~ ~ Wondrous Words Wednesday ~ ~

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Bermudaonion's Weblog where we share words that we’ve encountered in our reading. Feel free to join in the fun and be sure to leave a link to your post over at Bermudaonion's Weblog.

These words are from The Pumpkin Eater by Daphne Merkin 

She was nineteen at the time, a dark, gamine beauty who years later would be momentarily mistaken by a waiter for Audrey Hepburn. 

1. Gamine   {noun}

[gam-een, -in, ga-meen]

1. a neglected girl who is left to run about the streets.

2. a diminutive or very slender girl, especially one who is pert, impudent, or playfully mischievous.

 

Despite the discord at home, the family was featured as a gleaming image of fecundity on all fronts for numerous newspaper and magazine articles, with John becoming ever more renowned for his plays and prowess at the bar. 

2. Fecundity  -noun

[fi-kuhn-di-tee]

1. extant copies of books produced in the earliest stages (before 1501) of printing from movable type.

2. the earliest stages or first traces of anything.

 

 

I must say that for a young man with his life in front of him to saddle himself with a brood of children and a wife as plain feckless as this daughter of mine seems to me lunacy.

 

3. Feckless  ~ adjective

[fek-lis]

1. ineffective; incompetent; futile: feckless attempts to repair the plumbing.

2. having no sense of responsibility; indifferent; lazy.

 

"It was a mere peccadillo," Jake said abruptly, as though about to recite.

"What?"

"Peccadillo. Bagatelle."

 

4.Peccadillo ~ noun

[pek-uh-dil-oh]

1. a very minor or slight sin or offense; a trifling fault.

 

5.Bagatelle ~ noun

1. something of little value or importance; a trifle.

2. a game played on a board having holes at one end into which balls are to be struck with a cue.

3. a short and light musical composition, typically for the piano.

 

 

 

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros is a weekly meme hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea every Tuesday. To participate share the opening paragraph or two of a book you've decided to read based on that paragraph. This book has been on my shelf for too long and I've wanted to read it.  It's a quick read, a lot of dialogue and rather sad.  The story mimics the author's life quite a bit.  By age 27 the main character has had something like four husbands and at least one child, if not more, with each husband!

Don't forget to drop by Bibliophile By the Sea to read Diane's selection this week and the other participants. You'll probably get some good book titles, too.

The Pumpkin Eater by Penelope Mortimer

"Well," I said, "I will try. I honestly will try to be honest with you, although I suppose really what you're more interested in is my not being honest, if you see what I mean."

The doctor smiled slightly.

"When I was a child my mother had a wool drawer. It was the bottom drawer in a chest in the dining room and she kept every scrap of wool she had in it. You know, bits from years ago, jumpers she'd knitted me when I was two. Some of the bits were only a few inches long. Well, this drawer was filled with wool, all colours, and whenever it was a wet afternoon she used to make me tidy her wool drawer. It's perfectly obvious why I tell you this. There was no point in tidying the drawer. The wool was quite useless. You couldn't have knitted a tea-cosy out of that wool, I mean without enormous patience. She just made me sort it out for something to do, like they make prisoners dig holes and fill them up again. You do see what I mean, don't you?"

 "You would like to be something useful," he said sadly. "Like a tea-cosy."

"It can't be as easy as that."

"Oh no. It's not at all easy. But there are other things you can make from wool."

"Such as?"

"Hot water bottle covers," he said promptly.

What do you think?  Would you keep reading this book?