourth begins the story itself.  I included the fourth start.

 

Tea time on a quilt, shown at the
retirement home.  2019.

Book 7

What Is Life?: Five Great Ideas in Biology

By Paul Nurse

160 pages • first pub 2020

nonfiction history science

Good overview of biology.  An easier read for me than the Mukherjee book, which focusses more immediately on cancer. I learned that the yolk of a chicken egg is a single cell.  And that, as I have suspected for some time, biology is really chemistry pulled together in interesting ways.

 

Book 8

The Life of Frederick Douglass: A Graphic Narrative of an Extraordinary Life

By David F. Walker (content), Damon Smyth (art), Marissa Louise (colors), James Guy Hill (letters).

192 pages • first pub 2019 (view editions)

Graphic non-fiction

An excellent overview of Douglass’ life.  The drawings are very well done.  The graphic chapters are interspersed with occasional text chapters on the history of the time period, including a fascinating page telling us that Frederick Douglass was one of the most photographed people of his time.  He always looked straight at the camera, and never smiled for a photo.  I have only read one of his memoirs (he wrote three) and was unaware of his self-doubts, as they are expressed in this book.

 

Did not finish

The Lincoln Lawyer (The Lincoln Lawyer #1)

By Michael Connelly

404 pages • first pub 2005

fiction crime mystery thriller

Good story-telling, interesting characters, and I managed to make my way through a lot, including some descriptions of horrible violence, and a general undercurrent of seedy grifting.  I stopped about half-way, when the plot became WAY too creepy for me.  I am not one for thrillers in the first place.  And also, Part Two is titled “A World Without Truth”.  I feel like we are now living in a world without truth, or at least fully half of our country’s leaders cannot can tell the truth ever.  I just couldn’t stomach reading any more about the criminal underworld and their lawyer.  It is the choice for Book Club 1 in October.  It was the Common Household Husband’s suggestion, so I am going to hear about my DNF.

- - - - - - - - -

Dear reader, how about you? What have you read lately? Have you ever entered a pumpkin decorating contest?

    

Pumpkin decorating contest at the Old Folks' Home.

Get your mammogram!
A Public Service Announcement
PLUS pumpkin decorating contest entry.