Book Review: Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies: Stewardship of Language in a Culture of Lies by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Own.

I first heard of this book when Ken Myers interviewed Marilyn Chandler McEntyre for Mars Hill Audio Journal (#99).  I thought it sounded interesting and added the book to my Amazon wishlist.  It continued to haunt me every time I looked at the list, so I finally ordered it and am so glad I did.

I’ve had a particularly good year of reading this year with few bummers, and in a good year this is one of the three best books I’ve read.

McEntyre writes beautiful prose, which would be expected from a poet.  The images, examples, and ideas she chooses and proposes are clear, apt, and intriguing.  The early paragraphs on the word “felicity” are worth the price of the book. 

She weaves the Christian faith in and around ideas so that the reader is awed, while thinking they ought to have made the connection themselves.

I did get bogged down in the paragraph on long sentences, where she practiced long sentences, but even there I was encouraged and my faith strengthened.

You should see how many pages I folded down in my copy.  Beautiful, beautiful book.

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